Panama Canal Course Day 2 final

Panama Canal - Class #2

What we will cover today

The Panama Canal100 Years of Service to World Commerce

Engineering Concept of the Panama Canal The Leaders of the Great Enterprise Battling Disease Building the Canal – “Making the Dirt Fly” Presidential Visits


Engineering Concept

“Raise the Water”


Chagres River & Continental Divide

Engineering Concept


Engineering Concept

The Continental Divide


Engineering Concept

“Dig Down”

Baron Godin de Lepinay

There were still those who believed it was possible to cut down the backbone of the Continental Divide until the waters of the oceans could sweep through unhindered to a depth which even at low tide would carry the largest steamship afloat.

The "Dig Down" concept was at the core of the French plan pursued by De Lesseps.

This also required that the entire 50 miles from coast to coast be excavated.

It will fail !!!


Engineering Concept

“Raise the Water”

Others held that a more feasible plan would be to “Raise the Water”. This approach would raise the waters in the middle of Panama to an elevation as high as 85 above sea level. Ships would be lifted to this height using locks.

The "Raise the Water" plan meant they only had to dig about one-fifth of the way, 10 miles or so.

The eventual success of the effort is directly attributable to this bold gamble of

engineering genius.


Engineering Concept

“Lion in the Path”

The Mighty Chagres River

The maximum observed rainfall is 5.86 inches in one hour.

The greatest recorded change in the river at Gamboa is 25.6 feet in 24 hours.

The excessive rainfall and precipitous character of the hills enclosing the valley make it a violent, torrential, and unpredictable river.


Engineering Concept


Leaders



Wallace began as Assistant Civil Engineer for the U.S. Engineering Corps, focusing on river and harbor work on the Upper Mississippi. He was later promoted to Chief Engineer and became General Manager of the Illinois Central Railroad. On May 6th, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Wallace Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal Project with a $25,000 annual salary, the highest of any government employee other than the President.

After 13 months overwhelmed and fearful of Yellow Fever, Wallace resigned abruptly in June, 1905.

The Leaders…..

John Findley Wallace, Chief Engineer (1904 – 1905)


John Frank “Big Smoke” Stevens, Chief Engineer (1905 -1907)

John Frank Stevens was a self-taught American Engineer who built the Great Northern Railway. He was driven with a bull dog tenacity of purpose.

The Leaders…..

At the start of his tenure Stevens did the one thing that Wallace failed to do - stop digging.

Stevens' primary achievement was to build the infrastructure needed for the completion of the canal. "The digging," he said, "is the least thing of all." He proceeded immediately to build warehouses, machine shops, and piers. Communities for employees were planned and built to include housing, schools, hospitals, churches, and hotels.

He authorized extensive sanitation and mosquito-control programs that eliminated yellow fever from the Isthmus.


The Leaders….. Faced with the fact that what concept to adopt for the Panama Canal had yet to be finalized, Stevens argued the case against a sea level canal like the French had tried to build.

He successfully convinced President Theodore Roosevelt of the necessity of a canal built with dams and locks.

“Raise the Waters”


The Leaders…..

As a railroad engineer, Stevens had little expertise in building locks and dams, and probably realized he was no longer the best person for the remainder of the undertaking.

President Roosevelt had decided that U.S. Army engineers should carry out the work, and appointed George Washington Goethals as chief engineer under the direction of Stevens.

In February of 1907, John Stevens resigned. The true reasons for his resignation have never been

conclusively determined.

Stevens saw the early stage of the canal project itself as primarily a problem in railroad engineering requiring:

Rebuilding the Panama Railroad. Devising a rail-based system for disposing of the soil from the excavations. Modifying the railroad route to haul millions of cubic yards of rock and dirt out of

sites, and move tons of equipment from place to place. Allowing workers & their families to go to their work sites and neighboring towns

along the construction route.


The Leaders…..

Monument to John F. Stevens, Balboa, Canal Zone

Steven’s successor, Colonel George Washington Goethals , U.S. Army, in a letter to his son wrote "Mr. Stevens has perfected such an organization ... that there is nothing left for us to do but just have the organization continue in the good work it has done and is doing ... Mr. Stevens has done an amount of work for which he will never get any credit, or, if he gets any, will not get enough ..."

