Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-31
MIGHTY STEEL GATES
FOR PANAMA CANAL
Ninety-TWo of Them, Each Six
Stories High, Being Built
at PittSburg.

PITTSBURG, October S1.-Mischievou:
boys, dreaming of gates they will seize
as Halloween trophies tonight, would not
in the widest nightmares, imagine such
enormous gates as are being made ir
Pittsburg for the Panama canal. They
will be the largest gates in the world.
Any one Of the ninety-two of them-fol
there are to be forty-six pairs-will be
about as high as a six-stOry building, as
wide (sixty-five' feeD as many city build
ings are, and seven feet thick. The strQc-
tural steel that will go to make them
win weigh 6O.OCO tons, more tnan eight
times as much as was used to build the
Eiffel tower in Paris.
The mighty portals, designed to admit
worlds CONNIE ce from one ocean to
another, must Withstand a tide of crit
lcism as well as a tremendous pressure
of water and possible commissions of
earth. In the face of fear in some quar-
tiers that the foundations on the iSthmus
are not sure enough for locks, that earth
quakeS or water pressure would GiSlOdge
them and that an enemy's mines or an
accidental explosion might destroy them
the government has begun to build the
gates
10000 Tons of Steel.
The cost will be $5,5OO, 600. The builders
are the McClintic Marshall Steel Con-
struction Company, half of whose In
dependent plant here has been given over
entirely to the gate contract.
OF the $4,000 tons Of steel required, the
heaviest pieces will weigh about eighteen
tons each. These will be the base Slrdei s.
which are seven feet wide, and which vii
be placed much like the first-ioor eirdefs
of snyscraper The series of girde.
above them will range from 3.S feet apart
near the bottom to feet apart at the
top, and over the skeleton structure thus
formed sheathing of watertight stee
plates will be bolted. The thickness OF
the plates will range from one inch at th'
base to 7-16 of an inch at the top
Each gate will weigh about 600 tons
and the dimensions are Il to 81 feet high,
60 to TO feet wide and feet thick.
Thousands of individual pieces. num-
bered and fitted to go together as easil!
as childrens blocks, will be shipped BY
steamship from Baltimore, and with them
will go more than 400 skilled structural
steel builders from Pittsburg to set them
up. The advance guard of experts leaves
here in December, and the first work will
probably begin early in 1911. 1t will take
three years to complete the job.
Twenty gates will be placed at the
Gatun dam, on the Pacific side, twelve al
Pedro Miguel and fourteen at MirahoreS
nea.. the Atlantic entrance.
The gates are designed to hold back
water 47.4 feet deep in a channel 11(
feet wide. which means a pressure of a
million pounds. Engineers. In reply to
alarmists, point out that even If tire
mendous explosion or earthquake should
damage or destroy one or more sets OF
gates, no great disaster would enSue, fol-
all locks are to be made in duplicate to
accommodate traffic in both directions al
once, and the wreckage of one set OF
locks would only necessitate the diversion
of commerce into another set
But :eally violent earthquakes have not
occurred in the Panama region for more
than two Centuries, and it would require
a mighty siege for an enemy to destroy
the locks.
Each lock will be ample for a ship 30
per cent la ger than any vessel now
afoat, and it has been estimated that as
many as q hundred ocean ships may be
hapdled in single day. There are no
other locks approaching these in size.