CRANES (MACHINE HISTORY)
ORIGINS OF THE MODERN DAY CRANE
A crane is a lifting machine
equipped with a winder, wire ropes or chains and sheaves that can be
used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. Put
in basic terms, it uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical
advantage to enable the movement of loads beyond the normal capability
of a human. The principles of operation of today's CRANE EQUIPMENT is
taken for granted, however, we thought you might be interested in
learning a bit about the history of the Crane and its development into
the modern age of technology.
CRANE EQUIPMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL
The Panama Canal is a ship canal which joins the
Caribbean Sea to the Pacific ocean. One of the largest and most
difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an enormous
impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and
treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the
southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San
Francisco via the canal travels 9,500 km (6,000 mi), well under half the
22,500 km (14,000 mi) route around Cape Horn. Although the concept of a
canal near Panama dates back to the early 16th century, the first
attempt to construct a canal began in 1880 under French leadership.
After this attempt failed and 21,900 workers died, the project of
building a canal was attempted and completed by the United States in the
early 1900s, with the canal opening in 1914. The building of the 77 km
(48 mi) canal was plagued by problems, including disease (particularly
malaria and yellow fever) and landslides. By the time the canal was
completed, a total of 27,500 workmen are estimated to have died in the
French and American efforts.
The history of the Panama Canal goes back almost
to the earliest explorers of the Americas. The narrow land bridge
between North and South America offered a unique opportunity to create a
water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This potential
was recognised by the earliest colonists of Central America, and schemes
for such a canal were floated several times in the subsequent years.
By the late 1800s, technological advances and commercial pressure
advanced to the point where construction started in earnest. An initial
attempt by France to build a sea-level canal failed, but only after a
great amount of excavation was carried out. This was of use to the
effort by the United States which finally resulted in the present Panama
Canal in 1914. Along the way, the nation of Panama was created through
its separation from Colombia in 1903. Today, the canal continues to be
not only a viable commercial venture, but also a vital link in world
shipping
CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANAL
(THE FRENCH ATTEMPT) 1882 - 1900
Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1894)
 Ferdinand
de Lesseps was born on 19 November 1805 into a family of French
career-diplomats. He was responsible for the construction of the Suez
Canal. De Lesseps was no engineer - his achievement lay in
organising the necessary political and financial backing, and providing
the technical support necessary for such a huge project. Construction
began in April 1859, and the Suez Canal was opened in November 1869.
In his 74th year, de Lesseps began to plan a new canal in Panama.
In 1879 an international congress was held in Paris, which not only
chose the route for the Panama Canal, but appointed de Lesseps as leader
of the undertaking.
The French, under Ferdinand de Lesseps, began construction on a
sea-level canal (i.e., without locks) through what was then Colombia's
province of Panama, on January 1st, 1880. The French began work in a
rush with insufficient prior study of the geology and hydrology of the
region. In addition, disease, particularly malaria and yellow fever,
sickened and killed vast numbers of employees, ranging from laborers to
top directors of the French company.
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Public health measures were ineffective because the role of the mosquito
as a disease vector was then unknown. These conditions made it
impossible to maintain an experienced work force as fearful technical
employees quickly returned to France. Even the hospitals contributed to
the problem, unwittingly providing breeding places for mosquitoes inside
the unscreened wards.
Actual conditions were hushed-up in France to avoid recruitment
problems. In 1893, after a great deal of work, the French scheme was
abandoned due to disease and the sheer difficulty of building a
sea-level canal, as well as lack of French field experience, such as
downpours causing steel equipment to rust. The high toll from disease
was one of the major factors in the failure; as many as 22,000 workers
were estimated to have died during the main period of French
construction (1881–1889).
 After
seven years of fighting diseases and problems of the jungle terrain, De
Lesseps had to admit a sea level canal was not feasible.
Nevertheless, de Lesseps resumed excavation in 1894 but was forced to
abandon the project at the turn of the century. His hope of becoming the
digger of the "Big Ditch" vanished, as an immense financial scandal
involving corruption of politicians and financiers in France left the
company bankrupt.