“Eternal Goal Railroad Engineer

of Great Achievements”

“Now, get me someone that can’t quit !!”

The Leaders…..


The Leaders…..

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1858. Graduated West Point in 1880. Lt. Colonel, Chief of Engineers, Spanish

American War. Appointed Chief Engineer of the

Panama Canal Project on March 4, 1907.

Delivered the Canal in 1914, two years ahead of the target date of June 10, 1916 & under budget.

Promoted to Major General by Act of Congress in 1915.

Appointed first Governor of the Panama Canal Zone by President Wilson.

Goethals later wrote that "the real builder of the Panama Canal was Theodore Roosevelt".

Colonel George Washington GoethalsChief Engineer (1907 -1914)


The Leaders….. From this point on, the canal was under a military discipline & control. Used to working within the government's rules, he knew how to get what he needed

quickly. His usual work day started at 7:00 AM and finished around 11:00 PM. Goethals set up a complaint board and on every Sunday workers could come

and state their grievances directly to the Chief Engineer in his office in Culebra . Most of the workers came to respect Goethals and what he did for the organization

of the canal in a very short time.


Responsibilities in the Isthmus extended well beyond construction. He organized a strictly regimented social order, with engineers and designers at the top and workers at the bottom. Each lived in separate communities with separate amenities, with a court system adjudicated by Goethals himself.

Goethals had the ability to manage an incredibly diverse & numerous workforce.

The Leaders….. Goethals supervised all major excavation and construction. He expanded the

proposed canal's size, taking into account U.S. Navy preferences for access, passage, and defense.


"Colonel Goethals proved to be the man of all others to do the job. It would be impossible to overstate what he has done. It is the greatest task of any kind that any man in the world has accomplished during the years that Goethals has been at work. Colonel Goethals has succeeded in instilling into the men under him a spirit which elsewhere has found only in a few victorious armies."

The Leaders…..

November of 1910


The Leaders…..

Elizabeth, N.J. to Staten Island


Graduate of U.S. Military Academy Responsible for Northern division

(Atlantic Side) reporting to Goethals & member of I.C.C. overseeing:

Construction of the massive breakwater at the entrance to Limon Bay

Gatun locks and their 3.5 mile approach channel

Gatun Dam. Promoted in 1915 to rank of Brigadier

General and served in WWI in Europe. In January 1918 became the

commanding General of the US Army Corp of Engineers Southeastern Department located at Charleston, S.C.

The Leaders…..

Colonel William Luther Sibert

The Leaders…..

Colonel Sibert contemplates the construction of the great Gatun Locks


The Leaders…..

Majors Gaillard and Sibert in the living room of Colonel Goethals, May of 1907


Graduate of the VMI with a degree in Civil Engineering Only civilian at this high level reporting to Goethals as

Division Engineer Responsible for Southern Division (Pacific Side):

Entrance to the canal, including the 3 mile breakwater in Panama Bay

Approach channel Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks and their

associated dams. Designed and constructed Pacific Terminal docks,

water supply, sewers, road and streets for the towns of the southern division including the city of Panama

Sydney B. Williamson

The Leaders…..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Panama_Canal_under_construction,_1907.jpg


Gaillard was born in Manning, South Carolina.

He graduated from West Point in 1884.

In 1907 he was placed in charge of construction of the Central Division of the Canal, which included the excavation through the Continental Divide.

He returned to the US and died of a brain tumor on December 5, 1913, nine months before the canal's completion.

The Leaders…..

Colonel David de Bose Gaillard, Chief Engineer, Central Division


The Leaders….. Colonel Gaillard’s death at the time was

widely attributed to a mental breakdown, incurred by long hours of work and exposure in the Canal Zone, where he pitted his skill as an engineer against the shifting soil of the Culebra Cut.

He never knew what a morning was to bring forth. The mammoth rocks, clay, and soil heavily saturated with rain wiped away months of work in a matter of moments in huge slides.

Men who worked with him said he gave 12 hours every day to the Culebra Cut, besides which, he took his share in the labor of general administration of the Canal Zone.

