Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

130 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. MAP SHOWING DISTANCES VIA PRESENT ROUTES AND THE PANAMA CANAL COMPARED. (DISTANCES VIA PANAMA CANAL IN BRACKETS.) Need for Piercing the Isthmus. to Valparaiso (4,440 miles), San Francisco (5,100 miles), Honolulu (6,580 miles), Yoko- hama (9,520 miles), Auckland (8,410 miles), and Sydney (9,520 miles), the economy of distance in each case, as compared with pres- ent routes, being many thousands of miles. As with strategy, so with commerce. Be- tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific the United States possesses a country of un- limited resources, rich in ore and timber, and already well named “ the larder of the world.” But this “ Golden West,” with its coast-line of over 2,200 miles, is still, commercially speaking, “ at the back of beyond.” Finely-equipped railways stretch across the continent, but their freight charges have not been framed with a view to encour- age a large commercial traffic, though, as a matter of fact, the lines are often congested. The “ West ” needs an Isthmian Canal badly to give it access to its natural markets. Were the building long delayed, the grim sugges- tion contained in a Senate report of 1896 might be realized, that, without this guarantee of national strength and unity, “ the chain of the Rocky Mountains may one day become the boundary between two rival republics.” Although special prominence has been given above to the advantages likely to accrue to the United States, it must not be supposed that the use of the new waterway will be in any way restricted. The Panama Canal is intended to benefit all nations ; is expected to bring about a very considerable revolution with regard to existing trade routes. In the accompanying map we have indicated the most important of the routes likely, in our opinion, to be affected immediately by the opening of the new highway. The routes shown corre- spond as nearly as possible with the courses now followed ; the distances between ports are given in nautical miles and for full-powered steamers ; and, for purposes of comparison, figures are added within brackets showing corresponding distances via the future Canal. The international character of the enter- prise is realized by the Americans. As long ago as 1849 an American Minister declared to Lord Palmerston that the United States wished to see ^°r all Nations. the Canal dedicated to the common use of all nations on the most liberal terms, and a footing of perfect equality to all.” Within the memory of the youngest of us great and unexpected events have affected the foreign relations and commerce of the United States, but the policy of the nation in respect to the Isthmian Canal is still best expressed in the words quoted above. The idea of uniting ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America by a navigable channel is almost as old as the discovery of the Western Hemisphere. No sooner was America proved to be a continent, and not, as Columbus believed, an outlying portion of Cathay, than the Spaniards searched for the passage which they believed must connect its eastern and western shores. No such strait could be found; but the ex- plorations opened useful transit routes, and discovered several rivers and pronounced depressions in the mountain chain, very encouraging to early advocates of an inter- oceanic ship canal. Prominent among these was the intrepid Gomera, whose rebuke to