John Frank Stevens, William C Gorgas and George Washington Goethals 1914 (opened)The building of the 50-mile-long Panama Canal was a collosal project, joining together the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by digging away 240 million metric tons of earth through the Isthmus of Panama. Almost as big a project was sanitising the area around the canal, which was mosquito infested and home to serious diseases like Malaria and Yellow Fever. <span> In 1907 President Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals, a military engineer, as head of the project, and under his leadership the canal was finally completed in 1914, two years ahead of the 1916 target. Of benefit to the whole world, the achievement of the Panama Canal signalled American dominance in project management and engineering like no other project of the day.</span>