He checked up expenses, even on small things and once it was estimated he had saved the project the substantial sum of $17 million.Colonel Gaillard and his wife enjoy

a few moments of relaxation


In 1998 it was moved to the Administration Building in Balboa, close to the Goethals Memorial.

The Leaders…..

Culebra Cut was renamed Gaillard Cut on April 27, 1915, and a bronze tablet honoring his memory was mounted at a prominent point in the cut in 1928.

Panama Canal - Class #2Major General William Crawford Gorgas

The Leaders….. Born in Alabama in 1854 Father was a General in the Confederate Army Grandfather was a former Governor of Alabama Joined U.S. Army Medical Corp, 1880 Stricken with Yellow Fever while stationed in Texas which left him immune.

In 1898 stationed in Havana, Cuba as Chief Sanitation Officer to direct a control strategy to identify and destroy mosquito breeding eventually eradicating it from Havana.

Posted to the Panama in June 1904 as Chief Medical Officer.

Served in Panama until 1914.

Surgeon General of the Army, 1914-1918

Died in London in 1920.


The Leaders….. Without his science, experience,

and determination, to implement the massive program of prevention, disease and death would have seriously undermined the building of the Panama Canal

“$10.00 Mosquito” story.


Battling Disease



As noted in our first class, regarding the building of the Panama Railroad and the failed French Enterprise (estimated over 22,000 deaths), there were numerous health & safety threats including…..

Typhoid Dysentery Food Poisoning Dengue Fever Accidents Snake Bites

..… but two other extremely lethal diseases existed in Panama as well as many other places across the world

Malaria Yellow Fever

Health…..


Patients with Malaria also experienced chills, headaches, fever, aching, fatigue, and nausea. In the worst cases, malaria caused kidney failure and potentially even coma or death. Unlike survivors of yellow fever, malaria survivors were not immune to recurrences of the disease. Malaria's lower fatality rate and frequent reappearance resulted in frequent hospital stays.

Yellow Fever's gruesome symptoms and high death rate were so horrifying to American canal workers that even a whisper of an outbreak sent boatloads of men fleeing. Early symptoms of yellow fever were headaches, fever, and muscle pain. As the disease progressed, however, the patient experienced jaundice, thirst, and a dark black vomit caused by internal hemorrhaging. Ultimately, the disease could lead to kidney failure, delirium, seizures, coma, and death.

Most West Indian workers were immune to yellow fever, and very few of them were admitted to the hospitals. Victims during the construction of the Panama Railroad, the French Enterprise, and the U.S. Construction Era therefore, were nearly all from North American or European origins.

Health…..


Cuban doctor Carlos Juan Finlay published a paper “The Mosquito Hypothetically Considered as the Transmitting Agent of Yellow Fever” was the first to correctly identify mosquitoes as the ultimate source of the disease in 1891.

Finlay’s theory was initially ridiculed and accepted only when U.S. Army scientists working under Doctor Walter Reed demonstrated that it was correct two decades later.

Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay

U.S. Army Doctors

Health…..


Female Anopheles Female Aedes aegypti

The Disease Vectors

Malaria Yellow Fever

Health…..


Colonel Gorgas arrived in the canal zone as Chief Medical Officer in the Fall of 1904. Gorgas returned to Washington with a $1 million plan to fumigate the isthmus and eradicate the Yellow Fever & Malaria. Officials scoffed at Gorgas' high price tag and his mosquito hypothesis, instead adhering to the prevailing "miasma theory" which stipulated that diseases are carried by bad air or toxins in tropical soil.

President Roosevelt's personal physician privately advised the President……… "If you fall back on the old methods you will fail, just as the French failed. If you back Gorgas you will get your canal."

Health…..


With the support of President Roosevelt and Chief Engineer John Stevens, Gorgas led more than 4,000 workers on his "mosquito brigades" in what would become a year long effort to prevent the insects from depositing their eggs.

Health…..

His “army” of fumigators visited every private home in Panama repeatedly, armed with cleaning agents, insecticide powder, and wire mesh for screen windows and doors.

Teams sprayed drains and cesspools with oil and filled in pools of standing water.

