Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE PANAMA CANAL. 145 CROSS SECTION OF THE CULEBRA CUT, SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF EXCAVATION DONE AND TO BE DONE BY THE AMERICANS. Material removed by foe Dr Lessees By Ife Merf Da name Cana! Company From May 1904 to Dec ^06 During During 1908 Estimated excavai/on required FromJan di. DIAGRAMS SHOWING AMOUNTS OF MATERIAL EXCA- VATED BY THE FRENCH PANAMA CANAL COMPANIES AND BY THE AMERICANS. prolonged investigations. Mr. Taft made it clear early in 1906 that the authorities meant to act and not talk. “ Let us have,” he said, “ one thorough investigation ; and then, when every truthful man and every liar has been heard, let the work go on. You can’t be an- swering questions and be building a canal at the same time. You can’t have the chief engineer and the other constructing officials engaged in that work both in Washington and on the Isthmus.” Even more effective was the action of President Roosevelt early in the following year, when he transferred the work of Canal construction from commissions including a (1,408) -j Army Engineers put in Charge. army. These large proportion of civilian members to officers of the Engineer Corps of the were free from the dangers of political interference, and bound, by the terms of their appointment, to stick to their duties. The good effects of this reform, and of the abandonment of the risky proposal to let out to contractors some of the constructive work, are seen in subsequent progress. The accom- panying diagram shows the amount of ex- cavation completed at the close of 1908, and the steady increase in the output, month by month, during this and the preceding year. By the end of 1908 there had been removed by the Americans rather less than 7,000,000 cubic yards of material, the maximum monthly output up to that time being 538,254 cubic yards. In the next year the rate per month increased from 820,099 cubic yards in January ' to 2,201,734 cubic yards in December; in 1908 the maximum monthly output was 3,480,270 and the minimum 2,703,923 cubic yards. The aggregate amount of material re- moved by the Americans at the end of 1908 was 59,773,179 cubic yards, and on March 31, 1909, 69,781,140 cubic yards, leaving a balance to be excavated which, at the present rate of work, might be accomplished in two and a half years. So far as “ dry ” excavation is concerned —by the end of last March there had been removed 43,160,000 cubic yards of the esti- mated total of 105,286,000 cubic yards — comparatively ^tea^y . J Progress, little now remains to be done except in the so-called Culebra cutting. Here, owing to the disproportion between the huge scale of operations and the compara- tively limited space in which they must be conducted, to drainage and other difficulties, to the rapidity with which the rock disin- tegrates when exposed to the air, to the liability of slides, and to the necessity of re- vol. 11.