about of clay. This slide caused many people to suggest the construction of the Panama Canal would be impossible; Gaillard described the slides as tropical glaciers, made of mud instead of ice. The clay was too soft to be excavated by the steam shovels, and it was therefore largely removed by sluicing it with water from a high level. After this, the sediment in the upper levels of the cut were removed, resulting in less weight over the weak strata. Landslides continued to be a problem after the canal's opening, causing intermittent closures. Completion Steam shovels broke through the Culebra Cut on May 20, 1913. The Americans had lowered the summit of the cut from above sea level, at the same time widening it considerably, and they had excavated over of material. Some 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 name Culebra Cut was reinstated. See also Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone Earthworks (engineering) References Further reading Making the Dirt Fly, Building the Panama Canal, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, USA. Ira E. Bennett, History Of The Panama Canal. TR's Legacy — The Panama Canal , PBS, USA. External links Photos of the Culebra Cut in the Panama Stereographs Collection Image of the Cucaracha Slide Cuts (earthmoving) Panama Canal 1913 establishments in Panama