GAILLARD CUT

also called Culebra Cut, Spanish Corte De Culebra, artificial channel in Panama forming a part of the Panama Canal. It is an excavated gorge, approximately 8 miles (13 km) long, across the Continental Divide. It is named for David du Bose Gaillard, the American engineer who planned its construction. Overflow from the Chagres River, which is dammed at Gatun to form Gatun Lake at the north end of the cut, is guided past Gamboa into the cut and south to the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, which permit the descent of ships from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The cut has to be constantly dredged because of its restricted channel (47 feet deep and 500 feet wide); Gamboa is the headquarters for all canal-dredging operations. The increasing size of ships and the carrying of hazardous cargo have increased the frequency with which navigation must be restricted to one-way traffic.