One of the most interesting things the traveler upon the Isthmus
will see is the mass of discarded French machinery piled all along
the line of operations. No doubt the French used the best machinery
that could be obtained at that time, but that was thirty years ago,
and the progress of the world, particularly in the use of labor-saving
machinery, is nowhere more thoroughly demonstrated than on the
Isthmus of Panama by a comparison of the old French machinery with
that assembled by the American engineers. There are piles of French
locomotives that today are absolutely worthless, not because the
machinery itself is defective, but because of their feeble power. At
the town of Empire there are forty-five French engines piled in one
heap that cannot be used by the Canal Commission. In fact, they are of
such little power that they would hardly be used by a street contractor
on a city job in the United States.
[Illustration: Upper Picture--Gatun Lower Locks.