In all, Gorgas' group consumed 120 tons of pyrethrum powder 300 tons of sulfur 600,000 gallons of oil 3,000 garbage cans 4,000 buckets, 1,000 brooms 1,200 fumigation pots


Health…..


Health…..


Health…..

L'Hospital Notre Dame de Canal, Ancon


Health….. Isolation of patients infected with either

Malaria or Yellow Fever was absolutely critical to stopping the transmission of the diseases.


On November 11, 1906, Colonel Gorgas assembled his staff in the morgue of Ancon Hospital where he corrected proclaimed that …

“This is the last Yellow Fever victim you will ever see in Panama.”

Health…..


Yellow Fever was totally eradicated and Malaria death rates were drastically reduced. Death rate in employees dropped from 11.59 per 1,000 in November 1906 to 1.23 per

1,000 in December 1909. Death rate in the total population from a maximum of 16.21 per 1,000 in July 1906 to

2.58 per 1,000 in December 1909.

Health…..


On the 1882 site of an earlier French hospital called L'Hospital Notre Dame de Canal, Ancon Hospital was built in 1904 by the Americans. It was originally built of wood, but was rebuilt in concrete in 1915 and was renamed Gorgas Hospital in 1928.

Health…..


Building the Canal“Let the Dirt Fly”



Building the Canal … In a small ceremony the U.S. formally took control of the French property relating to

the Canal on May 4, 1904, when Lieutenant Jatara O’neel of the U.S. Army was presented with the keys

The newly-created Panama Canal Zone came under the control of the Isthmian Canal Commission during canal construction.


The three most critical construction elements necessary for the successful accomplishment of the final Engineering Concept we looked at earlier included among other things:

Damming the Chagres River to create the largest man made lake in the world & filling it to a height of 85 feet above sea level.

Cutting through the Continental Divide down below the level of new lake (40 feet above sea level).

Constructing a series of Locks to lift ships up to the level of the new lake (85 feet above sea level).

Building the Canal …


Critical Construction Projects

Gatun DamCulebra CutGatun LocksPedro Miguel LocksMiraflores Locks

Madden Dam

Madden Dam



Mighty Chagres River

“The Lion in the Path”


The Chagres River at Gamboa



Gatun dam was constructed with the spoils of the huge excavation projects primarily from the Culebra Cut.


Building the Canal

Gatun Dam was built in Chagres Valley about 6 miles from the coast in the gap between two hills between 1906 and 1913.

It is a huge earthen dam approximately 1.5 miles in length with a width of 2100 feet at its base.



The gates are raised and lowered to maintain the lake at its normal level of 85 feet above sea level and can release up to 49,000 cubic feet of water per second.



Gatun Lake has an area of 164 square miles at a height of 85 feet above sea level storing 183,000,000,000 ft³ of water, which is about as much as the Chagres River brings down in an average year.

Water is the life blood of the Panama Canal supporting twelve locks measuring 110 feet across and 1,050 feet in length.

Each passage through the canal requires 52 million gallons of freshwater equivalent to 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The Chagres would now forever flow into two oceans.




Old Settlements Burned as Lake Gatun Rises - October 1, 1913




When the canal opened in 1914, it became evident that for water management purposes, another dam was needed. Before it was dammed, the Rio Chagres used to flow out to sea all day long.

However, now fresh water was flowing out to the Pacific locks as well. In other words, the demand on the water faucet known as the Chagres River had doubled.


Madden Dam


Construction began in 1931 and was completed in 1935.

The dam was named Madden, after U.S. Congressman Martin B. Madden, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The dam would not only help control the tremendous floods of the Chagres, but also hold water in reserve for periods when traffic through the canal was at its highest point.

Another benefit was the added hydroelectric power it generated for use in the operation of the canal.

Madden Dam is located 250 feet above sea level and retains 29 million cubic feet of water.


Madden Dam





Culebra / Gaillard Cut

Panama Canal - Class #2 "The Big Ditch"





Americans take over excavation of the Culebra Cut, 1904



For the whole length of the Culebra Cut from the surface to the proposed bottom was120 feet with highest point located between Gold and Contractor’s Hills where it was 272 feet.

