GEORGE
WASHINGTON GOETHALS
1858-1928
George
Washington Goethals was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 29,
1858, the
son of John and Marie Baron Goethals. He received his training as an officer in
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point, from which he graduated in 1880. He
was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on June
12, 1880. In
the eighties he served for four years as an instructor in civil and military
engineering at the Military Academy. He was promoted to first lieutenant
in 1882, and to captain on December 14, 1891. In 1884 he married Effie Rodman.
During the Spanish-American War he served as Chief of
Engineers in the Volunteer Army, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was
later placed in charge of the Muscle Shoals canal construction on the Tennessee
River and also built canals near Chattanooga,
Tennessee and at Colbert Shoals, Alabama.
On March 4, 1907,
Goethals was appointed by President Roosevelt Chairman and Chief Engineer of
the Isthmian Canal Commission (I.C.C.). He served in that position until
completion of Canal construction in 1914, following which he served as Governor
of the Panama Canal until his resignation January 17, 1917.
As Chief Engineer of the I.C.C., Goethals faced many
daunting tasks. Aside from the task of eliminating disease, Goethals was faced
by many unique problems, any one which was a stupendous work in itself. The
first of these was the cutting down to a much lower level several good sized
mountains near the center of the Isthmus in order to minimize the elevation of
the canal itself.
The second mightiest feat was the damming of the powerful
and erratic Chagres River
with the Gatun Dam and the formation of Gatun
Lake. The third was the building of
the huge concrete locks with filling and emptying systems and great steel gates
with opening and closing devices. Many times the plans were changed, and the
chief engineer himself spent many sleepless nights working out the complicated
calculations. But finally the job was done, and in 1915 General Goethals
received the thanks of U.S. Congress "for distinguished service in
constructing the Panama Canal."
The name Goethals will be recorded in history as the man
who accomplished one of the greatest feats of engineering and construction
since the Egyptians completed the mighty pyramids - the construction of the Panama
Canal.
From April to July 1917 Goethals served as General Manager
of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, and on December 18, 1917, was recalled to active duty and
appointed Acting Quartermaster General, U.S. Army. From 1918 to 1919 he was
Chief, Division of Purchase, Storage and Traffic,
U.S. Army. At his
request, Goethals was relieved of active duty with the Army in March 1919.
From 1919 to 1928 Goethals was President of George W.
Goethals and Company, a New York
engineering firm and Advisor and Consulting Engineer to the Port Authority of
New York.
Goethals died on January
21, 1928, in New York City.
Many tributes have been paid to Goethals by distinguished persons. Of these,
the following most represents consensus about the man and about his
achievements.
"Colonel Goethals proved to be the man of all others
to do the job. It would be impossible to overstate what he has done. It is the
greatest task of any kind that any man in the world has accomplished during the
years that Goethals has been at work. It is the greatest task of its own kind
that has ever been performed in the world at all. Colonel Goethals has
succeeded in instilling into the men under him a spirit which elsewhere has
found only in a few victorious armies."
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