Panama Canal Museum

2007 “Make the Dirt Fly” Stevens-Goethals

In 1907, an important milestone was reached in the history of the United States’ construction of the Panama Canal. John F. Stevens, Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC), resigned effective March 31 and was replaced by Lt. Col. George W. Goethals of the US Army Corps of Engineers, who assumed command on April 1.

This ornament commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the “passing of the shovel” from Stevens to Goethals and serves as a tribute to both of those visionary leaders who are recognized widely as being the “Builders of the Panama Canal.”

Stevens, a civilian engineer, arrived in Panama on June 30, 1905, to head up the construction effort. He soon found that there was more to digging the Canal than to “make the dirt fly,” as President Theodore Roosevelt demanded. He realized that disease; lack of adequate food and housing; poor equipment; and unreliable transportation were contributing to the slow progress on the Canal.  He immediately stopped all work on the Canal digging until those problems could be addressed and then set forth to create the organization and infrastructure to deal with them.

As an experienced railroad engineer, Stevens knew that the success of the Canal project also depended on how fast the dirt in the Culebra Cut could be removed. He devised a simple, but extensive and flexible system of railroad trackage that he said was “… probably the greatest single factor, in the nature of a machine, that contributed to the successful building of the Canal.” Surveying the system, he stated, “I don’t mind trying to make the dirt fly, now that we have somewhere to put it.” After visiting the Canal in November, 1906, and seeing the progress being made by Stevens, President Roosevelt wrote: “Now we have taken hold of the job.”

When Stevens resigned, the President decided that the project needed an Army man who would stay on the job until relieved of duty. He appointed Goethals and gave him full authority as Chairman of the ICC and Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal. While Stevens’ primary tasks – the creation of a well-fed, well-housed, well-equipped, well-organized workforce and the conception of a plan of attack – were over by 1907, much remained to be done. Goethals had to contend with many other monumentally complex and difficult problems: Surveys had to be completed; the construction work of the Canal – including designing and building the locks and the Gatun Dam – had yet to begin and the Panama Railroad and a number of towns had to be relocated; all while major landslides continually threatened to disrupt the project.

Goethals remained for the duration of the construction of the Canal, which opened to world trade on August 15, 1914. He then was appointed as the first Governor of the Panama Canal and served in that capacity until his resignation on January 10, 1917.

Both Stevens and Goethals were highly popular and well-respected among the Canal workforce. They remained good friends throughout the years and each highly praised the other for their respective roles in constructing the Panama Canal.