American engineers successfully utilized millions of pounds of dynamite to blast through the continental divide at the Culebra Cut in Panama, completing the Panama Canal. This monumental engineering feat required slicing through unstable mountain terrain, which triggered massive, unpredictable landslides that frequently buried equipment. The heavy reliance on explosive blasting allowed for the excavation of over 100 million cubic yards of earth.

The completion of the canal via explosive force generated a body of triumphalist geopolitical poetry in the United States, alongside critical, anti-imperialist verses in Latin America. It became a central literary symbol of the American century, showcasing how dynamite could physically split continents.