| THE PANAMA ROUTE FOR A SHIP CANAL. II. |
By Professor WILLIAM H. BURR,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
THE total length of the Panama route from the six-fathom curve at Colon to the same curve in Panama Bay is 49.09 miles. The general direction of the route in passing from Colon to Panama is from northwest to southeast, the latter point being about 22 miles east of the Atlantic terminus. The depression through which the line is laid is one of easy topography except at the continental divide in the Culebra cut. As a consequence there is little heavy work of excavation, as such matters go, except in that cut. A further consequence of such topography is a comparatively easy alignment, that is one in which the amount of curvature is not high. The smallest radius of curvature is 3,281 ft. at the entrance to the inner harbor at the Colon end of the route, and where the width is 800 ft. The radii of the remaining curve range from 6,234 ft. to 19,629 ft.
The following table gives all the elements of curvature on the route and indicates that it is not excessive:
| Number of Curves. | Length. | Radius. | Total Curvature. | |
| Miles. | Feet. | °’ | ||
| 1 | 0.88 | 19,629 | 1417 | |
| 1 | .48 | 13,123 | 1107 | |
| 4 | 4.22 | 11,483 | 11131 | |
| 15 | 11.61 | 9,482 | 35550 | |
| 4 | 2.44 | 8,202 | 9020 | |
| 2 | 1.67 | 6,592 | 7700 | |
| 1 | .73 | 6,234 | 3545 | |
| 1 | .82 | 3,281 | 7551 | |
| 22.85 | 77139 | |||
Throughout the most of the distance between Colon and Bohio on the easterly side of the canal, the French plan contemplated an excavated channel to receive a portion of the waters of the Chagres as well as the flow of two smaller rivers, the Gatuncillo and the Mindi, so as to conduct them into the bay of Manzanillo, immediately to the east of Colon. That so-called diversion channel was nearly completed. Under the plan of the commission it would receive none of the Chagres flow, but it would be available for intercepting the drainage of the high ground easterly of the canal line and the flow of the two small rivers
