The Pikeville Cut-Through Project, the dream of Dr. Wm. C. Hambley, was the largest engineering feat in the US and second in the world only to the Panama Canal. It began in 1973 and was finished in 1987 at a cost of $77,593,691, with 18,000,000 cubic yards of earth moved. The project eliminated the disastrous flooding of the Big Sandy River by moving a 4-lane highway, a railroad, and a river through the mountain. The Pikeville Overlook was completed in September 1988 and was funded and paid for by the Pikeville-Pike County Tourism Commission.