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114.
unwound. Locks altho' much larger, resemble very much in operation those of the new Erie or Champlain Canal. Everything is clean orderly, substantial but nowhere is there any extravagance or unnecessary display of expensive construction. [[vertical notation in red in left margin]] Panama [[/left margin]] Ones [[underlined in red]] enthusiasm over [[/underlined in red]] this [[underlined in red]] marvelously well executed piece of engineering work increases every minute. [[/underlined in red]] The names of [[underlined in red[[ Goethals [[/underlined in red]] and [[underlined in red]] Roosevelt [[/underlined in red]] are often repeated [[underlined in red]] Thayer [[/underlined in red]] explains me some of the details of the work and some of the main difficulties. The Culebra cut which has been so much under discussion is the most difficult part of the project. Since the canal was opened some some slides have occurred at some
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critical points which required new dredging and new adjustements of the slopes to the angle of repose. Whoever sees this work cannot fail to see that the [[underlined in red]] French Engineers who recommended [[/underlined in red]] a [[underlined in red]] sea-level canal suggested a thing functionally impossible, [[/underlined in red]] specially along the [[underlined in red]] Culebra cut. [[/underlined in red]] Fifty or a hundred feet more excavation would have enormously increased the functional difficulties and involved risks of slides inevitably greater and excavation work beyond [[stikethrough]] possible [[/strikethrough]] reason or practical possibilities and cost I [[underlined in red]] now remember how many a French engineer ridiculed the prospect of the American [[/underlined in red]] engineers and stoutly maintained [[underlined in red]] that only the sea-level canal was the thing to do. [[/underlined in red]] I am inclined to think that