Show A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PANAMA PAMA CANAL by jack T francis fr ancis a man well known on the reservation and who is now in the employ of the government in in the panama canal zone canal building canal building is older than wrilon written en history history the great nations nat S of antiquity a atiq city were mighty canal builders even the cutting of the isthmus of suez is not a modern modem idea the suez canal is knoch enow n to have been dug already fourteen centuries before christ and there is some evi evidence defice that it was dug and refilled twice centuries before the present canal was thought of also when speaking of the panama canal one may truly say that there is nothing new under the sun from the moment europeans discovered the isthmus esthmus they dreamed of removing the obstruction it was to the movement of their ships towards the indies the history of the panama canal begins with the H history story of the new carld the history of the panama canal coincides with the first page of the written history of the western world columbus came caad to the shores of what is now territory 7 of the republic of panama not in the hope of discovering a new country but in in pia expectation of discovering a pew sea route to the indies which has bas been the aim of all to him the isthmus was not a welcome find but a serious amerious obstacle to the caliz realization of his dreams since that time probably no strip of land in any part of this earth has been so long and so continuously fascinating the imagination of the civilized world than that small area of land lying between and in the territories of the republic of nicaragua and panama hernan heman cortez believed the cutting of the isthmus of panama a necessity for spain and he presented a project of a canal to empower charles V after the abdication of the latter saavedra presented another canal project to phillip II 11 who forbade any attempt at canal building as sacrilegious saying what god hath joined together let no man put asunder early projects the first serious surveys however seem to have been made by in 1550 antonio galvo suggested four alternate routes the same advocated by humbolt namely either aither a darien a panama a nicaraguan or a tehuantepec canal A few years later in 1581 antonio pereira published in lisbon the first technical sarv survey ey of a darien canal at the very beginning of the lath century spain again interested I 1 n te herself in a canal and and sent engineers to study a darien route in 1814 a comprehensive project had been formulated but before anything could be e accomplished the series of revolutions evolutions in south and cental aral america had driven spa spain in from tom mainland of the western hemisphere lemi sphere of five foutes which alexander von humbolt believed lo sible he favored a darien canal which later proved too difficult to accomplish his unqualified condemnation of a canal from the charges of panama has no doubt retarded canal anal building for more than a century many century projects since humbolt more thana than a projects have vely been published arcing them hem I 1 it is interesting to mention menion the efforts of simon bolivar the liberator of a large portion of south and central america who employed engi to survey a panama route his resignation in 1830 put an end to his plans however the work he had accomplished has been so useful that his plans have been later accepted as the base for the surveys of the panama railroad during the greater part of the century the french were the only nation which made serious efforts to solve the problem of an waterway yet young united states by no means remained solely an interested beholder and her government earnestly watched every step which european count countries rles attempted to make for many years if this country did but iI little ittle towards the building of acahal it is no doubt because of the great problems of development with which it was confronted however step by step it prepared itself for the work that was to bedone the first serious american move was the treaty of 1846 with new then came the building of the panama railroad the projects of president buchanan by b y two lieutenants of the army and navy avy the he civil war which de ayed bayed so many undertakings the he french beginning s and abd failure followed by a short period of indifference until the journey of odthe the U S S oregon from the he pacific to the theatre of war in n the car carridean Carri n bean in 1898 which showed the necessity of a canal as a means of national defense after the com commercial commeree merel il utility of a waterway had loni long since been demonstrated location the panama canal has not been een built on the narrowest part of the isthmus the narrowest point of that part of the world is between the san blas bias coast and the bayano bacyano river 30 miles south of panama how ever between the two points are which present an insurmountable obstacle to a canal unless a could be bored another interesting fact is that the pacific end of the canal lies east of the atlantic end the canal lies in a general direction from north to south with a slight inclination towards the east thus the fundamental idea of those who are not quite familiar with the map of the western hemisphere are upset for the pacific is verbally ver saily sally believed to lie west of the atlantic the reason is that the isthmus of panama runs in the general direction from eat east to west and not from north to south no marriage of the oceans another popular misconception about the canal is that which gave rise to the phrase marriage of the two oceans the waters of the two oceans w will I 1 I 1 1 never m mix 1 x for the simple reason that between them lie two lakes of fresh water at elevations elevation of 85 and 34 feet respectively ively on opening the lower gate of either the cadun or miraflores locks the lower lock chamber is is partially filled with sea water vater the salt water is carried up with a ship during lockage and finally enters galim gatun and miraflores lakes respectively but before it does so it is in the about 1 to 4 and to 8 respectively on ente entering rind the tha lakes it is again ii and inasmuch as water continually flows down teh spill ways there thereby by creating slight currents ur renta towards the sea it is not likely that even a drop of atlantic waters could reach the pacific end of the canal or vica versa size and topography of the canal the canal is about SO 50 miles long though the distance in a straight line from terminal to terminal is less than 40 miles the reason is that there are in the canal 22 angles of a total of 51 of which 10 is measured to the right going south and 41 to the left the culebra cut has eight angles or about one to the mile concluded next week |