Posted on Jun 5, 2021
Civil Engineering Almanac – Panama Canal Culebra Cut milestone | Civil Engineering Source
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SFC (Join to see)
It was quite a large project. For the equipment they had at that time it was truly amazing.
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SFC (Join to see)
The United States took over the project in 1904. At that time, the French had lowered the 210-foot summit by less than 20 feet. The American effort was a lock-based canal, which would require the removal of an additional 150 feet of material, not as deep as the French proposal, but substantially wider. On May 20, 1913, after years of excavating and blasting through the continental divide, steam shovels #222 and #230 met and faced one another on the bottom of the Cut, at 40 feet above sea level.
In total, the French excavated almost 19 million cubic yards of material and the Americans over 100 million cubic yards. It would be another year before the canal was formally opened on Aug. 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship S.S. Ancon. However, the breakthrough at Culebra culminated decades of planning and construction, and it proved a milestone in turning the idea of the Panama Canal into reality.
The United States took over the project in 1904. At that time, the French had lowered the 210-foot summit by less than 20 feet. The American effort was a lock-based canal, which would require the removal of an additional 150 feet of material, not as deep as the French proposal, but substantially wider. On May 20, 1913, after years of excavating and blasting through the continental divide, steam shovels #222 and #230 met and faced one another on the bottom of the Cut, at 40 feet above sea level.
In total, the French excavated almost 19 million cubic yards of material and the Americans over 100 million cubic yards. It would be another year before the canal was formally opened on Aug. 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship S.S. Ancon. However, the breakthrough at Culebra culminated decades of planning and construction, and it proved a milestone in turning the idea of the Panama Canal into reality.
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