Salt Lake Telegram | 1923-08-15 | Page 4 | Just History

Just History V By Albert F." Philips It was a question of waterway that wa being discussed and It waa brought out In th discussion that today, August It, la th anniversary anni-versary of ths opening of the first portion of that great waterway, the Hues canal, although It wa not until un-til November !, that It waa formally opened, and then . there waa five day of pomp and ceremony; cere-mony; Th canal la IDS mile In length, ba a depth of SS feet a width at the bottom of IAS feet and coat lltT.OM.OOO. Construction was begun on April Is, lit. Th Red sea and ths Mediterranean Mediter-ranean had been connected before ....I 11LS veie R duiin th reign of Setl I and Ramses 11. It waa choked up In the age and In th reign of Nerh. 400 B. C it wa again atarted and was finished by Darlua Hyataapis la bla reign. 21-4t B. C. Its last restoration prior to D Lease pa and the British Brit-ish oompany avas in the ' seventh century by AmrU. who connected Cairo with the Red sea. . Contrast the Sues canal with the Panama canal, which connecta the two great oceans, ths Atlsntlo and Pacific. Connscllng theee bodies of water was first broached by Ualboa aad other Bpanlah explorers, but nothln- ever came of It at that period. pe-riod. It waa not until 1171. when the first projsct for construction of this waterwar waa granted by Colombia Co-lombia ta Ueutenant Luclen N. B. Wye, who was given the exclusive franchise for ninety-nine years The project waa indorsed by a congrsss of engineers under the auaplcss of Ferdinand de Lesssps, who In 1(7 organised tha "Campagnl Universalis Univer-salis du Canal Inter Oceanlque da Panama" and De Leeaepa waa made president of the company. Thte company purchaaed the Wyeo concession for lO.eoo.oou francs. At that time the estimated cast of ths user la-charge af tha work waa begun In ltd. but tha company failed and liquidation followed. Then ks 10 Uncle 8am a tapped la and from the Republic of Panaaia purchased for 10.u. gold, and 1 2 be, 00 annually nine year after the ratification of the treaty which permitted the aale aad purchaa. The work waa begun on. construction construc-tion In June, 104,' and tha first self propelled boat paaaed through the canst on January 7. 1114. Tue total to-tal coat of the canal was U7M01.-eoo. U7M01.-eoo. At on tlm there was employed em-ployed in the construction of the great work IS.0O men. The engineer engi-neer In charge ft he work was George Ooethels, whe wa a Salt Lake visitor only two weeks ago. who waa en route Eaet aftsr an inspection of the sits for tha proposed pro-posed Boulder daan la th Colorado Colo-rado rtrer. There ar twenty-four private or tat canal which are 1MI.I7 miles In length and the .cost of construction of which wa IlK.ISl.-IIP; IlK.ISl.-IIP; twenty-two government owned canal which are 11.11 mile In length. which cost ll.ltl.S4: thtrtv-two canalised river with a mileage of 4IIIM, and which cost HM.IK.4a. all these being In the United State. In Canada, there are twelve eenala. Thia doee hot include in-clude the great power canal at Niagara Ni-agara Falls, ea which ts o.ao has already been epent and which aow geneTat 17, horsepower. J-