Big Blast Admits Pacific To Canal.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 19, 1913:
32,750 Pounds of Dynamite Shot to Destroy Dam Near Miraflores.
JAR FELT FIVE MILES OFF
Panama City Gets Shock Like Earthquake — Thousands Watch Inrush of the Ocean.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PANAMA, May 18.— With a jolt that was felt in this city, five miles away, a mighty blast of dynamite at 10 o'clock this morning let the Pacific Ocean into the Panama Canal. The roar that preceded the rush of the western waters into the channel was followed by cheers from several thousand persons who watched the work from the hills.
    It was to dispose of the dike south of Miraflores Locks that the big blast was set off. The engineers exploded 32,750 pounds of dynamite that had been loaded into 236 holes. So excellently was the task carried out that all those 236 loads were shot like one.
    The jar felt in Panama City was like a slight earthquake. All the buildings in the city thrilled with the vibrations.
    The dike had dammed the waters of Ancon Harbor in the Gulf of Panama on the Pacific, until the United States engineers practically finished excavating a long stretch of the canal near Miraflores. The time set for its destruction was made public yesterday, and the appointed hour found thousands of American visitors, Zone residents and other sightseers swarming the hillsides to see this important step toward completion of the big waterway.
     All the charges had been set at sunset last evening. Throughout the night the immense quantity of dynamite was under heavy guard. No one except the engineers and their assistants was permitted to pass the sentry lines.
    Representatives of 12,000 United States citizens in the Canal Zone met yesterday and decided to have the celebration of Independence Day in Cristobal.
    Special to The New York Times. WASHINGTON, May 18.— News that the giant blast admitting the waters of the Pacific to the Panama Canal had been shot near Miraflores this morning was taken to Major C. K. Boggs in the office of the Isthmian Canal Commission by the correspondent of The New York Times. Major Boggs is in charge of the commission's office in this city. He has not yet received an official report on the blasting away of the canal dike.
    The Major said that a stage had been reached in the work where it was considered advisable to blast out one of the dams erected to hold back the water during the progress of excavation between the upper locks at Pedro Miguel and the lower locks at Miraflores, on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. He explained that the excavating work in the canal prism between the locks had been under way "in the dry."
    The zone of dredging operations at the Pacific end of the canal was to be extended this month to include the section between the two big earth dikes south of Miraflores locks. Originally it was planned to excavate the material remaining in this section by steam shovels. But as the dredges had practically finished their work in the Pacific entrance in April, they became available for use between the dikes south of Miraflores.