Alaska and the Panama canal . he river was most the heavy tropical rains come down the mountain sides PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 149 into the narrow valley with such force that the river hasbeen known to rise more than twenty-five feet in twenty-fourhours. To control the flood the great Gatun Dam was built,holding back the waters and forming Gatun Lake, which hasrisen to cover about 164 square miles. The spillway of GatunDam, made of concrete on a rock foundation, permits the flowof 154,000 cubic feet per second. The normal flow throughthis spillway operates the hydro-electri
Alaska and the Panama canal . he river was most the heavy tropical rains come down the mountain sides PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 149 into the narrow valley with such force that the river hasbeen known to rise more than twenty-five feet in twenty-fourhours. To control the flood the great Gatun Dam was built,holding back the waters and forming Gatun Lake, which hasrisen to cover about 164 square miles. The spillway of GatunDam, made of concrete on a rock foundation, permits the flowof 154,000 cubic feet per second. The normal flow throughthis spillway operates the hydro-electric plant which suppliespower and light for the operation of the Canal, there beingenough power available for any probable demand for yearsto come. Nearly everything about the Canal is run by elec-tricity, and recently the engineers have been considering sub-stituting electric power for steam on the Panama entire length of the Canal is so well lighted that pas-sage at night is practically as safe as during the THE COMPLETED GATUN LOCK.^, LOOKING N(mTII TOWARD THEATLANTIC ENTRANCE. I50 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC In passing through Gatun Lake, vessels get valuahle ser-vice for which no additional charge is made. One of the mostexpensive items of salt-water navigation is the accumulationof barnacles on ships bottoms, which in time become sonumerous as to impede the progress of even a powerful steam-ship. For this reason ships have to go into dry dock andget scraped at regular intervals. Fresh water, however, isfatal to the barnacles. The vessels going through Gatun Lakeare thus relieved of their troublesome burdens of marinemollusks. The Gatun locks comprise the largest monolithic concretestructure ever built. Like the locks at the Pacific end, theyare built in pairs, to reduce the danger of accident and increaseefficiency. Five different lengths of chamber are provided byintermediate gates, so that there is no waste of water or time,such as would be the case
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Keywords: ., bookauthorboycewilliamdickson18, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
