1939 3c Panama Canal

US #856
1939 Panama Canal

• Commemorates 25th anniversary of opening of Panama Canal
• Features President Theodore Roosevelt and General George Goethals
  
  

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Value:  3¢, First-Class mail rate
First Day of Issue: August 15, 1939
First Day City: USS Charleston, Canal Zone
Quantity Issued: 67,813,350
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Flat plate
Format:  Sheets of 200
Perforations: 11
Color: Deep Red Violet

Why the stamp was issued:  The stamp was issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Panama Canal.

About the stamp design:  The stamp pictured a steamship passing through the Gaillard Cut, along with images of President Theodore Roosevelt and General George Goethals. 

First Day City: The First Day of Issue ceremony took place aboard the US Navy’s Charleston, which was sailing in the Canal Zone at the time.  The ship had its own post office aboard.  Because US stamps weren’t valid in the Canal Zone, the ceremony couldn’t be held on land.

History the stamp represents:  In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt visited the Canal Zone, then suggested a new set of Canal Zone stamps be issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its operation.  In addition to the Canal Zone stamps, the US Post Office Department also issued a stamp to honor the anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal.

One of the men pictured on the stamp is US Army general and civil engineer, George Washington Goethals.  He attended the College of the City of New York before receiving an appointment to West Point.  After graduating second in his class in 1880, Goethals was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Goethals was appointed assistant instructor in practical astronomy at West Point before attending the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point.  From there he was made an engineer officer in Vancouver, Washington, where he oversaw the replacement of a bridge across the Spokane River.  Goethals returned to West Point to teach engineering for four years and was then placed in charge of the Muscle Shoals Canal construction on the Tennessee River.  He also built canals near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at Colbert Shoals, Alabama.  During the Spanish American War, he served as chief of engineer in the Volunteer Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Goethals chief engineer of the Panama Canal.  In addition to serving as chief engineer, Goethals was named the chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and president of the Panama Railroad Company and its steamship line.  Responsible only to the secretary of war and the president, Goethals wielded more power than the previous chief engineers.
Goethals was highly respected for his honesty and fairness and was considered to be an excellent administrator.  He quickly erased the fears of those who thought they would be working in a military regime, saying “I am no longer a commander in the United States Army.  I now consider that I am commanding the Army of Panama and that the enemy we are going to combat is the Culebra Cut and the locks and dams at both ends of the Canal, and any man here on the work who does his duty will never once have any cause to complain of militarism.”  Goethals never once wore his military uniform on the isthmus.
Under Goethals’ leadership, the canal was completed in 1914, two years ahead of schedule.  That same year, he was also appointed the first civil governor of the Panama Canal Zone.  He remained in that position until he resigned in 1917.  Goethals went on to serve as the state engineer of New Jersey and manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation before being appointed acting quartermaster general that December.  Goethals reorganized the Quartermaster Corps, took control of purchasing away from outside agencies, and transformed the corps into the War Department’s most important purchasing agency.
After the war, Goethals received the Distinguished Service Medal, was named a commander in France’s Legion of Honour, and an honorary knight commander in Great Britain.  He later formed his own engineering and construction firm and became the first consulting engineer of the Port of New York Authority.  He died on January 21, 1928.  Later that same year, the Goethals Bridge was named in his honor, and he was featured on one of the first original (non-overprint) Panama Canal stamps.