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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 5, 29 July 1908, Page 4

The Panama Canal Commission has decided upon an important revision of the plans for the locks near the Pacific terminus of the Panama canal, which will result in considerable economy, and will place the locks in a much better defensive position. The earlier plans provided for the construction of two large dams, one the La Boczasca-San Juan, a mile in length, the other the Corozal dam, a mile and a quarter long. These structures would have formed a lake, two miles wide and four miles in length, and would have necessitated the relocation of the Panama Railroad and the building of a spillway from Soza Lake to the sea. The new plan calls for the construction of a single dam at Miraflores, only half a mile long, in which will be built the two locks, by which ships will be raised from sea level to the 55-foot level. A channel 500 feet wide will lead from the locks to the Bay of Panama, and this channel will lie in material that ean be excavated entirely by dredges. Another advantage of the change is that the Miraflores dam will be founded everywhere upon rock, which

the numerous 6 by 8 feet test pits have shown to be present througliout the whole site. The change will also lead to some economy of time in transit, since ships will be able to steam at good speed through the 500-foot channel, direct from the sea to the locks. The importance of the change can scarcely be over-estimat-ed. The security of the canal is greatly increased by the removal of the dam and locks some four miles farther out of the range of an enemy’s guns; the target is much smaller; and it is estimated that because of the reduction in size of the works and the greatly reduced depth to rock foundations, there will be a total saving of about eight million dollars over the former plans.—“ Scientific American.”