The construction of the Panama Canal from 1908 and 1914 in color! Part-1 [AI enhanced & colorized]
37,279
Published 2020-10-12
The film shows the construction of the Miraflores and Gatun locks in detail as well as the digging of "The Culebra Cut" including steam trains, steam shovels and steam dredgers at work and scenes of the locks an the Canal in its first days op operation in 1914.
Wikipedia: The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 miles) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m (85 ft) above sea level, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks, "Miraflores" in the South and "Gatun locks" in the North, are 32.5 m (110 ft) wide.
France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate, caused by malaria and yellow fever. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan and the even less popular route through the Arctic Archipelago and the Bering Strait.
Thse footage has been motion-stabilized, speed-corrected, contrast- and brightness enhanced, de-noised, restored, upscaled and colorized by means of state-of-the-art AI sofware.
It took over a month to restore and colorize all available footage, our largest project ever!
This restored film is without sound. The reason is the difficulty to find nearly one hour of suitable (copyright-free) music.
Please help to improve this Timeline:
00:00 Miraflores Locks in the South
02:10 Steam shovels in "The Cut"
02:26 West Indian workers drill holes in the rock for explosives
03:44 Not every explosion goes as it should...
04:18 Workers along the railway line
05:40 Steam shovels at work
10:10 Steam trains remove the rocks
11:42 Another blast
12:50 Views from a high point of "The Cut"
14:10 The railway tracks
15:07 Freight trains pass a check point
15:50 Special trains push earth and rocks aside
16:47 Close up view of a special train in action
18:21 West Indian workers shift the railway tracks
19:15 Workers climb up the mountain
20:22 Fresh workers arrive by steam train
21:38 Another day ahead for the workers and the steam shovels
24:22 Shifting a huge drum
24:45 More steam shovels at work
25:16 Steam trains with special equipment
25:58 Workers removing rails
26:30 Gatun locks in the North still under construction
26:52 Flooded rain forest forming Gatun Lake
27:19 The huge lock doors have been installed
27:28 Testing floading the locks
28:48 A lock filling up
29:10 Small ships enter the lock
30:05 A train ride along the canal
30:38 Preparing to blow up the last dam
31:07 Spectators gather for the blasting of the last dam
31:58 Opening a huge valve
32:42 Blasting of the last dam
33:18 Water flows into the Canal
33:27 Dredgers enter the Canal
33:44 More blasting along the Canal
34:20 Gatun locks open
35:32 Numerous ships enter the locks
37:10 The next lock chamber opens
38:46 Small boat with dignatories on the Canal
40:33 Views of the Canal and Gatun Lake
41:05 Dredgers at work to deepen the Canal
41:36 More lock views
43:03 Busy scenes at the locks
43:52 Spectators on the opening lock doors
46:01 A pilot rowing boat on its way to receive the ropes of a ship
46:42 Inner lock chamber scenes
47:45 Lock doors opening
48:49 Ship leaving the locks
49:13 More steam dredgers at work
50:02 Close up view of an active steam dredger
50:36 Rubble is released through the bottom of a barge into the lake
51:18 Flushing rubble away with a watercanon
52:40 Dredgers seen from a high viewpoint
53:52 Final views of the Canal
In view of the amount of available enhanced footage, Part-2 will follow shortly!
All Comments (21)
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Please press the "CC" button under the film to see the subtitles with the description of the locations and events! Kindly help to improve this info! If you like my work, please donate via: www.paypal.com/paypalme/Rick88888888 Thank you very much! If you want to see how the Panama canal looks today then watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A-QJ14L5Ys
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Magnificent footage!!! Almost feels like another world or even planet😃 The steam shovels totally blew me away! Thank you, Rick!
