Steaming Across Panama: Bucyrus and the Digging of the Panama Canal

Рет қаралды 353,130

Күн бұрын

The Panama Canal is a 48 mile (77.1 kilometre) ship canal that connects the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. August 15, 2014, marked the 100th anniversary of its opening, and in 2016 a 9-year expansion project was completed. Join us for a look back at the major role Bucyrus played in the construction of the Panama Canal.
The Isthmain Canal Commission for the Panama Canal construction project awarded their first steam shovel bid to Bucyrus (Caterpillar Inc. acquired Bucyrus International, Inc. on July 8, 2011) Ultimately, Bucyrus would be called upon to provide 70% of the equipment used to dig the canal.
In the years since its construction, several projects have helped to widen and expand the Panama Canal. Cat and Bucyrus products have been involved in the construction and expansion of the canal throughout its history, making progress possible.

Пікірлер: 175

@burntsider8457 Жыл бұрын

Well-written and produced short documentary on the machines that dug the Panama Canal. It was a time when America was proud of its accomplishments.

@franktrask1264 Жыл бұрын

Many of these surplus shovels, churn drills, and the Differential Side Dumps Cars (DIFCO) were purchased by the Guggenheim Mining Syndicate and shipped to Chuquicamata in Chile, the site of what was then, and remains still the greatest copper deposit in the world. Many of these old steam shovels were converted to electrical drive around 1925 or perhap 1930 and remained in service until just before 1955. Also, Many of the original DIFCO rail cars survived into about the 1950 era. The era around the end of 1955 saw the end of almost all of the old "Panama " equipment. There were some Bucyrus churn drills that had survived changes from steam to electrification that were retired around the same time. Chilex remained a firm customer of Bucyrus for shovels right up to the nationalization of the mine by the Chilean Government. They had ordered the "Pala Mundial" in 1949, a special shovel that was the largest in the worlds at that time, and was capable of digging down and loading into a rail cat 80 feet above on a upper bench. It is still preserved, look at the Codelco web site (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n9ZnZ71-1bK5Zqs.html) where they acknowledge the Panama Canal heritage of the machine. I watched some this machinery and marveled at more of it on the scarp pile as a boy! One could almost see Teddy R sitting at the driver station!

@asd36f 6 жыл бұрын

I'm currently reading a book about the construction of the Panama Canal. An amazing story about one of the greatest engineering feats of all time.

@fasx56 6 жыл бұрын

You are right on Clayton, one cannot really grasp the monumental size of this project, how many millions of yards of dirt was moved can only be estimated with equipment that was very crude by today's standards. The heat, mosquitoes and Malaria and no air conditioned barracks to get away from the tropical heat that killed many men from heat stroke. And were there any doctors available.?

@metalrooves3651 Жыл бұрын

Can you 8magine building this equipt without electric welding?l bet they had alot of downtime..this 24/7stayement didn't reflect this but they were ancient even when new!

@lesshepherd5239 3 жыл бұрын

Cat, Yet again taking another company's glory

@tomrogers9467 3 жыл бұрын

Now most cats are built in asia.

@jockellis Жыл бұрын

2:04. That’s Mike Mulligan and Marianne. My paternal grandmother was a teacher prior to marriage and was teaching in Social Circle, GA in the late oughts and living in a boarding house. Also lodging at the house were two civil engineers who had just returned from working on the Panama Canal and were then building Lake Jackson. At the dinner table at night they would recount events in the canal’s construction. Grandmother said listening to them was the most exciting thing in her life.

@gerrynightingale9045 Жыл бұрын

*When 'T.R. Roosevelt' was introduced to the Bucyrus, it was 'love at first sight'* ( *He was so enamored with it he had to be all but pulled from the machine and became a skilled operator overnight* ) *"I would trade the politics of being President for this job instead...I can see the results of my labors here, and no one is looking to 'stab me in the back' or accusing me of graft!"*

@grandpaears8746 Жыл бұрын

Loooooooove the 3D effects !!!

