The electric towing locomotive system was designed to provide complete control over the movement of vessels transiting the locks. Designed by Schildhauer, the locomotives work on track built atop the lock walls operating at a speed of about 2 miles per hour. An important design factor was that they have to travel the 45-degree incline between the lock chambers. The locomotives were built in Schenectady, New York, at a unit cost of $13,000.
Schildhauer also designed the basic concept of the locks control system, though its development was a joint effort with General Electric. All lock operation is accomplished from a control house built on the center wall of the upper lock chamber. Here, from an unobstructed view of the entire locks flight and a cleverly designed control board, a single person can run every operation in the passage of a ship, except towing locomotive movement.
A control board is a waist-high working representation of the locks in miniature. Everything that happens in the locks happens on the control board at precisely the same time. The switches to work the lock gates and the other system mechanisms are located beside the representation of that devise on the control board. To lift a huge oceangoing ship in a lock chamber, the operator has only to turn a small chrome handle.
Another ingenious parts of the system are elaborate racks of interlocking bars installed unseen below the control board to make the switches mechanically interlock. Each handle must be turned in proper sequence or it will not turn. This eliminates the possibility of doing anything out of order or forgetting a step.
Only in an electrically run system could the locks have been controlled from a central point. An individual motor in the system can be located as much as half a mile away from the control board. This same system has been in use virtually unchanged for more than eight decades, and it still works perfectly.
The Pacific-side locks were finished first, the single flight at Pedro Miguel second in 1911 and Miraflores in May of 1913. Exceptionally high morale permeated the entire work force at this time. On May 20, 1913, shovels No. 222 and No. 230, which had been slowly narrowing the gap in Culebra Cut, met on the bottom of the Canal. At 40 feet above sea level, the Cut had reached its full construction-era depth.
Guard gates at Gatun performed flawlessly the second week of June 1913, and on June 27, the last of the Gatun Dam spillway gates was closed, allowing the lake to now rise to full height. Dry excavation ended three months later. When a January 1913 slide at Cucaracha spilled 2,000,000 cubic yards of earth into the Cut, it was decided to flood the Cut and finish the clearing by dredge. The last steam shovel lifted the last rock in the cut on the morning of September 10, 1913, to be hauled out on the last dirt train by locomotive No. 260.
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. The lockage went perfectly, although all valves were controlled manually since the central control board was still not ready.
As if to further test the system, an earthquake struck on September 30, knocking seismograph needles off the scale at Ancon. Although there were landslides in the interior and cracked walls in some Panama City buildings, Gorgas reported to Washington that there had been no damage whatever to any part of the Canal.
Six big pipes in the earthen dike at Gamboa flooded Culebra Cut that same week. Then, on October 10, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in Washington and relayed by telegraph from Washington to New York to Galveston to Panama the signal that blew the center of the dike to complete the flooding of the Cut and join it to Gatun Lake.
Dredges, tugs, barges and crane boats that had been laboring in the sea level approaches of the Canal and in the two terminal bays, much of it left behind by the French, were now brought in to clear the Cut. Barges dumped the spoil in designated areas of Gatun Lake, all in the manner that Philippe Bunau-Varilla had long ago said it should be done. Floodlights installed in the Cut allowed around the clock work. The old French ladder dredge Marmot made the pioneer cut through the Cucaracha slide on December 10, 1913, to open the channel for the first time.
Government of the Canal Zone
Until 1979 the United States governed the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal Company, which operated the canal, was a corporation. Like a business corporation in the United States, the company had a president and a board of directors. It delivered annual reports to its “stockholder,” and its net income was referred to as “profit.”
The United States Army administered the canal and the zone surrounding it. The secretary of the Army was designated as the sole stockholder. The governor of the Canal Zone was a major general and was appointed by the president of the United States. He was also ex officio president of the Panama Canal Company. He was assisted by various department heads, which administered nearly all requirements of more than 10,000 full-time United States and Panamanian employees of the zone.
The Panama Canal Company formerly operated several 10,000-ton ocean liners, comprising the Panama Line. These ships regularly carried government and commercial cargo and passengers between New York City and Cristobal. In 1960, however, the United States government ordered the line to stop competing with private ships. After April 1961 only one ship was retained. It carried government cargo and passengers between New Orleans and Cristobal.
An American family accompanying a Panama Canal employee found life in the zone not unfamiliar. The Canal Zone government tried to establish a pattern of living like that in the United States. There were differences, however. The zone was essentially a government reservation, operated by the United States Army. There was no private enterprise in the zone. Americans made their purchases in government commissaries. The government Health Bureau provided hospitals and dental and medical clinics for the Americans. There was a wide variety of recreation. Much of it centered in government-operated clubhouses. Children of United States citizens went to public elementary and secondary schools and a junior college. Other children attended Latin American schools.
A new treaty, which became effective on Oct. 1, 1979, changed the governance of the area surrounding the canal. The Panama Canal Zone ceased to exist as a separate jurisdiction, and the area came under the control of the Panamanian government. The United States retained the use of only that land necessary to the operation and defense of the canal. The Panama Canal Commission, an agency with both United States and Panamanian membership, replaced the Panama Canal Company. The United States flag could be flown only at the commission’s headquarters and at other specified locations. Panama began to assume the governing responsibilities of the former Panama Canal Company. Although Americans employed by the commission continued to have the protection given to United States citizens abroad, they became subject to Panamanian law.
Even though the Canal has brought Panama economical wealth since the beginning, it has also created pain and shame. Some examples are the following:
· The Panamanian political system has been controlled and directed by the United States. Many Panamanian Presidents had been deposed, appointed, even assassinated for not following the line . An example is President Remon
· The US always used the Canal Zone as a military cover to control must of the Latin American countries in their political behavior, creating lots of pressure for Panama.
· Panama s independence was not the result of the will of Panamanians. It was solely the interest of the US in building the canal. Thus, Panamanians does not have a clear identity, they are not proud of their history, etc. This means that Panamanians didn t fight for their independence because the U.S. fought for them and all they did was look as the Colombians couldn t do anything.
· Now that the US has left Panama, its economy is suffering Panama was not ready to sustain its economy without the capital flow of thousands of thousands US employees and soldiers that boosted the economy by their consumption needs.
This report is very important because as many people know the idea of building a Dry Canal in Nicaragua has been on everyone s lips lately. This report should serve as a demonstration about what happened to Panama by giving up the land to build the canal. We must ask ourselves every question before we build a canal. Is it worth it? How much money will it create in contrast to what it consumes? The Panama Canal has many pros for Panama, but it also brought cons as was explained, and many other problems will appear in the future for Panama so is it really worth it building a canal in Nicaragua?