After the surface topsoil was removed solid rock was struck requiring the use of around 60 million pounds of TNT to blast out a staggering 27 million tons of rock.



Building the Canal … All through the day drills operated by compressed air bore into the rock 24 feet. A small charge was set off in the bottom of these wholes to enlarge them for the final

charge of as much as 200 pounds of TNT.

Then the men quit for the noon hour or 5:00 in the afternoon after which the charges were set off electrically.



While stringent rules were in place for handling TNT, accidental deaths claimed the lives of many workers.

Also numerous workers were struck and killed by falling rocks that were hurled long distances.


On December 12, 1908, twenty-three workers died when 44,000 pounds of dynamite exploded prematurely.

It was the worst accident of the canal project, and happened at Bas Obispo in the Culebra Cut.

These photographs show how one of the gigantic steam shovels was thrown completely across the cut and crushed.





Building the Canal … Each morning the steam shovels

would begin to load the rubble for the dump sites.

A flat car would be loaded in 2 1/2 minutes with 7 scoops full of earth and rock per car.

150 to 175 trainloads with approximately 20 flat cars loaded with spoil from the cut departed daily.








The railroad also transported materials and labor.

In addition, the trains serve as sleeping quarters for workers and pay cars.



American Ingenuity




Slowly but surely the Culebra Cut approaches its required depth of 40 feet above sea level.


The Culebra Cut Strikes Back!!!





Building the Canal …A very destructive slide occurred in 1912 when seventy-five acres of dirt near the town of Culebra broke away. It moved foot by foot into the canal, carrying hotels and club houses down into the valley. It took nearly half a year to repair the damage






Many of the engineers were ready to give it all up. Colonel Goethals was summoned hurriedly to the scene .... "What are we going to do now?" ... he was asked. He calmly looked over the scene, lit a cigarette and replied ...

"Hell, dig it out again." That was his only reply.



July of 1913, the last dipper full of spoil is loaded on the last train leaving the Culebra Cut!




Panama Canal - Class #2February of 1908


Gaillard Cut Looking North

Current View



Contractors Hill

July of 1910

Current View






A large percentage of the excavated material was used to build the great dam at Gatun as well as the reclamation of 400 acres from the ocean at Balboa on the Pacific (southern) entrance to the Canal.


In addition excavation was used in the building of the new Panama railroad, and the new breakwater and causeway to Naos Island.

Panama Canal - Class #2Balboa, Canal Zone











The Locks

Gatun

Pedro MiguelMiraflores



The two Pacific side locks were finished first.

The single step lock at Pedro Miguel in 1911.

The double step lock at Miraflores in May, 1913.

The triple step Gatun Lock was finished by September of 1913.


Construction of a three step lock required for the Panama Canal began at Gatun on the Atlantic side on August 24, 1909.



Huge overhead cableways were constructed to transport concrete into the construction at Gatun.

85 foot high towers were built on the banks of the canal, and cables of 2.5 steel wire were strung between them to span the locks. Buckets running on these cables carried up to six tons of concrete at a time into the locks.



Electric railways were constructed to take stone, sand and cement from the docks to the concrete mixing machines, from where another electric railway carried two 6-ton buckets at a time to the cableways








Building the Canal

More than four and half million cubic yards of concrete went into the construction of the Panama Canal's locks and dams.




Building the Canal


All lock equipment is operated electrically. The whole process of locking a ship is controlled from a central control room, which

is located on the center wall of the upper flight of locks. The controls were designed from the outset to minimize the chances of operator error, and include a complete model of the locks, with moving components which mirror the state of the real lock gates and valves. In this way, the operator can see exactly what state the locks and water valves are in.

Mechanical interlocks are built into the controls to make sure that no component can be moved while another is in an incorrect state such as, opening the drain and fill valves of a lock chamber simultaneously.

Building the Canal


Building the Canal


Building the Canal


November 29, 1953

January , 2011

The famous….

….. and not so famous visiting the Miraflores Locks

Building the Canal


Building the Canal


Building the Canal


The gates range from 47 to 82 feet high, depending on position and are 7 feet thick. The tallest gates are required at Miraflores due to the large tidal range there.