@robmcnew9074 5 жыл бұрын

Back when Americans built great things. Great video

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory 4 жыл бұрын

Still do.

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory 4 жыл бұрын

@@jasondial9274 He has a point. We haven't made any great projects in a long time.

@tomrogers9467 3 жыл бұрын

Then came unions!

@charlesjvallejr.4012 3 жыл бұрын

And now look at us the Laughing stock of the World that has a mental defective in the White House even worse than America's first Affirmative Action Bean pie salesman Obama we are in real trouble.

@tomrogers9467 3 жыл бұрын

@@charlesjvallejr.4012 The Laughing Stock of the world is no longer in the White House. He lost the election and is now hopefully header off to Prison!!

@superzstuff 6 жыл бұрын

I have a couple hundred original negatives taken during the building by an engineer who lived here in Asheville. Nice ones of the shovels and the Harleys they rode there to get around.

@gunner1811 4 жыл бұрын

You should approach the Harley museum in Milwaukee to see if they might be interested in them.

@Felitera Жыл бұрын

what a lovely video! i loved the visuals so much!

@daichimax 3 жыл бұрын

Beautiful job! Good editing

@Dirtbug473 4 жыл бұрын

I have 35 yrs owning an Excavating business. The French paid highest price in human life. They didn't fail, technology wasn't there yet.

@richardweil8813 5 ай бұрын

True, but they tried to make a sea level canal which even the Americans gave up on. De Lesseps refused to listen to good advice and thought he could do Suez again. The company was also terribly run with massive embezzlement and bribes given to the French government. Good engineers, terrible directors.

@gusm5128 Жыл бұрын

Great video, top notch narrator .

@chupacabra1765 Жыл бұрын

A time when America was a super nation that could take any task, no matter how big or complicated, it could successfully plan, execute, and complete some of the largest projects in the world that would exceed expectations. A nation that could think big and change the path to greater achievements. These were probably the best times to be alive.

@ChefKevinRiese Жыл бұрын

MAGA!

@richardweil8813 5 ай бұрын

@@ChefKevinRiese Definitely, get rid of madmen who think they are president and go with human beings who care about others rather than their sick egos and endless lies.

@nigel900 Жыл бұрын

Wow! Both Teddy Roosevelt and Brandon have done things “that will resound immensity!” I’m being RESOUNDED as we speak…

@doctormcboy5009 Жыл бұрын

FJB

@kristoffermangila Жыл бұрын

Who's Brandon? The new mayor of Chi-Town?

@nigel900 Жыл бұрын

@@kristoffermangila 👍🏻

@PHIL5251 4 жыл бұрын

Grandpa Bill Bushard was Stationed here with the army digging this

@JMDinOKC Жыл бұрын

I believe Roosevelt was ASSISTANT Secretary of the Navy.

@aaronwilcox6417 2 жыл бұрын

I'd like to compare downtime and maintenance compared to today's equipment. I'd wager this old equipment isn't as smooth or efficient but probably very reliable. I've operated CAT LHD Elphanstone equipment in hardrock mines and also ancient air powered muckers. The simple yet smaller air equipment has it hands down in reliability over the new costly and high tech stuff.

@claudionapoleaoferreira6741 Жыл бұрын

Com certeza meu amigo com certeza.

@Chr.U.Cas2216 Жыл бұрын

👍👌👏 Extremely impressive.

@notthatdonald1385 4 жыл бұрын

Nice video. Pretty simplified version.

@johnbouwens2024 3 жыл бұрын

Great video ...

@juvenaldominguez7022 4 жыл бұрын

I love history

@johng5187 5 жыл бұрын

No mention of the BE shot hole drills. Can see them in background in some pictures.

@pekkavalkonen1973 2 жыл бұрын

sometimes i wonder how that worked out the old methods. Today, no one would go for that job, even if there were modern machines..

@mattbushong5275 3 жыл бұрын

Was the 95-ton Bucyrus self-propelled, or did it have to be towed by a locomotive?

