George Washington Goethals George Washington Goethals ( ; June 29 , 1858 – January 21 , 1928 ) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer , best known for his supervision of the construction and the opening of the Panama Canal . The Goethals Bridge between Staten Island , New York City and Elizabeth , New Jersey is named in his honor , as is the Goethals Medal and the troop ship . Biography . Goethals was born in Brooklyn , New York to Flemish immigrants from Stekene , Belgium Johannes Baptista ( John Louis ) Goethals , a carpenter , and wife Marie Le Barron . Aged 14 , he entered the College of the City of New York . In April 1876 , after three years of college , he won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point . He graduated second in his class in 1880 , a distinction that led that year to a commission as second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers Goethals remained at the military academy during the summer and fall of 1880 as an assistant instructor in practical astronomy . In 1881 he attended the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point , New York . His first field assignment came in the following year with his appointment as engineer officer of the Department of Columbia in Vancouver , Washington . His routine duties included reconnaissance , surveys , and astronomical work , while his most consequential project was the replacement of a 120 - foot bridge across the Spokane River . In September 1886 he transferred to Cincinnati , Ohio , as an assistant to Lieutenant Colonel William E . Merrill , who was in charge of the navigational improvements of the Ohio River . Goethals worked his way up from rodman on the hydrographic surveys to foreman of concrete work and , finally , to chief of construction . Also , in 1884 , he married Effie Rodman ; they had two sons . From 1885 to 1889 he taught civil and military engineering at West Point . He returned to the field in 1889 to assist Colonel John W . Barlow with navigational improvements on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers . While an instructor at West Point Goethals agreed to tutor Charles Young who graduated in 1889 after being reexamined in engineering . In 1891 Goethals was promoted to captain . He soon was placed in charge of the completion of the Muscle Shoals Canal along the Tennessee River near Florence , Alabama . This was his first independent command , and his responsibilities included the design and construction of the Riverton Lock at Colbert Shoals . Goethals ' s recommendation of a single lock with an unprecedented lift of twenty - six feet was initially opposed by his superiors in Washington , and he was forced to persuade the conservative army engineers of the merits of his design . The locks successful construction set a world record for lock height . The success of the Riverton Lock inspired the eventual adoption of high - lift locks elsewhere , including those for the Panama Canal . During the Spanish - American War , he was lieutenant colonel and chief of engineers of United States Volunteers . In 1903 , Goethal became a member of the first Army General Staff in Washington , D . C . According to the book " The Panama Canal : An Army ' s Enterprise " , Goethals made such an impression on President Taft in DC that he later recommended him as an engineer for the Panama Canal . In 1907 US President Theodore Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals chief engineer of the Panama Canal . The building of the Canal was completed in 1914 , two years ahead of the target date of June 10 , 1916 . Colonel Goethals received unstinted praise from visiting engineers and from the technical press of the world . In 1913 the degree of 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 National Academy of Sciences . Also , Congress awarded Goethal ' s their thanks and a promotion to Major General . President Wilson appointed him the first Civil Governor of the Panama Canal Zone . Goethal resigned from the post of Governor of the Canal Zone in 1916 . Soon was made chairman of the board of inquiry in regard to the Adamson eight - hour law . His positions thereafter were : State engineer of New Jersey in 1917 , manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation ( briefly ) , acting quartermaster of the United States Army , and a member of the War Industries Board ( 1918 ) . In 1919 , he requested his release from his active service . Later on , he headed an engineering and construction firm . He became the first consulting engineer of the Port of New York Authority ( now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ) , and the Goethals Bridge , one of the authority ' s bridges between New York and New Jersey , was named for him . He died in New York City on January 21 , 1928 . Legacy . He is the great - great - grandfather of actress Angela Goethals . In World War II , the United States liberty ship , , was named in his honor . He has one street named for him in the city of Richland , Washington , where a number of streets are named for important engineers and scientists . Another one named Goethals Avenue in Queens , New York City at St . John ' s University . He has a street on Fort Leonard Wood , Mo . , named for him . The houses on Goethals Drive on Fort Leonard Wood were destroyed by a tornado that hit the fort on New Year ' s Eve , 2010 . In popular culture . In the play and film " Arsenic and Old Lace " , the character Teddy Brewster mistakes Dr . Einstein for Goethals , inviting him to inspect a new canal .