Joseph Pennell. 1857-1926.
At the Bottom of Gatun Lock. 1912. Lithograph. Wuerth 229. 17 x 22 1/4 (sheet 18 5/16 x 25). Panama Canal series #4. Edition 50. A rich, well-inked printing on 'Fabriano (Italy)' countermarked laid paper, on the full sheet with deckle edges. Signed and titled in pencil. $2,250
Pennell wrote, "There is a flight of three double locks at Gatun by which ships will be raised eighty-five feet to the level of Gatun Lock. From the gates of the upper lock -- the nearest to the Pacific -- they will sail across the now-forming lake some miles (about twenty, I believe), to the Culebra Cut; through this, nine miles long, they will pass, and then descend by three other flights of locks, at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, to the Pacific, which is twenty feet higher, I believe, than the Atlantic. The great height, eighty-five feet, was agreed upon so as to save excavation in the Cut and time in completion -- one of those magnificent labor saving devices of the moment -- which I, not being an engineer, see no necessity for -- having waited four hundred years for the Canal, we might, as an outsider, it seems to me, have waited four more years and got rid of a number of thhe locks, even if it cost more money.
The lithograph made in the middle lock shows the gates towering on either side. These gates were covered, when I made the drawing, with their armor plates. The lower parts, I was told, are to be filled with air, and the gates, worked by electricity, will virtually float. The scaffolding is only temporary, and so is the opening at the bottom and the railroad tracks, which were filled up and discarded while I was there. So huge are the locks – the three, I think, a mile long, each one thousand feet between the gates, and about ninety feet deep – that until the men knock off, there scarce seems anyone around."
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