@elmexicano74 2 жыл бұрын

Self propelled

@MrDaiseymay 2 жыл бұрын

Fantastic ! Those machines were colossal; and the fact that they FILMED IT all too. Amazing. My favourite documenty covered this event, on BBC TV, in 1988. But it started with the French attempt, by the engineer who build the SUEZ Canal first, De lesops ? They raised multi-millions of Francs to invest in the project, and everyone including invester's, thought it would be an easy project, and a great investment. They thought that digging a Canal, in virtually a straight line through sand, would be just the same as going through the jungle of Panama; which had the most dangerous killer creatures, and diseases, with extreme heat and humidity. They lost so many men to these threats, and as there was no cure for them, they all died. Despite building new hospitals for the victims, things were made worse through ignorance, as they put huge Flower pots full of plants in water outside the hospital, this provided perfect breeding conditons for Mosquitos and other dangerous insects.Eventually the money ran out , with no progress, the invester's withdrew what was left, and everything was abandoned after about 8 years. When the Americans took up the challenge, most of what the french had achieved, had been buried by the Jungle etc. BUT most important, they had discovered a cure for most of those diseases. In my opinion, it was, and still is, the GREATEST engineering acheivement in History.

@jockellis Жыл бұрын

The gin and tonic

@mikeskidmore6754 4 жыл бұрын

They dug a huge Drainage Ditch in Indianna West of South Bend .. and drained the Kankaee Marsh .. The Everglades of the North ..

@WAL_DC-6B Жыл бұрын

I think you mean Kankakee marsh.

@dalen.tenney5210 4 жыл бұрын

Imagine doing that today!!! We can’t even build a fence across Mexico!!!

@speed2998 4 жыл бұрын

Interesting comparison. The Canal joined the world's nations; the fence is intended to divide them.

@dickjohnson5025 4 жыл бұрын

speed2998 The fence prevents law breakers.

@craigslistrro709 4 жыл бұрын

@@speed2998 Unless you compare your comparison to opposite sides of a canal, then then it divides.

@ronaldfazekas6492 4 жыл бұрын

We needed the canal--we don't need the wall

@craigslistrro709 4 жыл бұрын

@@ronaldfazekas6492 We need the wall, just like any sovereign... Feelings don't take the place of logic.

@senorsuerte3391 4 жыл бұрын

In the age of 'Corona' (I prefer Cerveza Panama, jajaja!) Kudos to Doctors Major Ronald Ross & General William Gorgas for combating 'Yellow Fever/Malaria' if not for their leadership The Panama Canal would never have been completed !!!

@mikeskidmore6754 4 жыл бұрын

Seems there were some Bay City Machines used on Panama Canala maybe Marion too ..

@Sl20 Жыл бұрын

Awesome job!!!!,🔴🫢🤫

@fritztheted 8 жыл бұрын

wunderbar

@SkyPilot54 4 жыл бұрын

Crane used for digging panama canel, sunk off shore in vallejo ca

@martya.aliceafuont7254 4 жыл бұрын

Costa Rica has one machine in Turrialba Cartago University of Costa Rica the shovel worked ago un bild Panamá Canal .

@miguelangelvalderrama1808 5 жыл бұрын

My country :Panama 😏

@gonebamboo4116 4 жыл бұрын

@ 0:43 things haven't changed a bit!

@robfraley4210 5 жыл бұрын

W O W . . . Was THAT Ever Good... ✅

@jockellis 4 жыл бұрын

Did Cat buy Bucyrus? We had one (diesel) at the maintenance shop of the highway construction company where I worked summers during college. When I found out how much operators made I was ready to dump school for this. But they never would let me learn to operate one.

@kristoffermangila Жыл бұрын

Yes, in 2011

@richardweil8813 5 ай бұрын

Digging the canal was a matter of having the right men in charge of the project as much as technology. The disease problem was solved once the public health people were allowed to drain all standing water and so remove the mosquitos. As discussed in "The Path Between the Seas" this was delayed because of refusal to believe that insects caused it.

