Editing George Washington Goethals (section)

===Chief engineer of the Panama Canal===
[[File:Panama Canal under construction, 1907.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Panama Canal under construction, 1907]]
Whether contract employees or government workers would build the canal was controversial. Bids for the canal's construction were opened in January 1907, and [[Knoxville, Tennessee]]-based contractor [[William J. Oliver (industrialist)|William J. Oliver]] was the low bidder.  Stevens disliked Oliver, and vehemently opposed his choice. Although Roosevelt initially favoured the use of a contractor, he eventually decided that army engineers should carry out the work.<ref>DuVal, Miles P. (1947) ''And the Mountains Will Move: The Story of the Building of the Panama Canal''. Stanford University Press.</ref> According to the book ''The Panama Canal: An Army's Enterprise'', Goethals made such an impression on [[William Howard Taft]], then [[Secretary of War]], that Taft recommended him as an engineer for the Panama Canal.<ref name=CMH /> Stevens, frustrated by government inaction and the army involvement, resigned from his position.<ref>For an excellent book on these early years see: Mellander, Gustavo A. (1971) ''The United States in Panamanian Politics: The Intriguing Formative Years.'' Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers. {{OCLC|138568}}.</ref>

In February 1907 [[President of the United States|US President]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]] appointed Colonel George Washington Goethals chief engineer of the [[Panama Canal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/panama-engineers/|title=WGBH American Experience . Panama Canal - PBS|website=[[PBS]]|access-date=August 28, 2017|archive-date=December 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231120316/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/panama-engineers/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>McCullough, David (1977), ''The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914'', New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 505-508. {{ISBN|0-671-24409-4}}</ref> The building of the Canal was completed in 1914, two years ahead of the target date of June 10, 1916.<ref>Brodhead, Michael J. 2012. "The Panama Canal: Writings of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Officers Who Conceived and Built It." p.1.</ref>

Colonel Goethals received unstinted praise from visiting engineers and from the technical press of the world. In 1913 the degree of [[Legum Doctor|LL.D.]] was conferred on him by the [[University of Pennsylvania]], and in the spring of 1914 he was awarded medals by            the [[National Geographic Society]], the Civic Forum (New York), and the National Institute of Social Sciences. In 1914, Goethals and [[William Crawford Gorgas]] were awarded the inaugural [[Public Welfare Medal]] from the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=PublicWelfare>{{cite web|title=Public Welfare Award |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=14 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604024100/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm |archive-date=4 June 2011 }}</ref> Also, Congress awarded Goethals their thanks and a promotion to major general. [[Woodrow Wilson|President Wilson]] appointed Goethals as the first [[List of Governors of Panama Canal Zone|Civil Governor of the Panama Canal Zone]].<ref name=CMH />