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The opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914 climaxed a four-century dream of mariners the world over. Early 16th and 17th century navigators explored every inlet of the North and South American continents in a vain search for the water passage through these land masses to the imagined riches of the Orient. Once failure was acknowledged, years of thought were devoted to the possibilities of piercing the land bridge between the two continents. Almost all agreed that the passage would have to be at the Panamanian isthmus or through Nicaragua.
In the 1870’s Ferdinand de Lesseps, fresh from his conquest of the Suez, began the promotion of a canal through Central America. In January, 1880, de Lesseps turned the first spade of earth at Culebra signifying that the Panama Canal Company of France was in business. By 1890 the Company was in receivership—bankrupt. The French estimates had been entirely too sanguine for the work to be done, with the equipment available at the time, and in the enervating climate of the Isthmus. In 1894 a New Panama Canal Company was organized to continue the French effort. A modest amount of work was done, principally in the Culebra Cut, but the goal of the Company was to sell its holdings and its Colombian option to the United States.
The building of the “New Navy” and the projection of American interests into the western Pacific after the Spanish-American War created a demand within the United States that any Isthmian canal be American built, owned, and operated. In 1902, following months of indecision concerning the site for an American built canal and after considerable dickering with the New Panama Canal Company, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act authorizing the purchase of the French holdings and the construction of a canal at Panama. The Colombian refusal to grant the United States the necessary leasehold in the Panamanian Isthmus was evaded by the revolt and establishment of a Republic of Panama in November, 1903. By March, 1904, the first Isthmian Canal Commission for Construction was appointed with Rear Admiral John Grimes Walker, USN (Ret.) as its chairman.
The years 1904 and 1905 were spent in preparation for later excavation. The Canal Zone Government was organized by the Commission with Major Genera! George W. Davis, USA (Ret.) as the Governor. Laborers were hired, housing constructed, and, above all, intensive effort was devoted to sanitizing the Canal area. By December, 1905, the problem of malaria and yellow fever was largely in hand due to the heroic labors of Colonel William C. Gorgas and his assistants. The Isthmian railroad was reorganized by Chief Engineer John F. Wallace, and a small force continued excavation at Culebra, largely with French equipment.
In March, 1905, a second Commission was appointed to succeed the first, and John F. Stevens took over as Chief Engineer. He recognized that the French failure in part was the result of their primitive railroad system and its consequent inability to handle the material excavated. Stevens therefore insisted that American rolling stock and track be used, and he employed time- tested techniques for his track laying and maintenance. In June, 1906, Congress directed the construction of a lock canal and work began in earnest.
Stevens was replaced as Chief Engineer by Lieutenant Colonel George W. Goethels, U. S. Army Engineers, in March, 1907, but the organization and canal plans as laid out by Stevens were largely adhered to by his successor. A large dam was built across the Chagres River at Gatun to create a high-level lake, and three pairs of locks were built to raise vessels the necessary 85 feet to the Lake’s surface. After traversing the Lake and the Culebra Cut, vessels were to be lowered 30 feet by a pair of locks at Pedro Miguel. The next two pair of locks at Miraflores would lower a vessel the remaining 55 feet to sea level on the Pacific side.
By the summer of 1913 most of the work on the canal locks had been completed, and in September the Gatun 1914, the Panama Railroad vessel, the S.S. Ancon, transited from Colon to Balboa, opening a new era in the maritime history of the Western Hemisphere.
By 1884 the French were using, or planning to use, marine dredges to clear channels into the Atlantic terminus of the Canal at Colon and the Pacific terminus at Panama. The French also used the dredges to cut the canal for a considerable distance inland, arriving almost at the site of the present-day Gatun locks. The Marine, pictured above, was thoroughly sea-going and sailed to Colon from England.
This unusual machine was used to deposit dump dredged up by such vessels as the Marine. Dump was loaded into lighters and these were pushed to the “floating dumper.” A chain of buckets lifted the dump to the long tube extending overboard, and a pump washed the dump out of the tube.
One of the basic causes of the French failure was the primitive nature of their machinery. The hand carts, shown above, were lifted by the overhead chain hoists. Seven of these hoists operated in the Culebra Cut, and together could handle around 1,000 cubic yards a day. This was considerably less than the output of one American steam shovel in use ten years later.
The French operated 116 of these excavators and 20 transporters at the height of their endeavors, yet each machine could do barely one-third the work of an American steam shovel. The French effort was plagued by poor rail facilities, and the transporters were frequently bogged down in the soggy Isthmian clay.
The autumn months were a difficult season on the Isthmus because of the heavy flooding. At times diversionary canals could not handle the run-off and stream inundations, and scenes similar to the one above resulted. This picture was taken at Bas Obispo at the entrance to the Culebra Cut.
This 1909 slide at Cucaracha in the Culebra Cut was one of many that slowed work in this most difficult section The Cut was partially blocked at Cucaracha when the Canal was opened, and dredging became necessary at this high-level portion of the waterway. Note in the center of the above photograph the damage done to the railway trackage.
By 1899 the French progress on the Canal consisted principally of enough work to keep their concession alive. The immense cost of reducing the Culebra Cut to sea level had helped the French along the road to bankruptcy, and the New Panama Canal Company was trying desperately to unload its holdings.
This picture of the Culebra Cut, later named the Gaillard Cut, shows the progress made by the American companies under Army management. The idea of cutting the Canal down to sea level had been abandoned, and locks "'ere to be used to raise the transiting vessels to the summit level of 85 feet. The heavy railroad trackage in the Cut depicts the stress laid by the Americans upon heavy equipment to remove the cutting.