@mochaholic3039 4 жыл бұрын

Do we still have surviving examples of those heavy steam shovels? I've seen the smaller 3-man ones at steam tractor shows.

@geofbarrington9574 4 жыл бұрын

Theres one on Thistle Creek up in the Yukon . It's not as big as those in the video but the story goes it was working on the canal and when it got released was on the way to Alaska but ended up on Thisle instead

@samskeeter1 3 жыл бұрын

@@geofbarrington9574 I believe there's one in Australia kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nK6ji8V8t7yVhJs.html

@geofbarrington9574 3 жыл бұрын

@@samskeeter1 I saw the one on thistle creek ..it was a real piece of junk ..quarter inch steel plate on wood pads . The boom looked super light and then I turned around to look at the engine ...it was steam ...that blew me away ! But back in the day these were equivalent to the big ropeeshovels used in fort mac ..they were really something special . And like weve been talking they ended up all over...very valuable machines back then .

@timslager5966 2 жыл бұрын

There's a smaller one at the Mining Museum in Nederland Colorado, can't remember the model number but they had it operating on compressed air.

@mauriceupton1474 Жыл бұрын

Panama was actually Colombia. They refused to allow the canal to be dug, so the next minute, they had a revolution, and Panama was born. Just in time for WW1. Perfect timing to get wool and beef from NZ and AU to Europe faster.

@claudionapoleaoferreira6741 Жыл бұрын

Game of interests.

@bluecollar58 6 ай бұрын

I still can’t believe we let the Canal go after all that sacrifice.

@ronaldfazekas6492 4 жыл бұрын

We do have recordings of Teddy Roosevelt--his voice was high-pitched--nothing like the voice reading his speeches

@jockellis 4 жыл бұрын

That’s what I thought but old time sound recording left much to be desired. They said the same of Abe Lincoln.

@timmayer8723 4 жыл бұрын

The Panama Canal was the modern day equivalent of the great pyramids of Giza Egypt.

@speed2998 4 жыл бұрын

More than that. The Canal serves genuine human needs. The pyramids just served religion and arrogant kings.

@timmayer8723 4 жыл бұрын

speed2998 true, didn't look at it that way. The project was so overwhelming, the work bordered on indentured servitude, people died by the hundreds from all manner of accident and malaria. Spent much time in the Canal Zone back in the sixties with the USAF. The zone is another world from the country of Panama which surrounds it. It is hot, with withering humidity. A true jungle from border to border. Many small tribes

@miguelangelvalderrama1808 3 жыл бұрын

Many of those Bucyrus machines were abandoned and flooded in the Gatun Lake.

@acrowe2512 Жыл бұрын

I was wondering about that. Thanks. A shame but understandable. A shame only because I would really love to see one working right in front of my eyes.

@miguelangelvalderrama1808 Жыл бұрын

@@acrowe2512 Yes😢, and we here in Panama only have one of those machine and it is a crane with double hook and it's located infront of the Pamama Canal Administration Building, but it doesn't work, it is only for watching.

@lindabingham394 3 жыл бұрын

why bucyrus video by catepilliar

@Imintune... 4 жыл бұрын

Had to battle tough terrain and tropical illness mostly malaria yellow fever or whatever came up.

@bluecollar58 6 ай бұрын

I wonder how difficult it would be to make the panama canal a sea level cut , as was originally planned , using todays tech and tools.

@gonebamboo4116 4 жыл бұрын

Nice technique of adding action to the stills. To bad Caterpillar isn't as strategically essential like Boeing or to big to tariff like Apple

@randbarrett8706 4 жыл бұрын

I don’t understand in what way Boeing is strategically essential?

@WAL_DC-6B Жыл бұрын

WWII U.S. Navy, Admiral William F. Halsey was quoted as follows: "If I had to give credit to the instruments and machines that won us the war in the Pacific, I would rate them in this order: submarines first, radar second, planes third, bulldozers forth."