A French court found de Lesseps and his son Charles guilty of
mismanagement. Both were heavily fined and sentenced to imprisonment. In
the event, de Lesseps did not go to jail, but his son paid for his
elderly father's errors in judgement with a year in prison. De Lesseps
died on 7 December 1894.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANAL 1901 -1914
(THE UNITED STATES INTERVENTION)
In 1898 the chief of the French Canal Syndicate (a group that owned
large swathes of land across Panama), Philippe Bunau-Varilla, hired
William Nelson Cromwell (of the US law firm Sullivan & Cromwell) to
lobby the US Congress to build a canal across Panama.
Philippe
Bunau-Varilla (1859 - 1940)
 Bunau-Varilla
was born on July 26, 1859 in Paris, France. After graduating at age 20
from the acclaimed École Polytechnique, he remained in France for three
years. In 1862 he abandoned his career in public works at the École
nationale des ponts et chaussées and traveled to Panama. He arrived at
the isthmus in 1884, newly employed with Ferdinand de Lesseps's Panama
Canal Company. Within a year he was promoted to the chief position of
general management of the organization and food.
After the Panama Canal Company went bankrupt in 1888 amidst charges of
fraud, Bunau-Varilla was left stranded in Panama. He began the difficult
search for a new
opportunity for canal construction. When the New Panama Canal Company
sprang up back in his native France, Bunau-Varilla sailed home, having
purchased a large amount of stock. However, as de Lesseps' company had
before, the New Panama Canal Company soon abandoned efforts to build the
canal, selling the land in Panama to the United States, in hopes that
the company would not fail entirely. The U.S. President then was Grover
Cleveland, an anti-imperialist who avoided the canal issue. With the
ascension of a more opportunistic leader, Theodore Roosevelt, canal
planning resumed in the United States.
Philippe Bunau-Varilla, was a French engineer and soldier. With the
assistance of American lobbyist and lawyer William Nelson Cromwell,
Bunau-Varilla greatly influenced the United States decision concerning
the construction site for the famed Panama Canal. Through
extensive lobbying of businessmen, government officials, and the
American public, Bunau-Varilla successfully convinced the U.S. Senate to
appropriate $40 million to the New Panama Canal Company in the form of
the Spooner Act of 1902.
Although his company was now in possession of a vast sum of money with
which to build the canal, there still remained the issue of Colombian
governmental cooperation. When a treaty between the South American power
and the United States fell apart in the Senate, Bunau-Varilla began
drawing up war plans with Panamanian juntas in New York.
By the eve of the war for Panamanian independence, the wily French
engineer had already drafted the isthmian nation's constitution, flag,
and military establishment, and promised to float the entire government
on his own checkbook. Although prepared for a small-scale civil war,
Bunau-Varilla was relieved that the affair amounted to little more than
the incidental killing of a Chinese civilian and the death of a donkey.
As promised, President Roosevelt, on the
conjectured day of battle, interposed a U.S. naval fleet between the
Colombian forces south of the isthmus and Panamanian separatists.
Bunau-Varilla, as Panama's Ambassador to the United States invested with
plenipotentiary powers by President Amador, later entered into
negotiations without formal consent of the Government of Panama with the
American Secretary of State John
 Hay,
establishing the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which gave control of the
Panama Canal to the US.
No Panamanians signed the treaty although Bunau-Varilla was present as
the diplomatic representative of Panama (a role he had purchased through
financial assistance to the rebels), despite the fact he had not lived
in Panama for seventeen years before the incident, and he never
returned.
In November 1903, Phillipe Bunau-Varilla, Panama's ambassador to the
United States, signed the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, granting rights to
the United States to build and indefinitely administer the Panama Canal.
The United States, under President Theodore Roosevelt (with John Frank
Stevens as Chief Engineer from 1905–1907), bought out the French
equipment and excavations for US$40 million and began work on May 4,
1904.
A quite esteemed and recognised statesmen by World War I, Bunau-Varilla
served as an officer in the French army and subsequently parted with a
leg at the Battle of Verdun. As an elder lobbyist, he still pursued his
life's primary fancy and worked to promote altering the canal from a
lock system to a sea-level waterway. He died in Paris, France on May
18th, 1940.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
 Theodore
Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in a four-story brownstone at 28
East 20th Street, in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City,
the second of four children of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878) and
Mittie Bulloch (1835–1884). Theodore's father was a New York City
philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the family glass-importing firm
Roosevelt and Son. He was a prominent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and
the Union effort during the American Civil War. His mother Mittie
Bulloch was a Southern belle from a slave-owning family in Roswell,
Georgia and had quiet Confederate sympathies. From his
grandparents' home, the young Roosevelt witnessed Abraham Lincoln's
funeral procession when it came through New York.
