Panama Canal-Culebra Cut

Completion

Steam shovels broke through the Culebra Cut on May 20, 1913. The Americans had lowered the summit of the cut from 59 metres (194 ft) to 12 metres (39 ft) above sea level, at the same time widening it considerably, and they had excavated over 76 million cubic metres (100 million cubic yards) of material. Some 23 million cubic metres (30 million cubic yards) of this material was additional to the planned excavation, having been brought into the cut by the landslides.

Gaillard was promoted to colonel in 1913. One month later, on December 5, he died of a brain tumor in Baltimore, Maryland and hence he did not live to see the opening of the canal in 1914. The Culebra Cut, as it was originally known, was renamed to the Gaillard Cut on April 27, 1915, in his honor. After the handing over of the canal to Panama in 2000, the old nameCulebra Cut was reinstated.