It is difficult to do justice to such an exploit within the scope of a single article.  The privations suffered by the troops, their uncomplaining endurance, the fight with cholera, the appalling atrocities perpetrated by the Bulgarians upon those who fell within their power, furnish matter for a monumental volume.

OPENING OF THE PANAMA CANAL A.D. 1914

COL.  GEO. W. GOETHALS BAMPFYLDE FULLER

As was told in a previous volume, the United States acquired possession of the Panama Canal territory in 1903.  Actual work on the Canal was begun by Americans in 1905 with the prediction that the Canal would be finished in ten years, 1915.  The engineers have been better than their word.  The difficulties with Mexico rendered the Canal suddenly useful to the United States, and Colonel Goethals reported that he would have the “big ditch” ready for the passage of any war-ship by May 15, 1914.  That promise he carried out.  The Canal is still in danger of being blocked by slides of mud in the deep Culebra Cut, and probably will continue exposed to this difficulty for some years to come.  But the work is practically complete; ships passed through the Canal under government orders in 1914.  The greatest engineering work man ever attempted, the profoundest change he has ever made in the geographical face of the globe, has been successfully accomplished.

Honor where honor is due!  The man chiefly responsible for the success of this great work has been Colonel Goethals.  We quote here by his special permission a portion of one of his official reports on the Canal.  We then show the work “as others see us,” by giving an account of the Canal and the impression it has made on other nations, written by one of the most distinguished of its recent British visitors, the Hon. Bampfylde Fuller.

COL.  GEO. W. GOETHALS, U.S.  ARMY

A canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has occupied public attention for upward of four centuries, during which period various routes have been proposed, each having certain special or peculiar advantages.  It was not until the nineteenth century, however, that any definite action was taken looking toward its accomplishment.

In 1876 an organization was perfected in France for making surveys and collecting data on which to base the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and in 1878 a concession for prosecuting the work was secured from the Colombian Government.

In May, 1879, an international congress was convened, under the auspices of Ferdinand de Lesseps, to consider the question of the best location and plan of the Canal.  This congress, after a two weeks’ session, decided in favor of the Panama route and of a sea-level canal without locks.  De Lesseps’s success with the Suez Canal made him a strong advocate of the sea-level type, and his opinion had considerable influence in the final decision.