A canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has occupied public
attention for upward of four centuries, during which period various
routes have been proposed, each having certain special or peculiar
advantages. It was not until the nineteenth century, however, that any
definite action was taken looking toward its accomplishment.
In 1876 an organization was perfected in France for making surveys and
collecting data on which to base the construction of a canal across the
Isthmus of Panama, and in 1878 a concession for prosecuting the work
was secured from the Colombian Government.
In May, 1879, an international congress was convened, under the
auspices of Ferdinand de Lesseps, to consider the question of the best
location and plan of the Canal. This congress, after a two weeks'
session, decided in favor of the Panama route and of a sea-level canal
without locks. De Lesseps's success with the Suez Canal made him a
strong advocate of the sea-level type, and his opinion had considerable
influence in the final decision.
Immediately following this action the Panama Canal Company was
organized under the general laws of France, with Ferdinand de Lesseps
as its president. The concession granted in 1878 by Colombia was
purchased by the company, and the stock was successfully floated in
December, 1880. The two years following were devoted largely to
surveys, examinations, and preliminary work. In the first plan adopted
the Canal was to be 29.5 feet deep, with a ruling bottom width of 72
feet. Leaving Colon, the Canal passed through low ground to the valley
of the Chagres River at Gatun, a distance of about 6 miles; thence
through this valley, for 21 miles, to Obispo, where, leaving the river,
it crossed the continental divide at Culebra by means of a tunnel, and
reached the Pacific through the valley of the Rio Grande. The
difference in the tides of the two oceans, 9 inches in either direction
from the mean in the Atlantic and from 9 to 11 feet from the same datum
in the Pacific, was to be overcome and the final currents reduced by a
proper sloping of the bottom of the Pacific portion of the Canal. No
provisions were made for the control of the Chagres River.
In the early eighties after a study of the flow due to the tidal
differences, a tidal lock near the Pacific was provided. Various
schemes were also proposed for the control of the Chagres, the most
prominent being the construction of a dam at Gamboa. The dam as
proposed afterward proved to be impracticable, and this problem
remained, for the time being, unsolved. The tunnel through the divide
was also abandoned in favor of an open cut.
Work was prosecuted on the sea-level canal until 1887, when a change to
the lock type was made, in order to secure the use of the Canal for
navigation as soon as possible. It was agreed at that time that the
change in plan did not contemplate abandonment of the sea-level Canal,
which was ultimately to be secured, but merely its postponement for the
time being. In this new plan the summit level was placed above the
flood line of the Chagres River, to be supplied with water from that
stream by pumps. Work was pushed forward until 1889, when the company
went into bankruptcy; and on February 4th that year a liquidator was
appointed to take charge of its affairs. Work was suspended on May 15,
1889. The new Panama Canal Company was organized in October, 1894, when
work was again resumed, on the plan recommended by a commission of
engineers.
This plan contemplated a sea-level canal from Limon Bay to Bohio, where
a dam across the valley created a lake extending to Bas Obispo, the
difference in level being overcome by two locks; the summit level
extended from Bas Obispo to Paraiso, reached by two more locks, and was
supplied with water by a feeder from an artificial reservoir created by
a dam at Alhajuela, in the upper Chagres Valley. Four locks were
located on the Pacific side, the two middle ones at Pedro Miguel
combined in a flight.
A second or alternative plan was proposed at the same time, by which
the summit level was to be a lake formed by the Bohio dam, fed directly
by the Chagres. Work was continued on this plan until the rights and
property of the new company were purchased by the United States.
The United States, not unmindful of the advantages of an isthmian
canal, had from time to time made investigations and surveys of the
various routes. With a view to government ownership and control,
Congress directed an investigation of the Nicaraguan Canal, for which a
concession had been granted to a private company. The resulting report
brought about such a discussion of the advantages of the Panama route
to the Nicaraguan route that by an act of Congress, approved March 3,
1889, a commission was appointed to "make full and complete
investigation of the Isthmus of Panama, with a view to the construction
of a canal." The commission reported on November 16, 1901, in favor of
Panama, and recommended the lock type of canal.
By act of Congress, approved June 28, 1902, the President of the United
States was authorized to acquire, at a cost not exceeding $40,000,000,
the property rights of the New Panama Canal Company on the Isthmus of
Panama, and also to secure from the Republic of Colombia perpetual
control of a strip of land not less than 6 miles wide, extending from
the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and "the right ... to excavate,
construct, and to perpetually maintain, operate, and protect thereon a
canal of such depth and capacity as will afford convenient passage of
ships of the greatest tonnage and draft now in use."
Pursuant to the legislation, negotiations were entered into with
Colombia and with the New Panama Canal Company, with the end that a
treaty was made with the Republic of Panama granting to the United
States control of a 10-mile strip, constituting the Canal Zone, with
the right to construct, maintain, and operate a canal. This treaty was
ratified by the Republic of Panama on December 2, 1903, and by the
United States on February 23, 1904.
The formal transfer of the property of the New Panama Canal Company on
the Isthmus was made on May 4, 1904, after which the United States
began the organization of a force for the construction of the lock type
of canal, in the mean time continuing the excavation by utilizing the
French material and equipment and such labor as was procurable on the
Isthmus.
