proposal was combined with those for other waterways, such as the St. Lawrence Seaway, with the aim of building broader political support. Also, in the early 1960s it was proposed that the canal could be created by use of atomic blasts. As part of his "Southern Strategy" for election, Republican President Richard Nixon committed to the project. He included $1 million in the Corps of Engineers' 1971 budget to start construction of the Tenn-Tom. Funding shortages and legal challenges delayed construction until December 1972, but Nixon's efforts initiated official Tenn-Tom waterway construction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work on the project in 1972. During the construction process, land excavation reached about in depth and required the excavation of nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil (the equivalent of more than 100 million dump truck loads). The project was completed on December 12, 1984, nearly two years ahead of schedule. Political challenges The $2 billion in required funding for the Tenn-Tom waterway was repeatedly attacked by elected representatives and political organizations. Opponents asserted that the estimated economic benefits of the waterway by the Corps of Engineers were unsupportable based on projected traffic volume. By 1977, the Tenn-Tom was one of many such Corps of Engineers projects that had been initiated in the belief that they would directly or indirectly return to the Treasury their cost(s) of construction. Immediately after his election in 1976, Democratic President Jimmy Carter announced a plan to slash Tenn-Tom federal funding, as part of broader reductions in federal spending. Carter, and the economic advisors recruited to his administration, objected to the "waste" of taxpayer dollars on "pork-barrel projects". But, after more than 6,500 waterway supporters attended a public hearing held in Columbus, Mississippi, as part of Carter's review of the proposed waterway, the President withdrew his opposition. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad filed a series of lawsuits to halt construction of the waterway. Railroad companies, which served as a major transport alternative to river traffic and stood to potentially lose the most value from construction of the waterway, asserted that its construction violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Federal courts ruled in favor of the project. Economic effects When completed, the Tenn-Tom waterway's total cost was $1.992 billion, including non-federal costs. Some political and economic commentators derided the project as "pork-barrel politics at its worst". For the first few years after its completion, such criticism