st began cleaning.Stevens and his crew began draining swamps, sweeping drainage ditches, paved roads and installed plumbing. They sprayed pesticides by the ton. They built entire towns, complete with housing, schools, churches and meeting halls.When the cleaning was finished, Stevens began work on digging the trenches. Gigantic steam shovels scooped tons of dirt. Railroad cars ran continuously on double tracks. The used the dirt removed to form the charges Dam. By December of 1905, yellow fever had been officially eradicated in the canal region.Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Goethals took over for Stevens who resigned. Goethals was know for being demanding and rigidly organized. The hardest part of the canal process was the Culebra Cut, where 100,000,000 cubic yard of dirt and rock had to be moved.(Britannica (no date) The labors were mostly English speaking west Indian blacks who made 10 cents an hour. They moved more then 200 trainloads a day. When mudslides filled the Cut repeatedly, they had to dig it out again. There was accidents of all kinds lost equipment, and deaths. Industries were also having to work overtime. More then 50 mills, and machine shops turned out supplies just for the canal construction It took them nine years to complete the canal. The Canal opened officially on August 15, 1914. It took a back seat in the press because during this time World War I was going on. This was a massive engineering feet they built a railroad, three sets of concrete locks and a huge artificial lake. This had been one of the greatest engineering feet of our time.Navigating the CanalTo pass from the Atlantic to the pacific ships enter the channel in Limon bay, which extends for a distance of about seven miles to the Gatun Locks. At Gatun a series of three locks lift ships 85 feet to Gatun lake. The lake is formed by Gatun Dam and fed by the Charges River. You travel for 23 miles till you reach Gamboa. This is where the cut through the contine...