The Roosevelts had been in New York since the mid-17th century.
Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family; by the 19th century, the
family had grown in wealth, power and influence from the profits of
several businesses including hardware and plate-glass importing. The
family was strongly Democratic in its political affiliation until the
mid-1850s, then joined the new Republican Party.
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. A
leader of the Republican Party and of the Progressive Party, he was a
Governor of New York and a professional historian, naturalist, explorer,
hunter, author, and soldier. He is most famous for his personality: his
energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, his model of
masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. Originating from a story from one
of Roosevelt's hunting expeditions, teddy bears are named after him.
 As
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt prepared for and advocated
war with Spain in 1898. He organised and helped command the 1st U.S.
Volunteer Cavalry Regiment—the Rough Riders—during the Spanish-American
War. Returning to New York as a war hero, he was elected governor. An
avid writer, his 35 books include works on outdoor life, natural
history, the American frontier, political history, naval history, and
his autobiography.
The popular acclaim that carried Teddy Roosevelt to the governorship of
New York didn't stop there. In 1900, Republicans nominated Teddy as
President McKinley's running mate. McKinley won a second term, and Teddy
was sworn in as vice-president. Six months later, an assassin's bullet
killed McKinley.
At
age 42, Theodore Roosevelt became the nation's youngest president.
He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he vigorously
led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a
strong foreign policy.
As of 2009, he remains the youngest person to become President of the
United States. Roosevelt has been consistently ranked by scholars
as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents. Theodore and Franklin D.
Roosevelt were fifth cousins but were close and Theodore gave away his
orphaned niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, in marriage to "cousin Franklin" in
1905.
 After
the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt entered the White House. A friend of Captain Mahan,
Roosevelt quickly declared his support for an isthmus canal.
Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) was a United
States Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and educator. His ideas on the
importance of sea power influenced navies around the world, and helped
prompt naval buildups
 before World War I. Several ships were named USS
Mahan, including the lead vessel of a class of destroyers. His research
into naval history led to his most important work, The Influence of
Seapower Upon History, 1660-1783, published in 1890.
A commission appointed by McKinley had already recommended a route
across Nicaragua. A long believer in Captain Mahan's theory of sea
power, Roosevelt began to revitalise the navy. Now that America's empire
stretched from the Caribbean across the Pacific, the old idea of a canal
between the two oceans took on new urgency. Mahan had predicted that
"the canal will become a strategic center of the most vital importance,"
and Teddy agreed. "The canal," Roosevelt said, "was by far the
most important action I took in foreign affairs during the time I was
President. When nobody could or would exercise efficient authority, I
exercised it."
(See previous) At this point, a dynamic
Frenchman arrived in Washington to revive the ill-fated canal in Panama.
Philippe Bunau-Varilla had worked on the French canal project as the
chief engineer. He held shares in the reorganised company that owned all
the assets of the failed French enterprise in Panama. Bunau-Varilla told
Roosevelt that the company would sell its land rights, buildings,
equipment, railroad, and 11 miles of excavated canal for $40 million.
Roosevelt could not pass up this deal and he began to negotiate with
Colombia for control of the land. He offered $10 million for a
fifty-mile strip across the isthmus. Colombia refused. "We were
dealing with a government of irresponsible bandits," Roosevelt
stormed. "I was prepared to at once occupy the Isthmus anyhow, and
proceed to dig the canal. But I deemed it likely that there would be a
revolution in Panama soon." Teddy was right.
The Panama Revolution
In 1903, the United States negotiated a treaty with Colombia that
granted the United States the right to construct and operate a canal for
100 years within a zone six-miles wide across Panama. Because of
uncertainty over its sovereignty (supreme political authority) in the
canal zone, Colombia’s senate refused to ratify the treaty.
 On
November 2, the U.S. warship Nashville with 500 Marines aboard docked at
Colon on the Caribbean side of Panama. The
appearance of the Nashville was all the revolutionaries needed to launch
a bloodless takeover of Panama.
Colombian troops in Colon left after the officer in charge received
a bribe advanced by the American superintendent of the Panama Railroad.
