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National Geographic : 1909 Apr
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE ,entire force on the Isthmus. All Ameri can employees and European laborers are paid in gold; all on the so-called "silver roll" are paid in Panamanian silver. THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT The department of construction and engineering is under the direct charge of the Chief Engineer. He is assisted 'by the Assistant Chief Engineer, who considers and reports upon all engineer ing questions submitted for final action. The Assistant Chief Engineer has charge ,of the designs of the locks, dams, and spillways, and supervision of these par ticular parts of the work. There is at tached to the Chief Engineer an assistant to the Chief Engineer, who looks after mechanical forces on the Isthmus and has supervision over the machine shops, the cost-keeping branch of the work, the apportionment of appropriations, and the preparation of the estimates. There is also an assistant engineer, who has charge of all general surveys, meteoro logical observations, and river hydraulics. The zone is divided territorially into three divisions, each in charge of a division engineer, the first extending from deep water in the Caribbean south to in clude the Gatun locks and dams, known as the "Atlantic Division." The second, or "Central Division," extends from Gatun to Pedro Miguel, and includes the excavation through the continental divide. The third, or "Pacific Division," extends from Pedro Miguel, including the locks and dams of that locality, to deep water in the Pacific. The general plans emanate from the office of the Chief Engineer and the de tails are left to division engineers, sub ject to the approval of the Chief Engi neer. The whole idea of the organiza tion in the department of construction and engineering, and in fact of all the work, is to place and fix responsibility, leaving to each subordinate the carrying out of the particular part of the work intrusted to his charge. Each division engineer has charge not only of the work involved in the con- struction of the canal, but all municipal engineering, including water supply, building and maintaining roads, and the establishment and maintenance of sewer systems. With the force under his charge the division engineer executes such sanitary draining as may be pre scribed by the chief sanitary officer, so that all construction work, excepting the construction of buildings, concerning the location of which the division engineer is consulted, however, is directly in the hands of the division engineer. THEY.M.C.A. Attached to the office of the chairman is a general Y. M. C. A. secretary, who has supervision of the commission's club-houses, which are operated and main tained under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. Four of these are now constructed and in operation, and four more are to be built from funds recently made avail able by Congress. They have done much toward securing a greater permanency to the force, in giving healthful amuse ment, and to a better contentment on the part of the employees. I have endeavored to show that a chan nel of sufficient width, in which the waters of the many streams, especially the Chagres, will not be a menace, is one most desired for an Isthmian Canal. The sea-level canal proposed by the ma jority of the Board of Consulting Engi neers is not of sufficient width, nor is the proposed solution for the impounding and diversion of the Chagres and other streams based upon sufficient investiga tions to insure its success. The "ideal" sea-level canal, the Straits of Panama, re cently proposed, is not based upon any in vestigations of the work to be done and cannot, in view of the approximate esti mate of the cost of our own sea-level canal, which is about one-third the size of the "ideal" plan, be given serious con sideration. Every criticism against the stability of our locks or dams can be attributed to either an argument in favor of one's own plans or to absolute igno rance of the exhaustive data concerning their safety now in existence. The sev- 354
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