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My Great Grandfather was Col. David duBose Gaillard. He was the lead engineer to get through the Continental Divide. The Culebra Cut was named the Gaillard Cut while the USA owned it. A lot of the machinery for digging out the Cut was invented for digging out the Cut. They were not filling it back in. They would wake up and find there had been a mudslide during the night that would have filled up what they had previously dug out. The mudslides also buried equipment and destroyed the tracks and trains. This was such a stressful job for my Great Grandfather that he ended up passing away from a brain tumor before the Canal opened. There was a huge plaque in his honor up on Contractors Hill, but it was removed when they widened the Cut. David McCullough interviewed my Grandfather for his book The Path Between the Seas. He was at MIT at the time of the building, and on vacations would also work on the Canal. They had him working on the computerization of the Locks, which were done so well that to my knowledge they have never needed to upgrade them, just maintain them.
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To see these brave hard working men do this by hand is simply amazing. I read a long time ago that many men died building this and not just from injuries but fever. I don’t think they could have imagined the size of the ships that would pass through it today in 2020.. these were hard working people that made this possible...
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My grandfather was part of US Army contingent that worked on the canal during the final construction. He passed away before I was born, so I never got to ask him about it.
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Great Video!!. The quality and color are amazing. I watched it over and over again , and I would like to add or correct some of the information on the captions. 00:00 Footage of Gatun Locks in the north. Not Miraflores Locks 15:22 “Lidgerwood Unloader” machine in action 17:29 “Dirtspreader” machine in action 28:48 Gatun lower Lock filling up. 29:10 Tugboat “Gatun” makes first trial lockage at Gatun Locks. Sep 26, 1913. Note the tugboat has all his flags up, and the huge crowd gathered for the event. 30:38 Preparing to blast the dike at Gamboa to connect Gatun Lake with Culebra Cut 31:13 Chief Engineer, Colonel George W. Goethals and guests can be seen walking down the dike at Gamboa on October 10, 1913 32:42 Blasting of the dike at Gamboa, October 10, 1913 33:18 Water flows into Culebra Cut. 35:32 Numerous ships enter Gatun Locks 41:05 Dredgers at work to deepen canal at Gamboa 41:36 to 45:32 all views are from Miraflores Locks 45:33 to 48:48 all views are from Pedro Miguel Lock 49:13 Dredges clearing up a slide at Cucaracha 52:40 Dredges clearing up a slide at Cucaracha Again , Great Video. Hoping to see Part 2 soon. Congratulations from Panama.
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Wow Rick88888888, what a massive project you have done on this film. Another great one for the history classes and folks. Your work is so important and so appreciated!!
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Blijft fascinerend dat het zware graaf werk toen al mogelijk was. Top film weer!
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I am delighted to have found this video, and the restoration and colorizing.
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THANK YOU for the History! I went thru it in '83 aboard a US Navy Cruiser and back from the Pacific side, I never realized the amount of time and engineering that went in such a man made marvel! SALUTE!!
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Spectaculair! Deze en andere video's zijn allemaal gemaakt met liefde en respect voor wat ooit is geweest. En met een grote expertise ! Bravo 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏
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Increíble. Muchas gracias Rick por el trabajo tan bueno que estas haciendo. Saludos
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Amazing footage! Just think of the amount of labor that went into building the canal, all the while dealing with tropical climate and diseases. An incredible feat of engineering. Read "The path between the seas" by David McCullough if you want the whole story.
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Those old diggers looks a nightmare to operate and looked like a death trap. The whole machines strength basically boils down to a single chain link. One breaks and it cant dig. The whole mechanical advantage relies through how much that chain can handle a beating
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Thanks Rick ✊ Спасибо за видосы. Очень нравится окунутся в прошлое в хорошем качестве ☺
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😍It was in my country 🇵🇦, but this is the first time i watched videos or movies of the construction in color, i have always liked to see those Bucyrus machines with that big shovel. Those Bucyrus were good to have them like in a museum or expositions like in the USA but not 😥 i can see only one Bucyrus crane.
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hey rick echt sick hoe je deze beelden weet de weergeven in kleur!
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Truly amazing.
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Magnificent
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I like your work. I'm from Panama. Thanks.
