Culebra Cut

[1][2] The excavation of the cut was begun by a French venture, led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, which was attempting to build a sea-level canal between the oceans, with a bottom width of 22 meters (72 feet).

A combination of disease, underestimation of the problem, and financial difficulties led to the collapse of the French effort, which was bought out by the United States in 1904.

Under the leadership of John F. Stevens, and later George Washington Goethals, the American effort started work on a cut that was wider but not as deep, as part of a new plan for an elevated lock-based canal, with a bottom width of 91 metres (299 ft); this would require creation of a valley up to 540 metres (0.34 mi) wide at the top.

Major David du Bose Gaillard, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, joined the project at the same time as Goethals, and he was put in charge of the central district of the canal, which was responsible for all of the work between Gatun Lake and the Pedro Miguel locks—most notably, the Culebra Cut.

Elaborate (multiple) air compressor facilities using some 30 miles of pipe powered hundreds of compressed air drills to bore holes for 400,000 pounds of dynamite per month[7] to blast and fragment the rock of the cut so that it could be excavated by steam shovels, most made by Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee.

Six thousand men worked in the cut, drilling holes, placing explosives, controlling steam shovels, and running the dirt trains.

Twice a day work stopped for blasting, and then the steam shovels were moved in to take the loose spoil (dirt and rock) away.

[citation needed] The excavation of the cut was one of the greatest areas of uncertainty in the creation of the canal, due to the unpredicted large landslides.

The clay was too soft to be excavated by the steam shovels, and it was therefore largely removed by sluicing it with water from a high level.