@vitalitimofejev6086 4 жыл бұрын

😍

@smokechub 5 ай бұрын

The U.S.A of yesterday, tough, fast, and strong! The U.S.A of today, too many politicians and special groups in the way! We now live in very sad times...😞

@Petr60 4 жыл бұрын

Интересно, какое же топливо сжигали в паровом котлу эксковатора. Ведь для них надо очень много угля, но нигде и намёка не видно о его доставки к ним. А может они работали на ядерном топливе? А в ролике это уже монтаж: на фото из трубы дым идёт.

@Rudi-Weserwolff 9 жыл бұрын

I m interresting in the bucyrus railroad shovels - does anyone exist until today and is able to get under steam?

@duggf1 9 жыл бұрын

I don't know about any Bucyrus shovels from the building of the canal still in existence, but there is a Marion model 91 sitting in the Town of LeRoy, in Genessee County, New York. Here is a brief passage I took from a government application for historic designation for the shovel: ...The Marion Steam Shovel in LeRoy is ...believed to be the only Model 91 Marion shovel in existence, which is same model that was shipped to Panama for the excavation of the Panama Canal; though research to date has not confirmed it, it is also believed to be one of the shovels sent to Panama. It is also significant for its association with the limestone industry in LeRoy and the history of the General Crushed Stone Company... The shovel was used until 1949, and has been sitting at the quarry ever since. The railroad trucks were removed and replaced with crawler tracks in the '20's.

@miguelangelvalderrama1808 8 жыл бұрын

+Rudi Weserwolff All those machines that were used ln the building of the panamá canal are sank In the Gatun lake, once they finished the canal they flooded the área with water from the sea and from the lake, i tell you because i Live In panamá.The only one bucyrus machine i see is a crane that is located Infront of the Panamá canal administration building

@lowercherty 8 жыл бұрын

+Rudi Weserwolff There is a newer Atlantic shovel, similar to the 95 ton, on static display at the Minnesota Museum of Mining in Chisholm MN. This one had been converted to tracks. There is a Marion 91 in Le Roy NY on static display, as mentioned below. There is a Marion Osgood shovel in Rollag, MN converted to wheels that operates one weekend a year (Labor Day Weekend) at a steam thresher show. There is a Bucyrus 65 ton that operates periodically in Australia, don't know when or where. There are videos of both on KZfaq.

@Rudi-Weserwolff 8 жыл бұрын

+B Laquisha Thank you! :-)

@marcbach5880 4 жыл бұрын

@@duggf1 Is that quarry accessible at all to view the shovel?

@fpatrickmcallister9388 4 жыл бұрын

Dues ex machina!

@user-cf5cv3xb9s 4 жыл бұрын

ita vere

@claudio.napoleaoferreira995 3 жыл бұрын

os.primeiros.operadores.do.mundo.

@johnnymichaelangelo9264 Жыл бұрын

Back when girls was girls and men were men👏👏💪

@claudio.napoleaoferreira995 3 жыл бұрын

e.os.mecanicos.dessas.maquinas.

@justjames9775 5 ай бұрын

Even though we now have much more productive earthmoving equipment, this project could never be undertaken in this day and age. The environmental fruitcakes would have it bogged down in court in perpetuity.

@cathringustafsson2426 5 жыл бұрын

The Suez canal was already there. Look at old maps.

@randbarrett8706 4 жыл бұрын

The Mediterranean isn’t a great ocean

@simetric6551 4 жыл бұрын

Easy to dig in flat soft sand.

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory 4 жыл бұрын

On the other side if the world, yes

@claudio.napoleaoferreira995 3 жыл бұрын

of.dragline.

@harryballs112 4 ай бұрын

Caterpillar cant take glory for this . They only brought them out what 4 years ago?

@dalen.tenney5210 4 жыл бұрын

Panama wasn’t in danger of being destroyed.

@dalen.tenney5210 4 жыл бұрын

if we can get the pedestrians stopped we can work on the drones!

@carterseib223 4 жыл бұрын

0:44 was that his real voice but recorded ?

