As was told in a previous volume, the United States acquired possession
of the Panama Canal territory in 1903. Actual work on the Canal was
begun by Americans in 1905 with the prediction that the Canal would be
finished in ten years, 1915. The engineers have been better than their
word. The difficulties with Mexico rendered the Canal suddenly useful
to the United States, and Colonel Goethals reported that he would have
the "big ditch" ready for the passage of any war-ship by May 15, 1914.
That promise he carried out. The Canal is still in danger of being
blocked by slides of mud in the deep Culebra Cut, and probably will
continue exposed to this difficulty for some years to come. But the
work is practically complete; ships passed through the Canal under
government orders in 1914. The greatest engineering work man ever
attempted, the profoundest change he has ever made in the geographical
face of the globe, has been successfully accomplished.
Honor where honor is due! The man chiefly responsible for the success
of this great work has been Colonel Goethals. We quote here by his
special permission a portion of one of his official reports on the
Canal. We then show the work "as others see us," by giving an account
of the Canal and the impression it has made on other nations, written
by one of the most distinguished of its recent British visitors, the
Hon. Bampfylde Fuller.