The Panama Canal

In 1539 the first plans for the Panama Canal were drawn by King Charles V of Spain, but the project only became practical more then 300 years later with the construction of the Panama railroad. The railroad was used to transport goods from vessels on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and became helpful in choosing Panama as the site for a water transit route.

Construction began in 1880 by the French under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the same person who conducted the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869. Harsh working conditions, yellow fever and malaria wiped out an estimate 22,000 lives before the project was bankrupted in 1889.

From 1819, Panama was part of the federation and country of Colombia, but when Colombia rejected United States plans to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the U.S. supported a revolution that led to the independence of Panama in 1903

In 1904 the project was taken over by the United States under Theodore Roosevelt, after orchestrating Panama’s move for independence from Colombia the previous year. The discovery that mosquitos as the carriers of yellow fever and malaria allowed for disease prevention, and work moved quickly under improved conditions, although it would claim another 5000 lives before completion.

picture from 1904

The Panama Canal was finally completed in 1914. The total cost was $375,000,000. It was 51 miles long. And allowed more than 14,000 vessels ferrying nearly 280 million tones of trade goods between the Eastern and Western nations to pass each year. The cargo ship Ancon was the first to cross on August 15^th 1914.

Gatun Locks

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/panamacanal.htm