The whole length of the navigation is eighty-eight geog-raphical miles, of which sixty-six miles are actual canal made by cuttings, fourteen miles are made by dredging through lakes, and eight miles are formed of natural waterway. The width of the canal channel at the bottom is 72 feet, and the depth 26 feet. At distances of five or six miles apart, passage-places are provided where vessels may remain over-night or turn out to permit others to pass. At the time of this writing it is contemplated to furnish the entire length of the canal with electric lights, so that the channel may be navig-ated with safety at night. It is only throng-1i the rise and fall of tbe tide—amounting to about To feet in the Red Sea—that anv current between the two seas is observed, high water in the Red Sea causing a perceptible ebb and flow, which is felt as far as the Great 'Bitter Lake. The canal is open to vessels of all nations the draught of which does not exceed 24 feet. Steamers use their own engines in making- the passage, but sailing--vessels of over fifty tons burden are required to employ a tug boat. The traffic passing through the canal may be said to be practically confined to steam-vessels. The cost of the canal is estimated to have been one hundred million dollars, which includes the outlay for terminal sta tions at Port Said, with two breakwaters on the 'Mediterranean, and at Suez, the Red Sea entrance, which is provided with a breakwater, dry dock, and other improvements. The work required the excavation of about eighty million cubic yards of material. Figure 5 (pi. 52) shows one of the dredges used in the work. The actual operations on the canal were begun in the latter part of the year 186o, and the canal was opened for traffic November T7, 1869.
The Kew Amstera'am is an important work lately completed in the interests of the port of Amsterdam. It is sixteen and a half miles long, 23 feet deep, and 89 feet wide at the bottom, and is constructed in nearly a straight line from Amsterdam through Lake 'I' and Wyker Meer to the North Sea.
The Noraz Hollana' Canal, built T319-1825, was, until the completion of that just mentioned, the most important canal in Holland. It extends from Amsterdam to the Helder, a distance of fifty miles. It is noteworthy from the fact that it lies below the sea-level; so that vessels require to be locked down in passing from the sea into the canal. It is 78 feet wide at the bottom.
Panama to T875 very thorough surveys of the Amer ican isthmus had been made by the engineers of the United States govern ment with the view of determining the best route for a ship-canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. A number of promising routes had been carefully examined, including those known as the San I3las, Panama, Atrato, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec. In 1875 a commission of United States engineers was appointed by President Grant to examine the reports of these surveys, and to recommend the route which they regarded as the most expedient. This commission reported in favor of the Nicaragua
route. Some years later, at the instance of De Lesseps, there was convened at Paris an international congress to which representatives of all the com mercial nations were invited. By this congress it was decided that a sea level canal was a sine qua 11011, and that the route from Panama to Colon, the lowest portion of the isthmus, presented the most feasible situation for its construction. As the result of this conference, a French company, of which De Lesseps is the head, was formed for the construction of a sea level canal across the isthmus at Panama. This enterprise appears from indications at the time of this writing to have been undertaken with an utterly inadequate conception of the magnitude of the work, and has be come involved in serious embarrassment, arising. partly from the engineer ing difficulties met with and partly from bad management. After the expenditure of five or six years of labor and of enormous SLIMS of money, the plan of a sea-level canal has been abandoned, and the work is to be completed as a canal with locks. The year IS90 was the time fixed for the completion and opening of the canal, but on account of the failure of the company this date must be considerably deferred.
Nicaragua this time an American company is about to begin the construction of a ship-canal across the isthmus at Nicarag-ua. This will be a canal with locks, but it is believed that the engineering, difficulties will be comparatively few and easily overcome. It is affirmed that, as Lake Nicaragua will afford a deep and navigable channel, only about twenty-eight miles of the ronte will require to be artificially con structed. A plan and a profile of the projected route are shown on Plate 56 (figs. Corinth project of much importance at present under wav is the canal across the Isthmus of Corinth. It was begun in 1882 by a French company under contract with the government of Greece. Hay ing a total length of about four miles and joining the Adriatic and the Black Sea, it will shorten the voyage from the Adriatic to Turkey and Asia Minor by one hundred and eighty-five miles.
Manchester and Liverpool much commercial import ance will be the ship-canal which is to connect Manchester with Liverpool. It will begin at Eastliain on the south bank of the estuary of the Mersey, which it will follow thirteen and a half miles, and will then pass almost directly to its terminus in the docks at Salford and Manchester. Its total length will be thirty-five miles. It will enable ships of the heaviest tonnage to trade directly with the latter city without the delay of trans-shipment or breakage of bulk. Great advantages to the textile industries of Manches ter are expected from its completion.