Lock Canal Project Map Showing Line of Proposed Lock Canal with Summit Elevation at 85 Feet [Panama Canal] - The Panama Canal taking shape in 1906.

Isthmian Canal Commission

Publication Date: 1906

About this Item

When the United States took over control from the French in 1904, the plan for the construction of the Panama Canal was a sea-level waterway. New Chief Engineer John Frank Stevens quickly realized that seasonal flooding made this proposal completely untenable, and instead recommended the construction of an elaborate system of locks and dams so that the flow of water could be better regulated. That is the approach presented here, on a 1906 map published by Julius Bien & Co. on behalf of the Isthmian Canal Commission. The course of the canal passes through three sets of locks along the fifty miles from Limon Bay to the Bay of Panama, reaching a height of 85 feet in the artificial Gatun Lake. Considerably more excavation efforts were required to facilitate the lock plan, and it wasn't until 1914 that the first ships were able to pass through the Panama Canal in its entirety. Sheet Width (in) 48.5 Sheet Height (in) 26 Condition Description Large lithographed map on nice wove paper, moderately browned along folds (see lower left for worst example). Small spots of extraneous wrinkling at fold intersections. Good to very good condition overall.

Seller Inventory # 6915

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Lock Canal Project Map Showing Line of Proposed Lock Canal with Summit Elevation at 85 Feet [Panama Canal] - The Panama Canal taking shape in 1906.
• Publication Date: 1906
• Condition: Very Good