Stevens was a wholehearted advocate for the canal to be designed as a [N 001 / V 005 / series of locks] where vessels would be raised and lowered (unlike the Frenchman, de Lesseps, who tried constructing a sea level canal similar to the one he had built at Suez). He arrived in Panama only to realize he had been placed in charge of a disorganized and very depressing operation. Materials, equipment and engineers had been arriving for a year without any sort of direction or organization. In order to salvage the situation - some $128 million had already been spent on the project with very little to show for it - Stevens halted all construction and formulated plans to reorganize the project. It took another two-and-a-half years before the actual building began.
In that time Stevens reorganized the railway system, installed decent housing and built recreation facilities for his engineers. He also set up a cold storage plant for keeping food fresh and wholesome, as well as insisting on having the area cleared of all disease and decent medical facilities made available.
Despite the incredibly hard work Stevens put into the Panama Canal, he was often criticized by senators and the public alike, mainly because of the length of time he was taking to get the construction underway. Eventually, on the verge of collapse from sheer exhaustion and after writing a letter of complaint to the president about constant criticism from Washington, he resigned his position as chief engineer. Roosevelt, it has been said, was entirely unsympathetic and accepted his resignation without so much as a protest.
