Actually the first US carrier not able to go through the Panama canal was the USS Midway commissioned in 1945. Had the Montana class battleships been built they would not have been able to use the canal either. At the time this was considered to be acceptable as the larger third lock project was underway. It apparently got cancelled after the war. The enlarged locks are only being completed now by Panama with help, I believe, from China because commercial shipping is getting too big to use the canal.