Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1907 — AT PANAMA. [ARTICLE]

AT PANAMA.

Work Progreulif on tho Blf Du* and Other Main Feature*. The work on the locks and dams at Panama lias taken such shape that It Is now possible to see something of their form. It is believed that the actual masonry work can be commenced at the Gatun locks within eighteen months. Four steam shovels are now digging out the sitegfor the locks, and construction can be begun after the excavation for the top lock of the flight Is completed. Two steam shovels are preparing the site for the erection of the spillway works of the Gatun dam. Railroad trestles are being erected across the line that will mark the lneide and outside boundaries of the big dam, and from one of these dirt trains ire now dumping dirt upon the site of the dam.

Preparatory to the Installation of pipeline dredges, by which more rapid work on the dam will be possible, the Charges River has been diverted from its main channel and dammed. The pipeline dredges should be installed by January 1, when the work at Gatun will be as actively in progress as that at Culebra. Suitable sand and rock for the big masonry locks have been located, and, what is equally interesting to the engineers, material for the manufacture of all the necessary cemetft has been located on the Isthmus. It is hoped, however, that cement can be secured for such a price In the United States as to make it more advisable to procure the needed supply there Instead of manufacturing It on the Isthmus , - —— The designs and details of the Gatun and other Jocks have been worked out, together with the general type and number of lock gates to be used. The survey of all the country to be converted into the great Gatuu lake has. been completed and finished reports show that the area will be 171 square miles.