Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE PANAMA CANAL. 141 the board expressed unquali- fied satisfaction with all they had seen. So far from con- demning the Gatun Dam, they declared that the Com- mission’s plan erred only in excessive caution, and re- commended that the height proposed should be reduced from 50 to 30 feet. To re- vert to the sea-level design would, in their opinion, add nothing to but rather reduce the capacity of the Canal and the safety of navigation, and consequently prove a “ pub- lic misfortune.” In his mes- sage to Congress covering this report, President Roose- velt bluntly averred that to change the type of canal would be “inexcusable folly,” and that henceforth any attack on the lock design would be equivalent to an attack on the policy of build- ing any canal. The actual construction of the dam was commenced on December 24, 1908. The total fill to be made is about 21,800,000 cubic yards. The work of lining Work to rfi* , . the spillway, be done. 1 J which was be- gun in the following Feb- ruary, and may be expected to extend over three dry seasons, involves the laying of 200,000 cubic yards of concrete in huge blocks 40 feet long by 20 feet wide. At the end of March 1909, the amount of material ex- cavated from the sites of the GENERAL PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE PANAMA CANAL AS IT WILL APPEAR WHEN FINISHED. (THE PROPORTIONS ARE PURELY DIAGRAM- MATIC.)