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Courtesy the Library of Congress
PRESIDENT TAFT AND CHIEF ENGINEER LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE W. GOETIIALS
As Secretary of War, President Taft nominated Colonel Goethals to succeed Chief Engineer Stevens in 1907. The Colonel had a reputation as a skilled engineer and administrator, and was particularly known for his skill at handling Congressional committees. He guided the Canal to completion and remained as Governor of the Canal Zone until 1916.
CHIEF ENGINEER JOHN F. STEVENS, 1905-07
John F. Stevens was appointed Chief Engineer by the Canal Commission in 1905. His great experience at railroad building and management gave him the qualifications and skill necessary to get the canal construction into full swing. He recognized that the French effort had failed primarily because of their inability to handle the removal of excavated material, and he therefore made a sound railway system the heart of the Canal.
In November, 1906, President Roosevelt toured the Panama Canal site, and his report to Congress that December restored the waning faith of the people in the great project. The naval officer in the picture is Rear Admiral Mor- decai T. Endicott, then Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, a member of the Canal Commission. John F. Stevens, the Chief Engineer, is the second man to the right of the President.
In June, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the act authorizing the United States to buy the concession and equipment of the New Panama Canal Company for $40,000,000. The President was quite aware of the strategic value of the Canal site. He took a personal interest in negotiating a treaty with Colombia, and later with the new Republic of Panama, to acquire what later became the Canal Zone.
The extensive use of the steam shovel and the well-organized railroad system made success possible for the United States at Panama. The American steam shovel had a work capacity that was untouched by the early French machines. In the busiest period the Americans had 101 steam shovels, 30 unloaders, 26 spreaders, and 9 track shifters at work.
This machine was the product of American ingenuity. It had the capacity to move a mile of track nine feet to the side in an eight hour day, accomplishing the labor of 600 men. In view of the heavy concentration of rolling stock on the Isthmus, the need for this machine becomes obvious.
The tremendous quantity of dirt removed from the Culebra Cut presented a major problem of disposal that heavily taxed American inventiveness. The spreader, pictured above, was unknown to the French. It had the capability of spreading material to a distance of 11 feet from the rails.
The wedge-shaped plow was pulled across the loaded flatcars by the engine assembly at the end of the train. It was estimated that 20 unloaders with a force of 120 laborers could do the work of 5,500 men. The value of the time and money saved is quite evident.
An old panoramic photograph shows the Gatun Dam at the time of its completion in 1913. Vessels transiting to the Pacific were to be “locked up” to Gatun Lake by means of the Gatun locks, and would be “locked down by the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.
The French planned to construct a sea-level canal at Panama and were going to divert the Chagres River by means of diversionary canals and dams. American engineers, particularly Chief Engineer Stevens, believed that cutting a sea-level ditch through the continental divide would be too costly and too time consuming. The American plan was to dam the Chagres and let it form a high-level lake behind a dam at Gatun.
Courtesy U. S. Army Signal Corps
PROGRESS ON THE LOCKS AT GATUN
7 he Gatun locks were constructed in three pairs and'were designed to lift a vessel the 85 feet to the level of Gatun i-ake. In May, 1913, the Gatun locks were completed, and on September 26,1913, the tug Gatun was “locked up” to Gatun Lake as a trial for the new locks. The upper photograph was taken'in 1909, the center in 1910, and the lower
The first concrete was poured at the Gatun ocks in August, 1909, and water was admitted to the chambers pictured above within three weeks after the photograph was taken. The man on the floor of the fore chamber presents a vivid contrast to the 81-foot lock doors.
This panoramic view of the north and middle chambers of the Gatun locks presents an interesting picture of lock operations. Note the three different levels of water in the chambers shown above. All of the locks, except the Miraflores locks, are 81_feet high (Miraflores are 82 feet), 1,000 feet in length, and 110 feet wide.
The Secretary of the Canal Commission for Construction estimated that some 75,000,000 pounds of dynamite and black powder was used m excavating the Canal. The tripod drills shown above were in constant use, particularly in the Culebra Cut. This picture was taken on the site of the Pedro Miguel locks.
Concrete was manufactured at the Isthmus, and rock-crushing plants were erected on both the Caribbean and Pacific side of the Canal. Approximately 4,500,000 yards of concrete were used in the construction of the locks at (jatun, Pedro Miguel, and Miraflores.
The Pedro Miguel locks are at the Pacific exit from the Culebra Cut. Here vessels are “locked down” 30 feet to the Miraflores Lake. The culvert buried in the inside walls has a cross section area of 254 square feet, and provides the main supply and drainage to the lock on the east side (the reader’s left). The walls of the locks are approximately 45 to 50 feet thick at their base.
The two flights of locks at Miraflores allow a vessel to be lowered 55 feet on the final stage of its trip from the Carribbean to the Pacific. Captain DuVal notes in his article (page 263 ff.) that experience has shown that the Canal as a whole could operate more efficiently had the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks been a single series with a larger lake behind the combined locks.
The Pacific Railway’s S.S. Ancon is shown approaching the Gatun locks. Colonel George VV. Goethals, in the right foreground, watched the Ancon’s every move during the voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Tdie Ohio and Missouri, of the Midshipmen’s Practice Squadron of another era are shown transiting the lower chamber of the Miraflores locks on July 16, 1915. Ships’ fenders throughout were hardly necessary. The size of these pre-Dreadnaughts influenced to a considerable degree the General Board in its suggestion that the lock width be limited to 110 feet.