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National Geographic : 1912 Feb
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE posal all the time, but as a rule he rides on the regular trains, in the ordinary day coaches, and goes about among the men on the work, keeping in touch with them at all times. HUMORS OF CANAL BUILDING Not everything is grim and deter mined work at Panama. A little fun now and then crops out, mostly im ported from the States, and being brought by Congressional delegations who visit tb - canal. A year or two ago a Western Senator was in one of these delegations, and at a hearing on the Gatun Dam he inquired: "Colonel, how is it that so small a body of earth as the Gatun Dam can hold in check such a tremendous body of water as the Gatun Lake ?" Colonel Goethals replied that it was explained by that well-known principle of hydrostatics under which the pressure of a body of water is determined entirely by its height and not by its volume. Still the Senator could not see it. Then Senator Knox, now Secretary of State, addressed the Western Sen ator, saying, "Senator, if your theory were true, how could the dikes of Hol land hold in check the Atlantic Ocean ?" Thereupon the Western Senator saw the point and joined in the laugh at his own expense. Another distinguished visitor, travel ing on a train which had just backed off of the Panama railroad on to the relo cated line, wanted to know of the Chief Engineer if the relocated line were the same gauge as the other. A young man in the diplomatic serv ice of the United States, after having witnessed the putting of a model of the Olympic through a model of the Pedro Miguel lock, asked Designing Engineer Cornish how it was that they got the water into the locks without pumping it in. There is a perennial circus on the Isthmus in the shape of the 30,000 West Indian negroes who are helping dig the canal. I have the word of the Chief Engineer that one of them has frequently been seen to go to the post office, get a letter, place it on his head, put a stone upon the letter, and walk away. Upon one occasion three Marti nique negroes were set to removing ma terial with a wheelbarrow. They loaded it, and then one stooped down, the other two lifted it to his head, and he walked away with the load. When one reflects that the 30,000 or more negroes and Spaniards who make up the common labor on the canal were all untrained and undisciplined, and that the force of negroes charges almost every year, it becomes all the more remarkable that such great feats of engineering per formance should be possible at Panama. SEA-LEVEL CANAL IMPOSSIBLE As one who originally believed that a sea-level canal should be built, I freely acknowledge my belief today that if we had undertaken such a waterway, we would have retired defeated and disap pointed, as did the French. The work on the present project has absolutely vindicated the judgment of those who opposed a sea-level canal. In the first place, the width of the waterway per force would have been so narrow that it could readily have been blocked by some future Hobson with a Merrimac. In the second place, only God knows how much material would have had to be taken out of Culebra Mountain before its sides would have stopped slipping into the cut. In the third place, there would have had to be tidal locks, which would have been in more danger of being put out of commission than the present ones. In the fourth place, there would have had to be a higher dam at Gamboa than there is at Gatun, and a fairer mark it would have been for the aeroplane. No one ever leaves the Isth mus now without registering a vow of thankfulness for the wise course that was pursued in making it a lock canal. It is so obvious that the veriest layman can see it. FORTIFICATIONS With the two great forts at the two ends of the canal fitted out with four 14-inch guns, six 6-inch guns, and twelve 12-inch mortars, with twelve com panies of coast artillery, one battery of field artillery, four regiments of infantry, and one squad of cavalry, there is not 204
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