The above map shows at a glance what the canal means to the transportation routes of the Western Hemisphere and the world. Especially should it be noted that the entire Pacific coast of South America is directly south from the canal and the entire Atlantic coast of the United States. It also shows how the canal actually cuts, at the strategic and commercial geographical center, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America. Traveling direct from England or Northern Europe, Colon is approximately 4,600 miles due southwest. From Yokohama, a vessel to reach Panama on the Pacific side would steam 7,800 miles slightly south of east; from Sydney, Australia, 8,000 miles northwest; from Valparaiso, Chile, on the west coast of South America, 2,600 miles almost due north. We are so much in the habit of considering "Panama" and the "Canal" practically as synonyms that we do not stop to remember that the Republic of Panama is a country of consequence and has a considerable reach of map lines. Panama as a nation boasts of 32,000 square miles, or an area close to that of either Indiana or Maine. Its extreme length is 430 miles or nearly equal to the distance from Boston to Baltimore. Its average width is 70 miles or equal to that of the State of Massachusetts. It begins at 77 degrees west on the boundary of Colombia in South America and extends to 83 degrees west to Costa Rica in Central America. It lies between 7 degrees and 9 degrees north latitude, or about 500 miles north of the equator. To understand the peculiar layout of the Canal Zone, a strip of land 10 miles wide from the Atlantic to Pacific through which the canal runs and which is under the absolute control of the United States, we must realize that the Isthmus is not a North and South but an East and West neck of land connecting North and South America, with a northerly or upward turn where the canal crosses. This makes Colon, the Atlantic terminus of the canal, nearly 20 miles west of Panama, the Pacific terminus, and causes the canal to run from the northwest to southeast in connecting an eastern sea with a western ocean! It also gives the traveler or stranger the surprising experience of looking from his Tivoli hotel window at Panama City in the early morning and seeing the sun rise directly before him out of the Pacific Ocean! The Isthmus is only about 40 miles wide, as the condor flies, from the Caribbean to the Pacific, but the turns of the canal make its channel 50 miles from deep water to deep water. There is one other place between the Bay of San Blas to the east of Colon and the Bay of Panama where the Isthmus narrows to about 30 miles, but the continental divide is higher and the lay of the land not suitable for a canal. The lowest point of the Cordillera, which reach in a majestic barrier for 10,000 miles from |