<P> The Panama Canal cost the United States about $375 million, including $10 million paid to Panama and $40 million paid to the French company . Although it was the most expensive construction project in US history to that time, it cost about $23 million less than the 1907 estimate despite landslides and an increase in the canal's width . An additional $12 million was spent on fortifications . </P> <P> A total of over 75,000 people worked on the project; at the peak of construction, there were 40,000 workers . According to hospital records, 5,609 workers died from disease and accidents during the American construction era . </P> <P> A total of 182,610,550 m (238,845,582 cu yd) of material was excavated in the American effort, including the approach channels at the canal ends . Adding the work by the French, the total excavation was about 204,900,000 m (268,000,000 cu yd) (over 25 times the volume excavated in the Channel Tunnel project). </P> <P> Of the three presidents whose terms spanned the construction period, Theodore Roosevelt is most associated with the canal and Woodrow Wilson presided over its opening . However, William Howard Taft may have given the canal its greatest impetus for the longest time . Taft visited Panama five times as Roosevelt's secretary of war and twice as president . He hired John Stevens and later recommended Goethals as Stevens' replacement . Taft became president in 1909, when the canal was half finished, and was in office for most of the remainder of the work . However, Goethals later wrote: "The real builder of the Panama Canal was Theodore Roosevelt". </P>

When did the us build the panama canal