Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . great publicwork it encounters the same financial disillusion-ments that come to the young homebuilder whenhe sets out to build hirn a house from architects plans,guaranteed to keep the cost within a fixed De Lesseps estimated the cost of a sea-leveLcanal at $131,000,000, though it is fair to say for theFrench engineers whose work is so generally ap-plauded by our own that their estimate was several,million dollars higher. The famous InternationalCongress had estimated the cost of a sea-level canalat $240,000,000. In fact the French sp
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . great publicwork it encounters the same financial disillusion-ments that come to the young homebuilder whenhe sets out to build hirn a house from architects plans,guaranteed to keep the cost within a fixed De Lesseps estimated the cost of a sea-leveLcanal at $131,000,000, though it is fair to say for theFrench engineers whose work is so generally ap-plauded by our own that their estimate was several,million dollars higher. The famous InternationalCongress had estimated the cost of a sea-level canalat $240,000,000. In fact the French spent $260,-000,000 and excavated about 80,000,000 cubic yardsof earth! Then came on our estimators. TheSpooner act airily authorized $135,000,000 for of any type, and is still in force though we:have already spent twice that amount. The Walker-Commission fixed the cost of a sea-level canal with,a dam at Alhajuela and a tide lock at Miraflores at.$240,000,000. The majority of President Roose- THE VARYING ESTIMATES OF THE CANALS COST 157. Pholo by Underwood d; Underwood A BACK STREET IN COLONThis street is as clean and well paved as any in the United States velts Board of Advisory Engineers reported in favorof a sea-level canal and estimated its cost at $250,-000,000; the minority declared for a lock canalfixing its cost in round numbers at $140,000, Wallace put the cost of a sea-level canal at$300,000,000 exclusive of the $50,000,000 paid forthe Canal Zone. Col. Goethals came in in 1908,with the advantage of some years of actual con-struction, and fixed the cost of the sea-level canal at$563,000,000 and the lock type at $375,000, guesses best who guesses last, but it may be sug-gested in the vernacular of the streets that evenCol. Goethals had another guess coming. On all these estimates the most illuminating com-ment is furnished by the Official Handbook of thePanama Canal for 1913 showing total expendituresto November i, 1912, of $270,625,624 exclusive
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Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