More U.S. gunboats and Marines soon arrived in Panama.
Barely three days after the revolt began, the United States
recognised the Republic of Panama. The revolutionary government
appointed Bunau-Varilla to negotiate a canal treaty with the United
States in exchange for American protection of the newly independent
nation.
 Roosevelt’s
secretary of state, John Hay, proposed an American-controlled canal zone
10-miles wide across Panama “in perpetuity” (forever).
To secure rapid ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate,
Bunau-Varilla made
the treaty even sweeter for the Americans.
He proposed a provision granting the United States “all the rights,
power, and authority within the zone . . . [as] if it were the
sovereign.” In effect, Bunau-Varilla agreed to give away Panama’s
sovereignty over its own territory.
Hay and Bunau-Varilla signed the canal
treaty on November 18, 1903. It gave the United States the right to
construct and operate a canal “in perpetuity” for $10 million, an annual
payment of $250,000, and a guarantee of Panama’s independence. No
Panamanians had participated in the negotiations. While surprised at the
treaty’s provisions, the new government in Panama quickly ratified it,
fearing the United States might make another deal with Colombia or even
Nicaragua.
Roosevelt ordered army engineers to start digging. Thousands of workers
sweated in the malarial heat. They tore up jungles and cut down
mountains. Insects thrived in muddy, stagnant pools. "Mosquitoes get
so thick you get a mouthful with every breath," a worker complained.
The mosquitoes also carried yellow fever, and many fell victim to the
deadly disease before Dr. William Gorgas found a way to stop it.
Some Americans did not approve of Roosevelt's behavior. "There was much
accusation about my having acted in an 'unconstitutional' manner," Teddy
shrugged. "I took the isthmus, started the canal, and then left
Congress -- not to debate the canal, but to debate me. . . . While the
debate goes on, the canal does too; and they are welcome to debate me as
long as they wish, provided that we can go on with the canal."
 Work
did go on. Despite lethal landslides, workers with dynamite and clumsy
steam shovels cut their way across a continent. They built a railroad,
three sets of concrete locks, and a huge artificial lake. Nine years
later the freighter Ancon entered the new channel. Hundreds of
construction workers hopped aboard for the historic ride. A shiny towing
locomotive pulled the Ancon into the first lock. Bands played and crowds
cheered as the ship slipped into the Pacific.
Roosevelt liked to repeat an old African saying: "Speak softly, and
carry a big stick. You will go far." In Panama, Teddy proved to the
world that he was willing to use his big navy as a stick to further
American interests. He saw the canal as being vital to America's destiny
as a global power, and it was this that had driven him to push Congress
to let him acquire the French rights to the Canal. He also
supported Panama's independence from Colombia - he thought this would
strengthen the US around such a strategically important region. He
dispatched US warships to both sides of the Isthmus as a show of
strength to the Colombians, and also sent in troops to protect the
Panamanian railroad. These actions meant that Panama was able to
declare independence from Colombia on 3 November 1903 and, not
surprisingly, the Panamanians granted the Canal zone to the US in
perpetuity. It was not ceded back to Panama until 1999. In
November 1906, Roosevelt visited Panama to inspect the canal's progress.
This was the first trip outside the United States by a sitting
President.
At the end of Roosevelt's last day in Panama, he made a speech to the
American workers, including John Stevens, the Canal's Chief Engineer up
to 1907. In his speech, Roosevelt hailed the construction efforts:
"... whoever you are, if you are doing your duty, the balance of the
country is placed under obligation to you, just as it is to a soldier in
a great war. As I have looked at you, and seen you work, seen what you
have done and are doing, I have felt just exactly as I would feel to see
the big men of our country carrying on a great war. ...This is one of
the great works of the world. It is a greater work than you yourselves
at the moment realise."
Despite debilitating illness later in life, Roosevelt remained
active to the end. On January 6, 1919, Roosevelt died in his sleep at
Oyster Bay of a coronary embolism, preceded by a 2 1/2-month illness
described as inflammatory rheumatism and was buried in nearby Youngs
Memorial Cemetery. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archie
telegraphed his siblings simply, "The old lion is dead." Woodrow
Wilson's vice president at the time Thomas R. Marshall said of his death
"Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake,
there would have been a fight."