@andrewsmart2949 6 жыл бұрын

to bad it was bought up by crapapillar

@zeeshan_engineering_services 5 жыл бұрын

hmmmm Caterpillar

@tonymartin4255 4 жыл бұрын

yep don't put your name on something that you had nothing to do with just because you own the company now you don't own their history just caterpillar trying to big note themselves

@codered5431 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing. When men women had grit.

@pyromaniac354 4 жыл бұрын

Ahhh. The good times when governments weren't controlled by bankers

@coloradostrong 3 жыл бұрын

No, that is when the ILLEGAL "Federal Reserve" was voted in, while most of the government was on vacation. And there was NO income tax before then either.

@danielschmidt2541 2 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure they were back then. Governments have always been owned by the wealthy.

@austinwagoncompany 8 жыл бұрын

Too bad Carter gave it up, they aught to build another wider one on the southern US border. It'd give people jobs, secure the border better and after completion, be a revenue source for the US and the states along the canal.

@austinwagoncompany 8 жыл бұрын

+BlameRepublicans I return your ignorant comment back to you so you can follow your own misguided ugly advice.

@austinwagoncompany 8 жыл бұрын

+austinwagoncompany If you have doubts about the United States rights to the panama canal in perpetuity per the original treaty you can read about it in these links: www.britannica.com/event/Hay-Bunau-Varilla-Treaty. www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Panama_Canal.aspx. tulsabeacon.com/article/why-did-president-jimmy-carter-give-away-the-panama-canal. your welcome "a bunch"

@ToreDL87 5 жыл бұрын

Haha, destroyed so mercilessly he even deleted his comment.

@tomrogers9467 3 жыл бұрын

Sure, let’s build a three thousand mile canal to replace a hundred mile one. Makes perfect sense to me. And if you want to correct my distances, go for it. I have a life. Get one.

@austinwagoncompany 3 жыл бұрын

@@tomrogers9467 I don't know what kind of life you're living but if popping off to some nobody online and then blindly telling them to get a life helps you somehow deal with your inferiorities, then I'll just wish you well sir.

@jasonn.3191 Жыл бұрын

To bad cat killed off Bucyrus

@user-hf8yl1wy8g 5 жыл бұрын

++!

@saturn5mtw567 Жыл бұрын

0:50 LMAO, they really didnt go into things like this enough in US history class, but America has a long history of such *suspiciously* "convenient revolutions" happening in situations like this.

@LiquorandCheeseburgers 6 ай бұрын

We've been the evil empire since our Civil War.

@currentbatches6205 4 жыл бұрын

0:37 - And he was crooked enough to make it happen! Lots of photo work in that vid; many images have smoke pouring from the stack while the people are stock-still.

@buynsell365 6 жыл бұрын

This was when people "worked" for a living and got things done. None of this shit of talking on the phone, texting, whining about how someone hurt there feelings. These guys "Gotter her dune" .

@TheDevilToPay1863 6 жыл бұрын

nacra60na And death. 5,600+ workmen died on the project, and 20,000+ from the French Endeavor. Yep, the “good old days”

@gregd3551 4 жыл бұрын

@@TheDevilToPay1863 and yet they kept digging to get the job done.

@coloradostrong 3 жыл бұрын

"their" feelings, not "there" feelings, as though "their" feelings are over in a field you Simp.

@eddiesimms9301 6 ай бұрын

When AMERICA, thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt, DECIDED to take on the MASSIVE project to COMPLETE the building of the Panama Canal, she PROVED to WORLD there isn't ANY job too small or too BIG that AMERICA can't HANDLE !!!

@peteacher52 3 жыл бұрын

And all done without Planning Consents, Building Consents, Risk Management Analyses, Heath & Safety Management Plans, Environmental Impact Reports. In other words, the project would not have been possible today without corruption and under-the-table ticklers.

@tomrogers9467 3 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget protecting the “one horned one eyed pied purple people eater” salamanders that the eco-terrorists planted to stop the project!