Crews remove soil during construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi April 4, 1978. It took over 100-million dump truck loads of soil to connect the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, opening a new passageway to the Gulf of Mexico in 1985. The Mobile District constructed the southern 195 miles of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, including nine locks and dams. The Nashville District excavated the northern 29 miles of the project, including the massive 27-mile divide cut, which connected the waterway with Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River. The Corps excavated nearly 310 million cubic yards of soil during the 12-year project. In comparison, 210-million cubic yards of earth were removed from the Panama Canal. In the end, the two districts, 125 prime contractors and 1,200 subcontractors worked on the overall waterway. The 10 locks and five dams required a total of 2.2 million cubic yards of concrete and 33,000 tons of reinforcing steel. (USACE Historical Photo)