Chapter I: Preface

The primary purpose of this book is to tell the layman the story of the Panama Canal. It is written, therefore, in the simplest manner possible, considering the technical character of the great engineering feat itself, and the involved complexities of the diplomatic history attaching to its inception and undertaking. The temptation to turn aside into the pleasant paths of the romantic history of ancient Panama has been resisted; there is no attempt to dispose of political problems that incidentally concern the canal; in short, the book is confined to the story of the canal itself, and the things that are directly and vitally connected with it.

Colonel Goethals was good enough to read and correct the chapters relating to the construction of the canal, and, when shown a list of the chapters proposed, he asked that the one headed "The Man at the Helm" be omitted. The author felt that to bow to his wishes in that matter would be to fail to tell the whole story of the canal, and so Colonel Goethals did not read that chapter.

Every American is proud of the great national achievement at Panama. If, in the case of the individual, this book is able to supplement that pride by an ample fund of knowledge and information, its object and purpose will have been attained.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The grateful acknowledgments of the author are due to Mr. William Joseph Showalter for his valuable aid in gathering and preparing the material for this book. Acknowledgments are also due to Colonel George W. Goethals, chairman and chief engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, for reading and correcting those chapters in the book pertaining to the engineering phases of the work; to Mr. Ernest Hallen, the official photographer of the Commission, for the photographs with which the book is illustrated; to Mr. Gilbert H. Grosvenor, editor of the _National Geographic Magazine_, for permission to use the bird's-eye view map of the canal; to Mr. G. Thomas Ritchie, of the Library of Congress, for assistance in preparing the index; and to Mr. Howard E. Sherman, of the Government Printing Office, for revising the proofs to conform with the typographical style of the United States Government.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Land Divided--The World United 3

II. Greatest Engineering Project 23

III. Gatun Dam 32

IV. The Locks 45

V. The Lock Machinery 57

VI. Culebra Cut 70

VII. Ends of the Canal 82

VIII. The Panama Railroad 93

IX. Sanitation 105

X. The Man at the Helm 118

XI. The Organization 133

XII. The American Workers 145

XIII. The Negro Workers 154

XIV. The Commissary 164

XV. Life on the Zone 176

XVI. Past Isthmian Projects 194

XVII. The French Failure 206

XVIII. Choosing the Panama Route 221

XIX. Controversy with Colombia 233

XX. Relations with Panama 246

XXI. Canal Zone Government 256

XXII. Congress and the Canal 268

XXIII. Sea Level Canal Impossible 277

XXIV. Fortifications 283

XXV. Fixing the Tolls 295

XXVI. The Operating Force 309

XXVII. Handling the Traffic 317

XXVIII. The Republic of Panama 326

XXIX. Other Great Canals 335

XXX. A New Commercial Map 347

XXXI. American Trade Opportunities 358

XXXII. The Panama-Pacific Exposition 368

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Birdseye View of the Panama Canal Zone _Color insert_

FACING PAGE

George W. Goethals, Chairman and Chief Engineer 10

A Street in the City of Panama 11

Theodore Roosevelt 18

William Howard Taft 18

Woodrow Wilson 18

Vendors in the Streets of Panama 19

A Native Boy Marketing 19

Lieut. Col. W. L. Sibert 43

The Upper Locks at Gatun 43

Toro Point Breakwater 43

Concrete Mixers, Gatun 50

A Center Wall Culvert, Gatun Locks 50

The Machinery for Moving a Lock Gate 51

Steam Shovels Meeting at Bottom of Culebra Cut 74

L. K. Rourke 74

The Man-made Canyon at Culebra 75

The Disastrous Effects of Slides in Culebra Cut 82

U. S. Ladder Dredge "Corozal" 83

A Mud Bucket of the "Corozal" 83

W. G. Comber 83

Col. William C. Gorgas 106

The Hospital Grounds, Ancon 106

Lieut. Frederic Mears 107

The Old Panama Railroad 107

Sanitary Drinking Cup 114

Mosquito Oil Drip Barrel 114

Spraying Mosquito Oil 114

Typical Quarters of the Married Laborer 115

A Native Hut 115

Maj. Gen. George W. Davis 138

Rear Admiral J. G. Walker 138

Theodore P. Shonts 138

John F. Wallace 138

John F. Stevens 138

Charles E. Magoon 138

Richard Lee Metcalfe 139

Emory R. Johnson 139

Maurice H. Thatcher 139

Joseph Bucklin Bishop 139

H. A. Gudger 139

Joseph C. S. Blackburn 139

Brig. Gen. Carroll A. Devol 146

American Living Quarters at Cristobal 146

Harry H. Rousseau 147

Lowering a Caisson Section 147

John Burke 170

Meal Time at an I. C. C. Kitchen 170

Washington Hotel, Colon 171

Major Eugene T. Wilson 171

The Tivoli Hotel, Ancon 171

Floyd C. Freeman 178

I. C. C. Club House at Culebra 178

A. Bruce Minear 179

Reading Room in the I. C. C. Club House, Culebra 179

Col. Chester L. Harding 202

The Gatun Upper Locks 202

Lieut. Col. David D. Gaillard 203

Culebra Cut, Showing Cucaracha Slide in Left Center 203

The Man of Brawn 210

Ferdinand de Lesseps 211

An Old French Excavator Near Tabernilla 211

Philippe Bunau-Varilla 211

S. B. Williamson 234

The Lower Gates, Miraflores Locks 234

Middle Gates, Miraflores Locks 235

H. O. Cole 235

The Pay Car at Culebra 242

Edward J. Williams 242

Uncle Sam's Laundry at Cristobal 243

Smoke from Heated Rocks in Culebra Cut 266

Tom M. Cooke 267

The Post Office, Ancon 267

A Negro Girl 274

A Martinique Woman 274

San Blas Chief 274

An Indian Girl 274

An Italian 274

A Timekeeper 274

A Spaniard 274

A Negro Boy 274

Testing the Emergency Dam, Gatun Locks 275

Col. Harry F. Hodges 275

The Ancon Baseball Park 298

Caleb M. Saville 399

Gatun Spillway from Above and Below 299

An Electric Towing Locomotive in Action 306

Blowing Up the Second Dike South of Miraflores Locks 307

DIAGRAMS

A Graphic Illustration of the Material Handled at Panama 25

A Cross Section of the Gatun Dam 35

Plan of the Gatun Dam and Locks 36

A Profile Section of the Canal 40

From a Model of Pedro Miguel Lock 48

A Cross-section of Locks, Giving an Idea of Their Size 49

One of the 92 Gate-leaf Master Wheels 64

A _Mauretania_ in the Locks 67

The Effect of Slides 72

Average Shape and Dimensions of Culebra Cut 75

The _Corozal_ and its Method of Attack 85

International Shipping Routes 351

A Map Showing Isthmus with the Completed Canal 379

The Panama Canal

"_I have read the chapters in 'The Panama Canal' dealing with the engineering features of the Canal and have found them an accurate and dependable account of the undertaking._"

GEO. W. GOETHALS.

THE PANAMA CANAL