This
week we continue on the Goethals study CZImages contributor Bob
Dillion clued me in on fantastic information and most valuable photos
in the Panama Canal Review from April 2, 1954. As the
caption to this photo reads, "This view is rare because it is one
of the very few pictures showing Mrs. Goethals while on the
Isthmus. This is a very historical photo as well preparing the
Gamboa Dike for demolition. I have never seen the real photo in
the Halen collection, so I am not sure who the photographer was.
"It
was Colonel Goethals' day and the chairman of the Panama Canal Commission
was the recipient of a shower of congratulations. Half an hour
before the blast was set off, Colonel Goethals took his stand well up
toward the dike, but at the time neared for the explosion he drew back
a 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.
Philippe
Bunau-Varilla, who was engineer of the French Panama Canal Company
when the French were trying to dig the great ditch, was an interested
spectator of the blowing of the Gamboa Dike that afternoon on October
10, 1913. Printed in The Sacramento Union newspaper,
October 11, 1913".
It
is a shame that Philippe wasn't in the above photo.
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