John Frank Stevens (1853–1943)
 John
Frank Stevens was born in rural Maine, near West Gardiner to John
Stevens, a tanner and farmer, and Harriet Leslie French. He attended
Maine State Normal School for two years. At the conclusion of his
schooling in 1873, bleak economic conditions held little promise of a
job, and he chose to go west. Entry into the field of civil engineering
evolved from his experience in the Minneapolis city engineer's office.
For two years he carried out a variety of engineering tasks, including
surveying and building railroads, and at the same time gained experience
and an understanding of the subject. He became a practical engineer,
self-taught and driven by a self-described "bull-dog tenacity of
purpose." In 1878 Stevens married Harriet T. O'Brien. They had five
children, two of whom died in infancy.
Stevens, who had only limited formal education, became an engineer
through practical experience and independent study. His career in
railroad construction began in 1875, and he advanced steadily. In 1895
he was appointed chief engineer of the Great Northern Railway; during
his tenure the line was modernized and expanded by more than 1,000 miles
(1,600 km). He went on to serve as chief engineer and later vice
president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. In
1905 he was appointed chief engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission
and became responsible for both the engineering and construction of the
Panama Canal.
At the time of Stevens appointment, the United States had made little
progress over earlier French attempts, and the project seemed to lack
direction. Cognizant of the technical reasons for the French failure, he
upgraded and greatly expanded the network of railways serving the
project. To bring order to the work, Stevens approached the job as if it
were a massive railroad undertaking where large volumes of goods (in
this case, earth) had to be moved on a tight schedule. His
organisational and planning skills proved invaluable in getting the
project moving. But, at the same time, the future of the project was
threatened by outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria. Stevens halted
construction work until both diseases were brought under control, and in
1906, after the Isthmus was made safe, work resumed with vigor.
Stevens took a number of steps to make the Canal Zone livable for
American workers. He improved the food supply and set about a massive
project of building worker housing and oversaw extensive sanitation and
mosquito-control programs that eliminated yellow fever and other
diseases from the Isthmus. Most important, he was instrumental in
persuading President Theodore Roosevelt of the feasibility of a
high-level canal using a combination of locks and a dammed lake. The
sea-level canal favoured by a majority of the commission’s members would
have required moving additional massive amounts of earth and rock, would
have cost more, and would have taken longer to complete. Roosevelt’s
resolution of this question in Stevens’ favour permitted work to proceed
toward a specific goal.
Stevens was Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal project from 1905–1907
His primary achievement in Panama was in building the infrastructure
necessary to complete the canal. He rebuilt the Panama Railway and
devised a system for disposing of soil from the excavations by rail.
Stevens argued the case against a sea level canal like the French had
tried to build. He convinced Theodore Roosevelt of the necessity of a
canal built with dams and locks.
 A
significant investment was made in eliminating disease from the area,
particularly yellow fever and malaria, the causes of which had
originally been theorized by Cuban physician/scientist Dr. Carlos Finlay
in 1881 who had identified the mosquito as the vector that causes the
disease.
With the diseases under control, and after significant work on preparing
the infrastructure, construction of an elevated canal with locks began
in earnest and was finally possible.
The Americans also gradually replaced the old French equipment with
machinery designed for a larger scale of work (such as the giant
hydraulic crushers supplied by the Joshua Hendy Iron Works), to quicken
the pace of construction.
President Roosevelt had the former French machinery minted into medals
for all workers who spent at least two years on the construction to
commemorate their contribution to the building of the canal. These
medals featured Roosevelt's likeness on the front, the name of the
recipient on one side, and the worker's years of service, as well as a
picture of the Culebra Cut on the back.
Stevens resigned suddenly from the Canal project in 1907 to Roosevelt's
great annoyance, as the focus of the work turned to construction of the
canal itself. As a railroad engineer, Stevens had little expertise in
building locks and dams, and probably realised he was no longer the best
person for the remainder of the job. Stevens would also have been aware
that the original great Cascade Tunnel, for which he was responsible,
was in hindsight built in error too close to the ruling grade and was
perhaps turning from a credit to a debit. The true reasons for his
resignation have never been made known.
Following the collapse of Imperial Russia in 1917, leaders of the
provisional government appealed to President Wilson for help with their
transportation systems. Stevens was selected to chair a board of
prominent U.S. railroad experts sent to Russia to rationalize and manage
a system that was in disarray.
