Canal Will Be Clear For Ships Next Year.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 18, 1912:
Summer or Fall Will See a Vessel Pass Through from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
DAMAGE BY LANDSLIDES
Cause 6,000,000 More Yards of Excavation — $322,541,468 So Far Appropriated for Waterway.
    WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.— Sometime next Summer or Fall, no exact date being specified, a vessel will pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific across what is now the Isthmus of Panama, which consequently must disappear, as the western hemisphere will be then physically divided into two continents. The vessel will be one of the many small water craft in daily use by the canal builders, and probably its only passengers will be Col. George W. Goethals and the staff of American engineers who for the last eight years have been carrying on the great work. It will be later than that — anywhere from six months to a year, perhaps — before the formal opening of the waterway will take place, and a naval fleet, headed by the famous old Oregon, will pass through into the western ocean, when the canal will be said to be open to trade.
    These facts are not of official record yet. The date of Jan. 1, 1915, still stands for the opening, as predicted by Col. Goethals. But that the opening will be anticipated to a great extent has been promised by the canal builders in unofficial statements, and now comes a clear intimation of their purpose to advance the opening date, in the annual report of the Canal Commission, just published. It is disclosed that though the great locks cannot be completed by Jan. 1 next, owing to contract delays, within six months thereafter the channel will be finished, while, to insure the safe passage of the locks, the contractor has been called upon to finish the gates in one flight first, so that if the rest of the work is in condition passage of ships can be permitted without waiting for the completion of the other flights. This statement will be understood when it is known that the great locks are being built in duplicate, side by side, not only to add to the capacity of the canal, but to insure its continuation in operation in case of a serious accident to a ship in one of the locks.
    The report shows a most satisfactory state of progress of the whole work, though, in view of the fact that it is dated Sept. 10 last, the figures regarding excavation, placing of concrete, erection of dams and locks, and subsidiary works are not as recent as those contained in the regular monthly reports.
    Naturally, the most interesting feature of the report relates to the operations in the Culebra Cut. Here great landslides, many ranking with an Alpine avalanche in magnitude, have so increased the amount of material to be excavated that were it not found possible to reduce steadily the cost per yard of dredging and steam shoveling, through the growing skill of the employes and improved engineering methods, the total cost of excavation would be much greater than the estimates. Last year nearly 16,500,000 cubic yards of earth were taken out of this cut, leaving nearly 12,000,000 to be displaced before the canal can be opened. The damage caused by the slides may be appreciated from the fact that nearly 6,000,000 yards of earth excavated was so composed, or nearly 36 per cent, of the total excavation.
    There is only one way to deal with these slides, and that is to dig them out as they occur, though some help is gained by terracing the upper banks. That is because the geological formation changes so frequently and suddenly that no other effective treatment has been found. So unstable is the earth that the material in one part of the cut begins to move on an inclination as low as 1 on 7, owing to the mass of stratified rock sliding over a layer of lignite. One slide now in motion, near the bridge of Culebra, covers an area of 63 acres, from which 2,710,000 yards have already been removed, leaving l,300,000 still to be handled. Then there is another slide of no less than 50 acres on the opposite side of the canal. The result of these earth movements, which are quite exceptional in engineering practice, has been to leave the canal, in its deepest portions, with very flat slopes. The encouraging feature of the heavy work at that point is found in the statement in the report "that none of the slides which occurred during the year would have interfered with the passage of ships had the canal been in operation."
    Already the appropriations made by Congress for the canal have run into big figures, the total up to June 30 last being $293,561,408, and since that date there have been additional appropriations, exclusive of those for fortifications, amounting to $28,980,000, making the grand total $322,541,468. The engineers had expended, on June 30, 69 per cent. of the total estimated cost of the canal.
    Of even greater interest, from an engineering point of view, than the vast but commonplace work of excavation in the Culebra Cut, was the work of constructing the great locks at Gatun, Miraflores, and Pedro Miguel, for many novel problems have been solved and lock machinery constructed of special designs of a magnitude never before heard of. For instance, so big are the valves at the side of the locks that a test showed that it required a pull of over ten tons on the stem to open one of these valves. All this work is done electrically, and here again the engineers confronted new difficulties. Owing to the peculiar climatic conditions on the Isthmus, with tropical heat and extreme humidity, and the deteriorating effect of these conditions on the insulation of electrical machinery, the ordinary insulation proved unreliable, and the engineers found it necessary to make a great number of experiments, no less than sixteen sample motors being pitted against one another. It was a great test for dynamo and motor builders to have their machines required to operate for a period of ten days in a building filled with steam at a temperature of 50 degrees centigrade, and having five motor cases filled with water for five hours at 30 degrees. But finally the American motor builders responded and suitable apparatus is now being installed, Thus, electric motors under tests are now swinging the great gates of the canal, each weighing very many tons and, as tall and broad as a sky-scraping building, in the remarkable time of 1 minute and 48 seconds. Incidentally, it appears that, to make these gates, the ironworkers must drive and head 5,750,000 rivets. The pivots of these great locks are being made of a special grade of steel and bronze, not only for strength, but to protect them against corrosion, a necessary precaution in view of the fact that they will always be submerged in sea water after the canal is open. To guard against galvanic action, zinc rings are also placed on the bronze bushings.
    To supply the power to operate the gates and sluice valves in the locks and furnish current for the monster electric locomotives which are to tow the steamships through the locks, a great hydroelectric station is being erected adjacent to the spillway in Gatun Dam. There are three 2,250-kilowatt water turbines, and three 2,000-kilowatt generators, with suitable exciters and other auxiliaries. There will be enough available water from the storage in Lake Gatun to warrant the installation of 6,000 kilowatts, though in the dry season it will be necessary to draw upon the storage. Altogether, it is figured that for this electric work 7 per cent. of the minimum water system of the Canal will be required. A part of the electricity is to be used for lighting the line of the canal. There will be concrete lamp posts 100 feet apart throughout the entire length of each lock wall. Altogether 7,000 lamps will be installed at the locks.
    Outside of the canal proper, the report shows that work has been going on rapidly in preparing harbors for the shelter of ships at each end of the waterway. The work of fortification has also been progressing well, nearly half a million yards of concrete having been placed in the mortar pits and gun emplacements last year. The sanitation of the Isthmus also has been maintained at the high level set by Col. William C. Georgas, the Chief Sanitary Officer, from the beginning. Contrary to common impression, the sanitary work in the way of clearing land does not extend over the entire Zone, but less than 1,200 of the 278,848 acres in the tract are kept clear for sanitary purposes, and almost the entire Zone is in its original condition as regards brush and jungle.