The heaviest leaves weigh 662 tons. The hinges themselves each weigh 36,800 lb.. Gates can only be opened when, in the operating cycle, water level on both sides is

equal.

Building the Canal


Building the Canal Each gate has two leaves, 65 feet wide, which close to a “V”

shape with the point upstream; this arrangement has the effect that the force of water from the higher side pushes the ends of the gates together firmly.


Building the Canal

The original gate machinery consisted of a huge drive wheel, powered by an electric motor, to which was attached a connecting rod, which in turn attached to the middle of the gate.

These mechanisms were replaced with hydraulic struts beginning in January 1998, after 84 years of service.

The gates are hollow and buoyant, much like the hull of a ship, and are so well balanced that two 25 hp., half the power of a Volkswagen Beetle, motors are enough to move each gate leaf.


Building the Canal


Each chamber also contains a pair of auxiliary gates which can be used to divide the chamber in two to provide redundancy in case of catastrophic gate failure

Building the Canal


Building the Canal

An important safety feature was the use of electric locomotives, known as mules, named after the animals traditionally used to pull barges.

Mules are used for side-to-side and braking control in the narrow locks .


Building the Canal


Building the Canal

Forward motion into and through the locks is actually provided by the ship's engines. Ships approaching the locks pull up to the guide wall, which is an extension of the center wall of the locks, where she is taken under control by the mules on the wall before proceeding into the first chamber.

With large ships, there are two mules on each side at the bow, and two each side at the stern for a total of eight .


mules

Building the Canal


Building the Canal


Building the Canal




October 10, 1913

Blowing the Earthen Dam at Gamboa



The initial detonation was set off telegraphically by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC.



Once the water from the Chagres was freed to flow southward into the Culebra Cut, its water now essentially connected both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans !




However, that meant dealing with the never ending series of slides in the Gaillard Cut that had to cleaned up by dredges.






Cucaracha Slide December of 1913



After creeping 13 feet in the previous four years, the eastern Side of the Cucaracha Slide reactivated in October of 1986 spilling over 500,000 cubic yards into the cut.


Opening of the Canal



Isthmian Canal Commission, Culebra, August of 1910

Opening of the Canal….

Maurice ThatcherColonel Goethals Colonel Gorgas

Lt. Col. Gaillard

Lt. Col. Sibert

Joseph Bishop Rear Admiral Rouseau Lt. Col. Hodges


Isthmian Canal Commission, Culebra, August of 1910


Maurice ThatcherColonel Goethals Colonel Gorgas

Lt. Col. Gaillard

Lt. Col. Sibert

Joseph Bishop Rear Admiral Rouseau Lt. Col. Hodges


As construction tailed off, the canal team began to disperse. Thousands of workers were laid off. Entire towns (Culebra, Empire, Gorgona…) were either disassembled and relocated or demolished.

Colonel Gorgas left to help fight pneumonia in the South African gold mines and went on to become Surgeon General of the Army.

On April 1, 1914, the Isthmian Canal Commission ceased to exist and the Canal Zone came under the administration of a new Canal Zone Governor. The first holder of this office was Colonel George Goethals.



Opening of the Canal…


Opening of the Canal…


The seagoing tug Gatun, an Atlantic entrance working tug used for hauling barges, had the honor on September 26, 1913, of making the first trial lockage of Gatun Locks under the watchful eye of Colonel Goethals.




Opening of the Canal…. Test run at Pedro Miguel Locks on October 24, 1913 as part of

the dredging fleet was moved from the Pacific entrance to the Culebra Cut.


On January 7, 1914, the Alexandre La Valley, an old French crane boat, became the first ship to make a complete transit of the Panama Canal under its own steam, having worked its way across in the final stages of construction.

At the time no one seemed to notice the irony of the first vessel being French, which been left behind after the collapse of the Enterprise.



SS Advance entering Pedro Miguel Locks,

August 9, 1914

Opening of the Canal


Gatun Locks

The Panama Railway steamship SS Ancon, piloted by Captain John A. Constantine, the Canal's first pilot, made the first official transit of the canal on August 15, 1914.