Stevens also worked on the Trans-Siberian Railway. After the overthrow
of the provisional government, the board's work ceased. Stevens remained
in Allied-occupied Manchuria and in 1919 headed the Inter-Allied
Technical Board charged with the administration and operation of the
Chinese Eastern and Siberian railways.
He remained in an advisory capacity until occupying Allied troops were
withdrawn; he finally left in 1923. After his return to the United
States Stevens continued to work as a consulting engineer, ending his
career in Baltimore in the early 1930s. He then retired to Southern
Pines, North Carolina, where he died at the age of 90 in 1943.
George Washington Goethals (1858 -1928)
 George
Washington Goethals was a United States Army officer and civil engineer,
best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the
Panama Canal. The Goethals Bridge between Staten Island, New York City
and Elizabeth, New Jersey is named in his honor, as is the Goethals
Medal. Goethals was born in Brooklyn, New York to Flemish
immigrants. Aged 14, he entered the College of the City of New York. In
April 1876, after three years of college, he won a cadetship to the
United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated second
in his class in 1880, a distinction that led that year to a commission
as second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Goethals remained at the military academy during the summer and fall of
1880 as an assistant instructor in practical astronomy. In 1881 he
attended the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point, New York.
His first field assignment came in the following year with his
appointment as engineer officer of the Department of Columbia in
Vancouver, Washington. His routine duties included reconnaissance,
surveys, and astronomical work, while his most consequential project was
the replacement of a 120 foot bridge across the Spokane River.
In September 1884 he transferred to Cincinnati, Ohio, as an assistant to
Lieutenant Colonel William E. Merrill, who was in charge of the
navigational improvements of the Ohio River. Goethals worked his way up
from rodman on the hydrographic surveys to foreman of concrete work and,
finally, to chief of construction. From 1885 to 1889 he taught civil and
military engineering at West Point. He returned to the field in 1889 to
assist Colonel John W. Barlow with navigational improvements on the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
In 1891 Goethals was promoted to captain and placed in charge of the
completion of the Muscle Shoals Canal along the Tennessee River near
Chattanooga. This was his first independent command, and his
responsibilities included the design and construction of the Riverton
Lock at Colbert Shoals. Goethals's recommendation of a single lock with
an unprecedented lift of twenty-six feet was
initially opposed by his superiors in Washington, and he was forced to
persuade the conservative army engineers of the merits of his design.
The success of the Riverton Lock inspired the eventual adoption of
high-lift locks elsewhere, including those for the Panama Canal.
 In
1907 Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals as Chief Engineer of
the Panama Canal. The building of the canal was completed in 1914, two
years ahead of the target date of June 1, 1916.
The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914 with the passage of the
cargo ship Ancon.
Coincidentally, this was also the same month that fighting in World War
I (the Great War) began in Europe. The advances in hygiene resulted in a
relatively low death toll during the American construction; still, 5,609
workers died during this period (1904–1914). This brought the total
death toll for the construction of the canal to around 27,500.
 President
Wilson appointed him the first Civil Governor of the Panama Canal Zone.
He resigned from the post of Governor of the Canal Zone in 1916 and was
made chairman of the board of inquiry in regard to the Adamson
eight-hour law.
His positions thereafter were: State engineer of New Jersey in 1917,
manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (briefly), acting
quartermaster of the United States Army, and a member of the War
Industries Board (1918). In 1919, he requested his release from his
active service. Later on, he headed an engineering and construction
firm. He became the first consulting engineer of the Port of New York
Authority (now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), and the
Goethals Bridge, one of the authority's bridges between New York and New
Jersey, was named for him. He died in New York City.
Many tributes have been paid to Goethals by distinguished
persons. Of these, the following most represents consensus about the
man and about his achievements. "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. It is the greatest task of its own kind that has
ever been performed in the world at all. Colonel Goethals has
succeeded in instilling into the men under him a spirit which
elsewhere is found only in a few victorious armies."
The breakthroughs in construction technology enabled
the Panama Canal to reach completion and to finally realise what was
once considered to be an impossible task. The ability to lift
heavy loads with large steam cranes assisted greatly in this
achievement and giant mechanical steam shovels moved copious amounts
of earth necessary to carve out the route of the Canal.
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Consult this link
to view pictures
of the French attempt to construct the Panama Canal from
1882-1900.
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