The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-10-31
BIC GATES FOR
PANAMA CANAL
FOrty-Six Pairs of Steel Portals
Will Weigh Sixty Thou
sand Tons.
CAPABLE OF HOLDING
BACK IMMENSE VOLUME
Will Be Greatest Pieces of
Kind Ever Manufactured
in World.

pITTSBURG. Pc. Oct. 5o.-The largest
gates in the world are being made In
Pittsburg for the Panama canal Any
one Of the nnety-two of them. for there
are to be forty-six pairs In all, Will be
about as high as siX-story building,
sIxty-fIve feet wide and seven feet thick.
The structural steel that Will so 10 make
them Will weigh 10000 tons, or more than
eight times as much as was used 10 build
the Eiffel tower. The mighty portals,
designed to admit d world S. commerce
from one ocean To another. must with
stand q. tide Of criticism as well as q
tremendous pressure OF water and pos
sible commissions of earth. For years the
controversy over gates or no gates locks
or sea-ievel. has been dividing Issue Of
the canal problem. In the face Of fear
in some quarters that the foundations
on the tsthmus nre not sure enough for
locks, that earthquakes or water pres
sure would disodge them and that. an
enemy's mines or accidental explosions
might easily destroy them, the govern
ment has begun to build the gates.
VIII Cost Over Five Millions.
The cost will be $500, 900. The build
ers are the McClintic Marshall Steel
independent plant here has been given
over entirely TO the gate contract or the
$4,000 tons OF steel required, the heaviest
single pieces will weigh about eighteen
tons. These will be the base girders
which are seven feet wide and which
will be placed much like the first floor
sirders OF skyscraper, The series OF
feet apart near the bottom to feet
apart at the top and over the skeleton
structure thus formed a sheathing OF wa
ter-tight armor plate Will be bolted. much
after the fashion Of clapboards on
house. The thickness OF the plates Will
range from an inch at the base TO 7-1d
OF an inch at the top. The weight OF
dimensions are II to SO feet high, so to
6s feet wide and feet thick.
The thousands OF individual pieces.
wfl be shipped by steamer via Baltimore.
and with them will go 400 skilled struc- !
tura1 steel builders from Pittsburg to set |
them up The advance guard OF experts
leaves here In December and the first |
work probably will begin early in 1911 |
II will take three years to complete the
Job
To Hold Back Great Volume.
The location OF the forty-six pairs of
gates will be twenty at the Gatun dam.
on the Pacific side. twelve at Pedro
Miguel, and fourteen at Miraflores. near
the Atlantic entrance, The gates are de-
in a channel 11o feet wide. which means
a pressure OF million pounds.
Engineers point out that even II a
Tremendous explosion or earthquake
sets Of gates. no great disaster would en-
sue, for all locks are to be made In dupli-
cate TO accommodate traffic in both di-
rections at once and the wreckage OF one
set of locks would only necessitate the
diversion Of commerce into another set
But violent earthquakes have not oc-
Cured In the Panama region for more
than two centuries and it would REQUIRE
q mighty siege for an enemy TO destroy
the locks. Each lock will he ample for a
ship 80 per cent larger than any vessel
now afloat, and 1t has been estimated
that as many as a hundred ocean ships
nay be handled in single day.
thore arc no locks approaching these
IN size The famous Suez canal is a sea
level affair. and the few gato-lock canals
would have TO combine their gates 10
equal the sizo and strength OF the great
doors OF Panama