The 100th Anniversary of the Opening of the Panama Canal—History Countdown—Underplaying the Occassion

From the Arizona Republican, Associated Press Dispatch June 24, 1914 “Canal Opening is Promised for August” 

“The opening of the Panama canal to the world's commerce on August 13, was announced tonight by Secretary of War Garrison… There will be no formalities in the epoch-making event…”  

John S. Pughe, Puck, January 31, 1906, Library of Congress

 No doubt, the public did not think the lack of festivities was in any way unusual. They had been told for months that that the celebration to mark the “epoch-making event” would take place at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. The Licking Valley Courier described the planned fanfare to readers:

“The exposition will be the scene of a great naval pageant, which will pass through the Panama canal to the Golden Gate. On March 24 President Wilson, on the historic battleship Oregon, will reach the Golden Gate as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, having led the fleet of battleships of all nations which passed through the Panama canal in the ceremonies attendant on the official opening of the canal.”

Since the U.S. formally took control of the project on, May 4, 1904, many Americans—with good reason—doubted that the audacious enterprise could be any more successful than the doomed French effort, let alone find its opening ceremonies a topic of discussion. Many others thought even if a sea-level canal was feasible, as the project was initially proposed, that by the time it was completed new technology would leave the inter-oceanic ditch useless and outmoded.

John S. Pughe’s drawing for the January 31, 1906 edition of “Puck” magazine humorously illustrates this concern. The illustration shows a variety of an armada of fantastical aircraft loaded with tourists and travelers floating above the Panama Canal, not sailing through the waterway. The suggestion was that if the project continues to languish, that the age of aviation will render the canal obsolete. However, in 1907, Col. George Washington Goethals became he last in a series of Chief Engineers for the project. Goethals’ decisive management skills marshaled the project from one of stagnation to completion so efficiently that he was able to open the canal for business a full year earlier than original estimates.