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

[@burntsider8457]

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.

[@asd36f]

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]

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]

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!

[@roymcneil6026]

25,000 plus deaths occurred during construction.

[@franktrask1264]

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 (kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6GaZY2DpbGIbNk) 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!

[@lesshepherd5239]

Cat, Yet again taking another company's glory

[@tomrogers9467]

Now most cats are built in asia.

[@scottprather5645]

I love these old documentaries thank you for posting it

[@robmcnew9074]

Back when Americans built great things. Great video

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

Still do.

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

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

[@tomrogers9467]

Then came unions!

[@charlesjvallejr.4012]

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]

@@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!!

[@Dirtbug473]

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]

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.

[@jockellis]

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.

[@superzstuff]

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]

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

[@gerrynightingale9045]

*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!"*

[@dalen.tenney5210]

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

[@speed2998]

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

[@dickjohnson5025]

speed2998 The fence prevents law breakers.

[@craigslistrro709]

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

[@ronaldfazekas6492]

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

[@craigslistrro709]

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

[@aaronwilcox6417]

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]

Com certeza meu amigo com certeza.

[@mauriceupton1474]

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]

Game of interests.

[@Felitera]

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

[@JMDinOKC]

I believe Roosevelt was ASSISTANT Secretary of the Navy.

[@grandpaears8746]

Loooooooove the 3D effects !!!

[@chupacabra1765]

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]

MAGA!

[@richardweil8813]

@@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.

[@mikeskidmore6754]

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]

I think you mean Kankakee marsh.

[@PHIL5251]

Grandpa Bill Bushard was Stationed here with the army digging this

[@daichimax]

Beautiful job! Good editing

[@mikeskidmore6754]

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

[@Gus1966-c9o]

Great video, top notch narrator .

[@pekkavalkonen1973]

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

[@nigel900]

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

[@doctormcboy5009]

FJB

[@kristoffermangila]

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

[@nigel900]

@@kristoffermangila 👍🏻

[@gonebamboo4116]

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

[@notthatdonald1385]

Nice video. Pretty simplified version.

[@erikbarrett8523]

One of the B.E. steam shovels used on the project still exists. I believe it wound up in Colorado or thereabouts. There are videos of it being walked out on compressed air from where it was abandoned. It was disassembled and transported to a museum.

[@mattbushong5275]

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

[@Emilystar1095]

Self propelled

[@johng5187]

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

[@MrDaiseymay]

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]

The gin and tonic

[@jockellis]

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]

Yes, in 2011

[@martya.aliceafuont7254]

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

[@mochaholic3039]

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

[@geofbarrington9574]

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]

@@geofbarrington9574 I believe there's one in Australia kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHnWiZWBh7tkisk

[@geofbarrington9574]

@@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]

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.

[@erikbarrett8523]

And then we have it away. Thanks Jimmy.

[@SkyPilot54]

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

[@senorsuerte3391]

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 !!!

[@miguelangelvalderrama1808]

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

[@acrowe2512]

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]

@@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.

[@juvenaldominguez7022]

I love history

[@EldredTGlass]

My Grandfather a Railroad Machinist spent many years in the steam repair shop it stopped finally we he caught Yellow Fever

[@miguelangelvalderrama1808]

My country :Panama 😏

[@ronaldfazekas6492]

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

[@jockellis]

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

[@timmayer8723]

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

[@speed2998]

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

[@timmayer8723]

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

[@johnnymichaelangelo9264]

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

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

👍👌👏 Extremely impressive.

[@Imintune...]

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

[@gonebamboo4116]

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]

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

[@WAL_DC-6B]

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."

[@richardweil8813]

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.

[@robfraley4210]

W O W . . . Was THAT Ever Good... ✅

[@pyromaniac354]

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

[@coloradostrong]

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]

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

[@justjames9775]

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.

[@Petr60]

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.

[@Sl20]

Awesome job!!!!,🔴🫢🤫

[@johnbouwens2024]

Great video ...

[@lindabingham394]

why bucyrus video by catepilliar

[@bluecollar58]

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.

[@jasonn.3191]

To bad cat killed off Bucyrus

[@fritztheted]

wunderbar

[@bluecollar58]

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

[@CraneSpotting]

One of those old Bucyrus steam shovels from the Panama Canal project is in Nederland, Colorado. It made its way from Panama to the gold mines in California then eventually to the Colorado gold mine. I have several photos of it. 🇺🇸🏗💥

[@saturn5mtw567]

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]

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

[@buynsell365]

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]

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

[@gregd3551]

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

[@coloradostrong]

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

[@smokechub]

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...😞

[@austinwagoncompany]

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]

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

[@austinwagoncompany]

+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]

Haha, destroyed so mercilessly he even deleted his comment.

[@tomrogers9467]

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]

@@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.

[@Rudi-Weserwolff]

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

[@duggf1]

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]

+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]

+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 KZbin.

[@Rudi-Weserwolff]

+B Laquisha Thank you! :-)

[@marcbach5880]

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

[@cathringustafsson2426]

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

[@randbarrett8706]

The Mediterranean isn’t a great ocean

[@simetric6551]

Easy to dig in flat soft sand.

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

On the other side if the world, yes

[@andrewsmart2949]

to bad it was bought up by crapapillar

[@zeeshan_engineering_services]

hmmmm Caterpillar

[@tonymartin4255]

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

[@dalen.tenney5210]

Panama wasn’t in danger of being destroyed.

[@dalen.tenney5210]

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

[@carterseib223]

0:44 was that his real voice but recorded ?

[@peteacher52]

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]

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

[@claudio.napoleaoferreira995]

of.dragline.

[@claudio.napoleaoferreira995]

os.primeiros.operadores.do.mundo.

[@fpatrickmcallister9388]

Dues ex machina!

[@심육군]

ita vere

[@claudio.napoleaoferreira995]

e.os.mecanicos.dessas.maquinas.

[@eddiesimms9301]

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 !!!

[@codered5431]

Amazing. When men women had grit.

[@markmathews6876]

plenty of white men behind these contraptions , not much diversity going on , guess they wanted the job done asap

[@fueledbymsk6334]

I think maybe there some people die while construct it 😥 people at 19s usually dont take safety measure as well.

[@Nudnik1]

CAT selling Chinese parts now at dealer.. No thanks

[@vitalitimofejev6086]

😍

[@scooter2kool173]

To bad we gave it back after all that

[@billysgarden-u9s]

its a known fact the canal was there 1000s of years ago and just dredged out btw so was the suez canal

[@jackt7308]

Really?

[@jackroadarmel2096]

Could never accomplish anything like this today because of environmentalists

[@ЮрийДерюгин-е4и]

++!