Miraflores Locks

Panama Canal - Class #2 Passing the Cucaracha Slide


On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, were shot dead in Sarajevo, Serbia.



A grand celebration was originally planned for August 15 of 1914, the official opening of the canal, befitting so great an effort which had aroused strong emotions.

The outbreak of World War I, July 28 of 1914, forced cancellation of the main festivities and the grand opening became a modest local affair.

Tests - 1913


There were no international dignitaries in attendance

Colonel Goethals followed the S.S. Ancon from shore, by railroad.

U.S.S. Ohio, July 16, 1915 passing the Cucaracha Slide in the Gaillard Cut.





Miraflores Locks Opening of the Canal….

Pedro Miguel Locks Opening of the Canal….

Gatun Locks Opening of the Canal….


Presidential Visits President Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

President William Howard Taft



Before he became the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt had been a governor, historian, adventurer, police chief, cavalryman, cowboy, explorer, hunter, naturalist, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, author of 35 books, conservationist, and much more.

Presidential Visits ….

While campaigning for a third term the then former President Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest in Milwaukee, WI on Oct 14, 1912 on the way to give a speech.. Fortunately his eyeglass case and the folded speech were in the path of the bullet.

Since he wasn't coughing blood afterwards, he figured he was fine and delivered his planned two hour speech before seeking medical attention.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExpansionPackPast




At Ancon, construction of the big three-story frame hotel called the Tivoli Guest House, a structure begun the year before but still far from finished, rushed ahead with all speed as soon as Stevens learned of the visit. One wing of the building was finished and furnished in six weeks.

His enthusiasm for the Panama Canal project led him to see it for himself on November 14 – 17,1906.

This was the first trip outside the United States by a sitting President.

USS Louisiana

Tivoli Hotel (Guest House)


During the first day of his visit the President toured the bay on the Pacific side in a tug boat and then popped in for a surprise visit and lunch at an employee mess hall instead of showing up for the luncheon in his honor at the Tivoli Guest House.


President & Mrs. Roosevelt , La Boca Mess Hall


Presidential Visits …. Secret service men

frantically scurried around trying to keep up as he dashed around the Canal Zone.

He waved his hat and flashed his toothy smile at the workers & children lined up to wave flags as he passed.


Presidential Visits …. The President & Mrs. Roosevelt took the site-seeing train to Culebra Cut where he

walked the railway ties. He was continuously pointing out the things he wanted to see, even going so far as to inquire of workers if they had any complaints.

In his enthusiasm he inspected everything from dam sites, to steam shovels, to kitchens, to military troops.

Panama Canal - Class #295 ton Bucyrus Steam Shovel at Pedro Miguel



To Kermit:

We were in Panama three days and we worked from morning till night. The second day I was up at a quarter to six and got to bed at a quarter of twelve, and I do not believe that in the intervening time, save when I was dressing, there were ten consecutive minutes when I was not busily at work in some shape or form. For two days there were uninterrupted tropic rains without a glimpse of the sun, and the Chagres River rose in a flood, higher than any for fifteen years; so that we saw the climate at its worst. It was just what I desired to do.

To Ted:

In the next place it is a tremendous sight to see the work on the canal going on. From the chief engineer and the chief sanitary officer down to the last arrived machinist or time-keeper, the five thousand Americans at work on the Isthmus seemed to me an exceptionally able, energetic lot, some of them grumbling, of course, but on the whole a mighty good lot of men.



President Theodore Roosevelt died January 6 of 1919.

Ironically, the man more responsible for its building never saw the Panama Canal in operation.



Presidential Visits …. Goethals had met with President Taft and convinced him to make a visit to the Canal

Zone as there were critical decisions that had to be made such as: Future fortifications Fixing of tolls Improved wages Management of the Panama Railroad Sale of coal Forming a permanent government for the Panama Canal Zone

President Taft Arrives in the Canal Zone

President William Howard Taft left Charleston, S.C. on November 10, 1910 aboard the USS cruiser North Carolina accompanied by the USS cruiser Montana.

USS North Carolina



President Taft & Colonel GoethalsCulebra - November, 1910

President & Mrs. Taft arriving at Culebra, C.Z.




Education

Panama Canal Course Day 2 final