The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-10-17
COMMUNICATION IS
A FACT BETWEEN
TWO BIG OCEANS
THOUSANDS OF TONS OF BIG
Dixie BLOWN UP BY DY.
MANTLE.
PANAMA CANAL is A FACT
President Wilson Pressed the Button
That Touched of the Sixteen
Thousand Pounds of Explosive
More Than 1000 Miles Distant.

PANAMA, Oct 1.-THE Gamboa
dixie, the last artificial barrier to &C
| tual communication between the At
lantic and Pacific oceans by way OF
the Panama canal, was rent in twain
| by the hand of President Woodrow
Wilson at 1902 o'clock Friday after
noon. Between three and four thous-
and persons from Panama and Colon
cities and various sections of the ca
nal zone journeyed to the scene to
| witness the demolition of the barrier,
and while the event of destroying the
dixie was spectacular to degree, and
successful in it's every details, some
disappointment was evinced because
the entire dixie was not destroyed.
| Utter demolition today was not car
ried out because of the fear that the
concussion might damage the railroad
trestle crossing the cut near San Mig
uel locks The two remaining Sec
| LlOuo Will DO Wy uc ooihO hu
| ture date. The spectators lined the
banks of the cuts, outside the zone of
( danger, occupying every available
| vantage point. AS the hour approach
ed when President Wilson would
press the button to explode the nu-
, merous charges of dynamite in the
dixie, hush Of expectancy fell over
ALL When the minute hand Of
watches passed the hour of o'clock
the suspense became still greater,
and the ensuing two minutes seemed
like as many hours.
Then suddenly came the muffled
roar of the discharge of $4,000 pounds
of dynamite, which sent a shower Of
water, mud and rock high into the
air, spreading out as it went upward,
the whole heavily yelled in cloud
of smoke. 1t was considered among
local dynamite experts as remarka-
bly, clean explosion. A section Of the
dixie sixty feet wide was lifted bodily
from it's bed, and it's component parts
scattered far and wide.
CAS- water began to pour through
the rent made by the explosion whis-
| ties were tied down and the crowd
sent up great cheer. Not an OBJ
struction was left in the opening ex.
cept some iron pipes which stuck up
here and there.
At the hour that President Wilson
set off the blast the water in the cut
was exactly six feet below the level
of Lake Gatun, and the inflow of wa
ter afterward was in such volume
that the cut was filled to lake level
| within an hour and half.
| There was only one accident
woman spectator was struck on the
head with a rock which was dislodg-
ed by others from the hillside where
she was watching the explosion. Her
injury is not serious. All the heads
of the canal departments were pres
ent for the epoch making event, as
also were the members of the cabi-
net of President Porras, himself UNI
able to be present
1t was Colonel Cocktails day, and
the chairman of the Panama canal
commission was the recipient of
shower of congratulations. Half an
hour before the blast was set off Colo
mel Goethals took his stand we'll up
toward the dixie, but as the time near
ed for the explosion he drew back
short distance, but still well out in
front and in an unprotected position.
There he was when the mass of earth
and water shot skyward.