The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-11-11
HOW THE CANAL
WAS RE0PENEO
After a Big Landslide Had
Occurred.
QUICK ACTION Was DEMANDED
Powerful DredgeS and Slows
Were Rushed Past the
Dangerous Point.
plDN'T STAY CLOSED UP LONG

closed only few days instead of
weeks by the latest slide was due to
real daring on the part of the dredg-
ing men.
The section OF the canal from the
Gatun Locks to the Pedro Miguel
Locks is the high part Every time
either of these locks is opened,
water from this high part of the
canal flows down into the lower sec
lions. When this new slide began
TO move into the channel the big
dredges. tugboats and most of the
scows were at or near Paraiso. Had
the slide formed a complete barrier
across the canal, as the Cucaracha
slide did on more than one occasion,
these dredges would have been
caught between the slide and the
have begun digging at the slide. but
there would have been no place for
the scows to dump the dirt taken up
unless they went through the Pedro
Miguel Lock into the Mirafores
Lake. Every time the Pedro Miguel
Lock was opened so much of the
water between the slide and the
locks would be lost. so that after
three or four lockages the dredges
would be practically stranded on the
bottom of the empty ditch and the
scows could not be foated
Therefore. the problem was to get |
this dredging fleet on the other side
OF the slide before the canal should |
be closed, so that the scows could |
dump into the big Gatun Lake.
James mcfarland. Superintendent
of Dredges, was the only official at !,
Paradise when the slide started. He
promptly telephoned Captain Rod
man. L. 5. n. the Superintendent of
all shipping transportation through
the canal. that the canal was in dan
next day.
Captain Rodman wanted details.
hut mcfarland. knowing the very
minute was precious and that If his
chief, Mr.. Comber, were present he
would run the dredging fleet past
the slide, surprised Captain Rodman
by telling him he would call him up I
later. and then rang off.
We are going to run fast past !
that Slide was the word sent to
every unit in the dredging fleet.
The engineers at the danger point
were reporting that the bank was 4
moving in at the rate OF 90 feet an
hour mcfarland did not tell his
nen that, but they could surmise it, !
+ Within thirty minutes after his {
Grst order some vi the dredging J
teet was at the slide. y
The canal at this place runs be-
tween high walls of earth and rock
One bank was moving toward the ,
center of this waterway. When the
banks have closed in heretofore, as
this one was doing. much of the A.
feet of depth of the channel has been
filed up from the bottom al the T,
same time.
mcfarland ordered powerful
ocean-going tug to run past the
moving bank. The tug went. and
half way through was lifted a foot
or two out of the water by mass
of mud; but this had been expected.
Another tug was rushed to her as
sistance. Together they got past and
by quick work with towanes man
aged to pull after them two steel
scows, each capable of holding
thousands of tons of earth and rock.
Like these scows. the powerful
dredges are hat-bottomed. While
the scows cost only thousands of
dollars. two of the dredges cost a /,
quarter OF a million each. After
the scows had smoothed over the
mud banks under water the dredges
we're started by this time the chan
mel. that had been 500 feet wide and 4
10 feet deep had been narrowed by d
he moving bank to only zoo feet
md OF uncertain depth. When the c
lredges started past IL the observers '