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Panama Canal
Panama, Central America

The Panama Canal does things other single human endeavors could never do - uniting two cultures, two oceans, and two hemispheres.

The scale of the project was immense. There would be a dam for the Chagres River built at Gatun, nearly 1 -1/2 miles long and over 100 ft. high. The resulting Gatun Lake would be 85 feet above sea level. A ship would enter three locks built at the east end of the dam, be lifted to the level of the lake, steam 23 miles across the lake, travel nine miles through the Culebra Cut. At Pedro Miguel a lock and small dam lowered the ship 31 feet to a small lake, it passed through two locks, and returned to sea-level and the Pacific Ocean.

The monetary and human costs of building the canal were staggering, topping $390 million (U.S. dollars) and costing the lives of 5,609 workers. While the first World War in Europe reduced traffic in the Canal in its early years, by 1924 it was handling more than 5,000 ships per year.

The first documented suggestion of a canal across Panama was made in 1524 to Charles V of Spain. Spain was aggressively importing gold from Peru, Ecuador, and Asia, and wanted to avoid the additional 8,000 miles and risk associated with the trip around Cape Horn.

The seeds for the first attempt at a canal came in 1821 with Central America's independence from Spain. U.S. President James Polk reached out to the nation of New Granada and by 1846 Foreign Minister Benjamin Bidlack negotiated a treaty to the U.S. for the exclusive right of transit across the Isthmus in exchange for New Granada's right of sovereignty there.

Following the United States victory in the Spanish-American War at the turn of the century, U.S. warships occupied the Caribbean. In 1852, Panama's first transcontinental railroad, a twin-strip of steel a mere 47-1/2 miles long, had been an instant financial success. Profits in the first six years of operation were more than $7 million. At $295 a share, the Panama Railroad was the highest-priced stock in the New York Stock Exchange. These were the kind of numbers that excited American business interests, and the United States decided to take initiative.

By November of 1903, in a controversial move designed to thwart the ambitions of rival nation Columbia, two U.S. battleships converged on Panama, and the U.S. presence in Panama began. Later that month, the Panama Canal Treaty was signed without a Panamanian stamping their signature on it. Later President Theodore Roosevelt announced in his address to Congress that he had taken Panama. Congress subsequently approved the treaty and the canal.

Construction on a canal started almost immediately. Excavators were brought from Louisiana and some equipment left by the French was restored. Tons of dynamite were used to slice through the hills and level the way. The Army Corps of Engineers faced challenges including malaria, yellow fever and the Continental Divide, which necessitated the greatest engineering feat of its time - the Culebra Cut. "Hell's Gorge," as it was called by the workers that made the Culebra Cut, was a bitter seven-year battle with the earth. Mudslides were a frequent problem, and one 1907 mudslide dropped 500,000 cubic yards of mud in the canal. The cost in materials and machinery climbed to the U.S. figure of $390 million - the 1990's equivalent of $400 billion. When the first steamer - the Ancon successfully traversed the locks in 1914, it signaled not so much an end, but a beginning. It was the beginning of a relationship between the United States and Central America that would mean controversy for the Panamanians and lots of additional investment for the U.S.