Building the Panama Canal (Men, Machines, and Methods)

During the early 20th century, strategic control of the oceans was essential to all of the great industrial powers of the world. In 1904, United States President Theodore Roosevelt would commit the brains of American engineering and the brawn of America's industrial machine to build a canal of unprecedented scope and challenge. The Panama Canal's successful construction was the result of the convergence of extraordinary men, machines, and methods. In the decades preceding the Panama Canal's construction, tremendous advancements were realized in every discipline of engineering. In the realm of heavy civil construction, these collective engineering advancements provided the construction technology that made the Panama Canal possible. This paper highlights how the right men, the right machines, and the right methods all came together in 1904 to build a project of unprecedented scope and challenges.