Our vessel then sails into the first, or the lower, of the locks. The
steel doors are closed and locked, and water from the chamber above is
let down by means of pipes and valves which discharge underneath the
vessel. This water flowing into the lower chamber, raises our vessel
28½ feet to the level of the second lock. Our ship sails into the
second lock, the doors are closed behind and locked, the water let down
from above, and again our vessel is raised 28½ feet. And so the process
is repeated the third time, until our ship sails out upon the lake
which is formed by the impounding of the waters of Gatun dam.
This lake, when filled to its capacity, will be thirty-three miles long
between extreme points, and eight miles wide at the widest part. The
course of a vessel from this lake will be twenty-three miles to a place
called Bas Obispo. This is the point at which the canal begins to run
through the hill called Culebra, and therefore the cut is called the
Culebra cut, and is nine miles long. The canal through this portion
of its course will be 250 feet wide at the bottom, and the sides of
the canal will slope so gradually that at the highest point of Culebra
hill, which is 325 feet above sea level, the width will be about
one-half mile.
Our vessel passes through this nine-mile course to Pedro Miguel. At
Pedro Miguel there will be a pair of locks 1000 feet long, 110 feet
wide, and with a drop or lifting area of 35 feet, instead of 28 feet.
Through this lock our vessel will be lowered to a small lake formed by
the damming of two small streams in the vicinity of the City of Panama.
This lake will be a couple of miles across, and on the farther point,
called Miraflores, two pairs of locks will lower our vessel to the
level of the Pacific Ocean. From the Miraflores locks a channel will be
constructed out into Panama bay--500 feet wide and 40 feet deep at low
tide, the same as on the Caribbean side.
The engineering features of the Panama Canal are not intricate, and not
in any sense difficult from an engineering standpoint, save for the
great magnitude. It is the size of the enterprise that has appalled,
and discouraged the canal’s construction, and not the technical
difficulties of the work required.