More on the French

As to the consumption of wine there is little doubt…The bottle dumps at Colon were every bit as high as a house.  The foul alley behind Front Street was actually paved with wine bottles turned bottom-side up and became famous as “Bottle Alley.”

and 

The actual digging of The Great Trench – La Grande Tranchee – began at Emperador on Friday, January 20, 1882, with much champagne and dynamite.

From "The Path Between the Seas" by David McCullough