President Roosevelt, in a message to Congress, dated February 19, 1906,
stated: "The law now on our statute-books seems to contemplate a lock
canal. In my judgment a lock canal, as herein recommended, is
advisable. If the Congress directs that a sea-level canal be
constructed its direction will, of course, be carried out; otherwise
the Canal will be built on substantially the plan for a lock canal
outlined in the accompanying papers, such changes being made, of
course, as may be found actually necessary, including possibly the
change recommended by the Secretary of War as to the site of the dam on
the Pacific side."
On June 29, 1906, Congress provided that a lock type of canal be
constructed across the Isthmus of Panama, of the general type proposed
by the minority of the Board of Consulting Engineers, and work has
continued along these lines. The Board of Consulting Engineers
estimated the cost of the lock type of canal at $139,705,200 and of the
sea-level canal at $247,021,000, excluding the cost of sanitation,
civil government, the purchase price, and interest on the investment.
These sums were for construction purposes only.
I ventured a guess that the construction of the lock type of canal
would approach $300,000,000, and without stopping to consider that the
same causes which led to an increase in cost over the original
estimates for the lock canal must affect equally the sea-level type,
the advocates of the latter argued that the excess of the new estimates
was an additional reason why the lock type should be abandoned in favor
of the sea-level canal.
The estimated cost by the present commission for completing the adopted
project, excluding the items let out by the Board of Consulting
Engineers, is placed at $297,766,000. If to this be added the estimated
cost of sanitation and civil government until the completion of the
work, and the $50,000,000 purchase price, the total cost to the United
States of the lock type of canal will amount to $375,201,000. In the
preparation of these estimates there are no unknown factors.
The estimated cost of the sea-level canal for construction alone sums
up to $477,601,000, and if to this be added the cost of sanitation and
civil government up to the time of the completion of the canal, which
will be at least six years later than the lock canal, and the purchase
price, the total cost to the United States will aggregate $563,000,000.
In this case, however, parts of the estimate are more or less
conjectural--such as the cost of diverting the Chagres to permit the
building of the Gamboa dam and the cost of constructing the dam itself.
Much criticism has resulted because of the excess of the present
estimates over those originally proposed, arising largely from a
failure to analyze the two estimates or to appreciate fully the actual
conditions.
The estimates prepared and accompanying the report of the consulting
engineers were based on data less complete than are available at
present. The unit costs in the report of 1906 are identical with those
in the report of 1901, and since 1906 there has been an increase in the
wage scale and in the cost of material. On the Isthmus wages exceed
those in the United States from 40 to 80 per cent. for the same class
of labor. The original estimates were based on a ten-hour day, but
Congress imposed the eight-hour day. Subsequent surveys and the various
changes already noted have increased the quantity of work by 50 per
cent., whereas the unit costs have increased only 20 per cent.--not
such a bad showing. In addition, municipal improvements in Panama and
Colon, advances to the Panama Railroad, and moneys received and
deposited to the credit of miscellaneous receipts aggregate
$15,000,000, which amount will eventually and has in part already been
returned to the Treasury. Finally, no such system of housing and caring
for employees was ever contemplated as has been introduced and
installed, materially increasing the overhead charges and
administration.
The idea of the sea-level canal appeals to the popular mind, which
pictures an open ditch offering free and unobstructed navigation from
sea to sea, but no such substitute is offered for the present lock
canal. As between the sea-level and the lock canal, the latter can be
constructed in less time, at less cost, will give easier and safer
navigation, and in addition secure such a control of the Chagres River
as to make a friend and aid of what remains an enemy and menace in the
sea-level type.
In this connection attention is invited to the statement made by Mr.
Taft, when Secretary of War, in his letter transmitting the reports of
the Board of Consulting Engineers:
"We may well concede that if we could have a sea-level canal with a
prism of 300 to 400 feet wide, with the curves that must now exist
reduced, it would be preferable to the plan of the minority, but the
time and cost of constructing such a canal are in effect prohibitive."
We are justly proud of the organization for the prosecution of the
work. The force originally organized by Mr. John F. Stevens for the
attack upon the continental divide has been modified and enlarged as
the necessities of the situation required, until at the present time it
approaches the perfection of a huge machine, and all are working
together to a common end. The manner in which the work is being done
and the spirit of enthusiasm that is manifested by all forcibly strike
every one who visits the works.
The main object of our being there is the construction of the Canal;
everything else is subordinate to it, and the work of every department
is directed to the accomplishment of that object.
Too much credit can not be given to the department of sanitation,
which, in conjunction with the division of municipal engineering, has
wrought such a change in the conditions as they existed in 1904 as to
make the construction of the Canal possible. This department is
subdivided into the health department, which has charge of the
hospitals, supervision of health matters in Panama and Colon, and of
the quarantine, and into the sanitary inspection department, which
looks after the destruction of the mosquito by various methods, by
grass and brush cutting, the draining of various swampy areas, and the
oiling of unavoidable pools and stagnant streams.
According to the statistics of the health department, based on the
death-rate, the Canal Zone is one of the healthiest communities in the
world, but in this connection it must be remembered that our population
consists of men and women in the prime of life, with few, if any, of
the aged, and that a number of the sick are returned to the United
States before death overtakes them.