Panama Canal
France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
Henry Larcom Abbot
"Brig. Gen. Henry Larcom Abbot, coauthor of a classic work on the hydrology of the Mississippi River, began his involvement with the Panama Canal as a member of the new French canal company's Comité Technique and Comité Statutaire, from 1897 to 1900. While the United States was assuming responsibility for building the Canal, Abbot worked for the French company as a consulting engineer during the transitional period, dividing his time between Paris and the isthmus. After the Americans assumed control of the project Abbot served from 1905 to 1906 on the Board of Consulting Engineers, a body appointed by Theodore Roosevelt and charged with the preparation of a plan for canal construction. The majority of the board recommended a sea-level canal. The minority report, probably written largely by Abbot, helped to persuade Roosevelt and Secretary of War William Howard Taft to adopt a plan for a lock canal. Abbot's last service to the canal was as a member of the Panama Canal Slide Committee in 1915."