The Panama Canal officially opened on August 15, 1914, only a few days
after the outbreak of World War I. A.B. Nichols, who had been involved
with the project either directly or indirectly for more than fifteen
years, must have witnessed the event. He resigned shortly thereafter from
his position as Office Engineer at Culebra, and sailed for the U.S. on the
Panama on October 4, 1914.
Another eyewitness to the event was Ernest Hallen, Official
Photographer of the Isthmian Canal Commission. Hallen began
photographically documenting the construction process in 1907. The Canal
Record, an official weekly newsletter, reported in 1908 that employees
could buy his pictures by making written application to the "Office
Engineer who will authorize or disapprove the issue or sale of such
photographs." The unnamed "Office Engineeer" presumably was
Nichols, so it not surprising that some of Hallen’s photographs are
included in Nichols’s notebooks. These unsigned photographs are probably
by Hallen. They show the S.S. Cristobal (top) making a test run through
the canal on August 4, 1914, eleven days before the official opening and
inaugural passage of the S.S. Ancon (bottom).
