Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

144 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE' WORLD. 47/ nd/ ft/rer /o Co fan Locks ±fff' Qdfun Locks Zb Son Po6Zo M/Zes 7-J4- Zb 23-66 Co/on /farhour Mdes O To 4- Mean Sea Leee/ Son Pdh/o Zojuan (pande Mdes 23.66 27 32 Su an Qrande Zo Ohisf>o * S3 ' P/'/ps 27S2 r° J/2y Obispo k Las CascaJas •pl X_. Mi{es3l.2f/b 32fpe7ff9(ll Mnr Hocblinr CucarccAo Zb Pdro./d/oueZ Locks .Mdes 37 Soft 393? J -------yfOO'------- Cu/ehro Cutting M/tes 32 Bo Zb 37 So -7spj$ ffocZ c nf \ PockLZn» ■Soo' Pedro /digue/ /o Af7rdf/ore$ i Mfr Zes 39.61 Zb H- 47 ///raf/ores 6 Panama Qay Mess, Smlrre/ M./es^/o 49.72 CROSS SECTIONS OF THE CANAL AT DIFFERENT POINTS. tended for the new Panama Railroad. Above this, for 150 feet, the rock will have an average slope of three to two, then there will be another bench. Through the remaining portion of the cutting, about 11 miles, the width of the channel will continue to be 300 feet. At Pedro Miguel the summit-level will end, and a lock will lower vessels 31 feet towards the Pacific. Below this a small artificial lake yard of material may seem easy enough. So we will point out that a cubic yard of earth weighs about a ton ; of rock, from one and. a half to two tons. The total “ spoil ” to be shifted from the Canal prism and the sites of accessory works will reach 300,000,000 tons. Its cubic mass will exceed 1,102-fold that of the Opera House in Paris, the largest theatre in the world, and 58-fold that of the mar- vellous pile of masonry known as the Pyramid of Cheops. So far as mere weight of excava- tion is concerned, the task undertaken by the United States may be compared to the demoli- tion of forty-seven and a half such pyramids, and, what is even more difficult, their removal to spots where they shall either help or at least not hinder the enterprise as a whole. For more than two years after the transfer of the property, the prospects of an early completion of the Canal seemed extremely doubtful. Instead of the “ dirt-flying ” re- cords rashly promised by folk who forgot the vast amount of preparatory work needed, there came from the Isthmus a succession of ominous reports, followed in due course by , , with a navigable channel 500 Locks. 6 feet wide will extend to Mira- flores, where a flight of two Locks is being built, with lifts of 30 feet and 25 feet respec- tively. At the lower lock will commence an almost straight canal, 7J miles long and 500 feet wide, extending to deep water in the Pacific. The extreme section, from La Boca to Naos Island, will be protected on the east side from possible deposits of silt by a breakwater two miles long. It has been calculated that to complete a canal of the type and size Enormous indicated above, the United Amount of Material to Spates engineers will have to be removed, remove, by dry excavation or by dredging, some 175,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock. To many readers, the extraction and removal of a cubic LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE CULEBRA DIVISION. The black area signifies the depth reached by the French; the shaded area the depth of the cut to bo made by the Americans.