4/15/10 Panama Canal Cruise - Puerta Amador, Canal Zone

Visiting the Canal Zone was very interesting. I only wish it had been on the other end as that is where my father was stationed and where I for a couple of year when I was young.

Beautiful sun rays in the morning
Arriving at Puerta Amador, Panama
Arriving at Puerta Amador, Panama
Pilot boar Puerta Amador, Panama
Panama City
Our ship taken from tender
Where the tender comes and goes
Another tender
Harbor at Puerta Amador, Panama
Harbor at Puerta Amador, Panama
Harbor at Puerta Amador, Panama
Bridge of Americas
Bridge of Americas
Bougainvillea
Church at Amador
Goethals Memorial in front of the Panama Canal Administration Building. In 1907 US President Theodore Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals chief engineer of the Panama Canal. The building of the Canal was completed in 1914, two years ahead of the target date of June 1, 1916.
This is a spillway as we drove to the Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mike at Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Susan at Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks
Mira Flores Locks. These are called mules and are used to hold the ships in the middle of the locks as water is either going in or out of the locks. There is usually only inches on either side and if the ship wasn't "anchored" by something it would bank against the locks.
This is the bell from the ship that made the first Panama Canal transit
Mike at a replica of the Mira Flores Locks. You are able to see how they operate.
This is the sign at the Gaillard Plaque
Susan and Mike at the replica of the Gaillard Plaque.

The Gaillard Memorial Plaque is a bronze tablet dedicated to the memory of Lt. Col. David DuBose Gailllard, head engineer of the Central Division, which carried out excavation of the Cut from July 1908 to July 1913.

The scene on the plaque symbolic of the removal of the last shovelful of earth from the Cut. Two steam shovels are shown in the background, while two heroic-size figures in the foreground of the scene remove the last shovelful of dirt from the bottom of the Cut.

The Gaillard Plaque now resides at the bottom of the Administration Building steps in Balboa -- in close proximity to the Goethals Memorial.
A field trip to the Mira Flores Locks by school children
The outside of the Mira Flores building
Buildings in the old Canal Zone
Buildings in the old Canal Zone
Buildings in the old Canal Zone
One of the houses in the old Canal Zone
Housing in the old Canal Zone
This is a typical house in the Canal Zone
Our ship viewed from shore
Our ship from shore
Boat in the harbor Puenta Amador