That dam you saw building at Gatun will form a lake about
thirty miles long--quite a fish-pond, eh? When a west-bound ship
arrives, for instance, it will be raised through the Gatun locks,
three of them, and then sail along eighty-five feet above the
ocean, across the lake and into a channel dug right through the
hills, until it reaches the locks at Pedro Miguel. Then it will be
lowered to a smaller lake five miles long, then down again to the
level of the Pacific. An east-bound ship will reverse the process.
Get the idea?"
"Sure. It sounds easy."
"Oh, it's simple enough. That's what makes it so big. We've been
working at it five years, and it will take five years more to
complete it. Before we began, the French had spent about twenty
years on the job. Now a word, so you will have the general scheme
of operation in your head. The whole thing is run by the Isthmian
Canal Commission--six men, most of whom are at war with one
another. There are really two railroad systems--the I. C. C.,
built to haul dirt and rock and to handle materials in and out of
the workings, and the Panama Railroad, which was built years ago
during the California gold rush and bought by our government at
the time of that terrible revolution I told you about.
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