Here is the fifth and sixth photos in the Michael J. Carroll series.  The photo above is a great shot of Mike operating a steam crane at the Gatun Spillway.  If you go back to the beginning of this series and read Michael's bio, this was when Michael returned to Panama after quitting work on the Canal.  This was a promotion for him as he must have been a valuable employee and hard worker. We always see these old photos of guys operating shovels, cranes and locomotives, but this is a treat knowing who the guy is that is pulling the levers.

The hand writing on the back of this photo says: 

"1909 Gatun Spillway, Mr. Carroll on locomotive crane ."

The photo below is a really great capture in time of what was a very tense project.  Mike is in the steam crane and is lifting these long mast like objects.  It always amazes me what these guys could do with these cranes back then.  I will have to do more research and find out what these mast like objects are.  I believe that they are inserting this mast into the hole that you can see in the lower part of the photo and may be used in the final construction of the spillway as a conveyor type devise, but this is only speculation.  I looked at some of my other Gatun Spillway construction photos and they don't show these masts.  This photo is two years later than the one above.

The hand writing on the back of this photo says: 

"1911 – Gatun Spillway"

All I can say is WOW!!!  Simply GREAT stuff!