Reuters: Workers toiled above and below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in attempts to plug a gushing oil leak and protect the U.S. coast in one of the biggest spill containment efforts ever mounted. Work was in high gear as politicians kept pressure on energy giant BP to limit the ecological and economic damage from its ruptured well, and as driller Transocean Ltd said the U.S. Justice Department asked it to preserve records related to the drilling of the well and the deadly …