John Frank Stevens

John Frank Stevens (April 25, 1853 – June 2, 1943) was an American civil engineer who built the Great Northern Railway in the United States and was chief engineer on the Panama Canal between 1905 and 1907. He also led the commission of American railway experts to Russia and was later President of the Interallied Technical Board.

Stevens was born in rural Maine, near West Gardiner to John Stevens, a tanner and farmer, and Harriet Leslie French. He attended Maine State Normal School (now the University of Maine at Farmington) for two years. At the conclusion of his schooling in 1873, bleak economic conditions held little promise of a job, and he chose to go west. Entry into the field of civil engineering evolved from his experience in the Minneapolis city engineer's office. For two years he carried out a variety of engineering tasks, including surveying and building railroads, and at the same time gained experience and an understanding of the subject. He became a practical engineer, self-taught and driven by a self-described "bull-dog tenacity of purpose." In 1878 Stevens married Harriet T. O'Brien. They had five children, two of whom died in infancy.

By the age of 33, in 1886, Stevens was a principal assistant engineer for the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, and in charge of building the line from Duluth, Minnesota to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Although a large part of his work involved surveying, he assisted in all phases of railroading: reconnaissance, locating, organizing, and construction.

In 1889, Stevens was hired by James J. Hill as a locating engineer for the Great Northern Railway.

Stevens earned acclaim in 1889 when he explored Marias Pass, Montana, and determined its practicability for a railroad. He also discovered a pass through the Cascade Range, Stevens Pass, which bears his name. Stevens set railroad construction standards in the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota, and supervised the construction of the Oregon Trunk Line. Hill promoted him to chief engineer in 1895, and later to general manager. He was an efficient administrator with remarkable technical skills and imagination. During his time at the Great Northern, Stevens built over a thousand miles of railroad, including the original Cascade Tunnel. (Most other Pacific Northwest landmarks with the word "Stevens" are named after Isaac Stevens, who is of no relation.)

Stevens left the Great Northern in 1903 for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, where he was promoted to vice-president. Then, in 1905, at Hill's recommendation, he was hired by United States President Theodore Roosevelt as chief engineer of the Panama Canal.

Stevens's primary achievement in Panama was to build the infrastructure needed for the completion of the canal. "The digging," he said, "is the least thing of all." He proceeded immediately to build warehouses, machine shops, and piers. Communities for the personnel were planned and built to include housing, schools, hospitals, churches, and hotels. He authorized extensive sanitation and mosquito-control programs that eliminated yellow fever and other diseases from the Isthmus.

Reflecting his background, he saw the early stage of the canal project itself as primarily a problem in railroad engineering, which included rebuilding the Panama Railway and devising a rail-based system for disposing of the soil from the excavations. Stevens argued the case against a sea level canal of the kind that the French had tried to build. He convinced Theodore Roosevelt of the necessity of a high-level canal built with dams and locks.