U.S. engineers began canal construction with the raising of the American flag over the Panamanian Isthmus in 1904. President Theodore Roosevelt originally appointed seasoned railroad builders to lead the immense project but in April of 1907, he transferred authority to a single officer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Completed through competition and coordination of military and civil experts, the Panama Canal is a tribute to the engineers who built it.
As the largest engineering project of its time, the Panama Canal was an intricate system of locks, dams, lakes, and excavations. Designed to lift ships through Panama's rugged mountains and lower them into shallow coastal bays, it stretched from sea to sea and across the continental divide to join together America's coasts and the great shipping nations of the world.
After its completion, the Panama Canal was celebrated by many as the paramount achievement of humankind to that point. Man had overcome nature to great economic, political, and military gain. Despite countless other momentous events of the 20th Century, exhibitions, films, books, and other tributes highlight how America and her engineers have portrayed the canal over the past century.
