<P> On May 6 , 1904 , President Theodore Roosevelt appointed John Findley Wallace , formerly chief engineer and finally general manager of the Illinois Central Railroad , as chief engineer of the Panama Canal Project . Overwhelmed by the disease - plagued country and forced to use often dilapidated French infrastructure and equipment , as well as being frustrated by the overly bureaucratic ICC , Wallace resigned abruptly in June 1905 . He was succeeded by John Frank Stevens , a self - educated engineer who had built the Great Northern Railroad . Stevens was not a member of the ICC ; he increasingly viewed its bureaucracy as a serious hindrance , bypassing the commission and sending requests and demands directly to the Roosevelt Administration in Washington . </P>
who was president when the panama canal was built
President Theodore Roosevelt