Panama Canal
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The construction of the Panama Canal represents one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. A massive terrain engineering wonder, the canal took about a decade to finish once the U.S. gained control of the project (after unsuccessful attempts by the Spanish and French) at a cost of approximately $387 million, a final tally that was more than $20 million under the anticipated budget (History Overview 1). While the canal was not completed and officially operating until August 15, 1914, the U.S. government has deployed a regiment under Lieutenant Menocal to survey a Nicaragua for a canal site as early as 1887 (A Short History 1). The idea for a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was an idea that was actually entertained as early in history as 1534, when Charles I of Spain ordered a survey of a proposed canal route in Panama. It would take more than 300 years before the initial construction was started, but it would be the French who would undertake the massive mission of excavating an estimated 143 million cu. M of earth (Encarta 2).From a construction and engineering point of view, the Panama Canal presented three significant challenges to engineers and others involved in its construction: engineering; sanitation; organization. The U.S. would see the resignation of the first two chief engineers assigned to the project. The first, John F. Wallace, complained of the slow arrival of needed equipment
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t administrator and he immediately organized the operation, instituting a cost-tracking system, organizing workers, established complaint boards to deal with worker grievances and changing the design of the canal because of sinkage of supports at the original site location. One of the biggest engineering obstacles was excavating the Culebra Mountain, what was known as the Culebra Cut. The French had failed at this attempt because they tried to keep a slope at the sides which was not possible to support. Heavy rainfall and mudslides all year long required the use of huge steam-shovels working nearly round the clock, “All told, 96 million cubic yards of dirt were removed from the Cut, 30 million of that being soil deposited in the bottom of the Cut by landslides. Dynamite was the tool of choice for loosening rocky ground – over 19 million pounds of explosives were used in the Cut alone – and only eight fatalities resulted” (Jones 5).
The design of the canal included the dam at Gatun which was built to make the largest manmade lake in the world at that time. This was needed to supply the locks with water and a series of three locks at Gatun were built to move ships past the dam. Ships would be lowered or raised 85 feet vert
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Approximate Word count = 1618
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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