enrichment of sculpture, painting and inscription summarizes the story
of Panama and of the Pacific shore northward from the Isthmus. The
architect has expressed in its upper decorations something of the
feeling of Aztec art. The four inscriptions on the south faces of the
arches tell how Rodrigo de Bastides discovered Panama in 1501; how
Balboa first saw the Pacific Ocean in 1513; how the United States began
to dig the Canal in 1904, and opened it in 1915. The four on the north
faces epitomize the history of California, thus honored as the state
that commemorates the opening of the Canal. They speak of Cabrillo's
discovery of California in 1542, of the founding of the Mission of San
Francisco by Moraga, in 1776, of the acquisition of California by the
United States, 1846, and its admission to the Union in 1850.

The sculpture carries out the same idea. Pizarro and Cortez sit their
horses before the Tower, splendid figures of the Spanish conquerors, the
one by Charles C. Rumsey, the other by Charles Niehaus. (p. 48.) Above
the entablature of the supporting columns are repeated around the outer
wall of the arch, Adventurer and Priest, Philosopher and Soldier, types
of the men who won the Americas, all done by John Flanagan. Above the
cornice, the mounted figures by F. M. L. Tonetti are those of the
Spanish cavaliers, with bannered cross. The eagles stand for the Nation
that built the Canal. Excellent in spirit are Flanagan's figures of the
four types, especially that of the strikingly ascetic Priest. (p. 44.)
Besides their symbolism, the statues fulfill a useful architectural
purpose in relieving what would otherwise be the blankness of the wall.
But the same cannot be as truly said of the Armoured Horsemen above.
Vigorous as they are, they are not in the right place. They clutter up
the terrace on which they stand. The globe on the pinnacle, with its
band, signifies that now a girdle has been put around the earth.