Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-11
PRESSES THE KEY,
OPENS BIG CANAL
President Wilson ManipuIates
Battery Which Blows Up
Gamboa Dixie.
STEP IN THE PROGRESS
OF ISTHMIAN WATERWAY
Last Bar to Navigation of Greater
Part of 0cean-to-Ocean
Passage Removed.

PANAMA, October 10.-The GaInboa
dixie was exploded at 2:O2 o'clock this
afternoon.
The electric spark that set on the
blase was sent forward by President
Wilson from Washington.
The accomplishment was in every
way successful.
little electric spark which originated
when President Wilson pressed the button
in the White House this afternoon was
the silent agent which sped more than
1900 miles over land and under water
and ignited the immense charges of
dynamite which practically removed the
last obstruction in the Panama canal.
Electrical experts calculated that within
four seconds after President Wilson
pressed the button in Washington the
current threw small switch on an APP
Rparatus at the Gambia dixie. which i'm
turn set in motion othar apparatus which
furnished the current for exploding the
charges.
Hours before the time set experts Of
the telegraph and cable companies were
busy perfecting their arrangements SO
that the Presidents flash might have have
an unobstructed passage.
Elaborate Preparations.
Elaborate preparations had been made
by the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany and the Central and South American
Telegraph Company for the practically in
Simultaneous Transmission of the President s
signal From Washington TO Galveston,
Tex, 1.oJ6 miles, single wire carried
the spark. There 1t was taken up in
simultaneously by sensitive repeating in
struments and sped over the cable along
the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to
Coatzacoalcos. Mexico, 1913 miles farther.
From that point 1t sped over land across
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec over wires
on the line OF the Tehuantepec National
railway, 1SS miles more on it's journey, to
another cable station at Salina Cruz on
the Pacific ocean, where other sets of
sensitive telegraph instruments snatched
1t up and hurried it 7GG miles along over
another cable along the bottom Of the
Pacific ocean to San Juan del Sur, Mic
aragua. whers other delicate machines
transferred Ii to still another cable and
shot it along IT'S miles more to Panama.
There the spark emerged from its long
submarine Journey to the overland tele-
graph wires of the Panama Railroad
Company and completed its mission at
the Gamboa dixie.
Work But Partially Complete.
not actually united today WHOM tbe cam
-. m. .,..., nv
ooa o'Ne WAC ocouoyea anu inc waters
OF Gatun lake We're allowed to flow into
Culebra cut. as lake and cut are. at the
normal surface OF the water eighty-fve
1eet above the level of the sea. The
destruction Of the Gamboa dixie, how
ever, removes the last obstruction to the
navigation OF the greater part of the
canal by light draft vessels and opens up
direct connection between the great
Gatun lake, which already is practically
ready to discharge vessels into the
Atlantic through Gatun locks and the
Pacific division
The waters Of the lake rushing through
the broken dixie at Gamboa sweep
through Culetra cut until they reach the
great locks at Pedro Miguel, which mark
the beginning of the descent from the
top level Of the canal to the Pacific.
Oredges First TO Enter.
me hrst craft TO enter VIII be the great