The History of the Pana Canal
The Panama Canal has been called the big ditch, the bridge between two continents, and the greatest shortcut in the world. When it was finally finished in 1914, the 51-mile waterway cut off over 7,900 miles of the distance between New York and San Francisco, and changed the face of the industrialized world ("Panama Canal"). This Canal is not the longest, the widest, the deepest, or the oldest canal in the world, but it is the only canal to connect two oceans, and still today is the greatest man-made waterway in the world ("Panama Canal Connects). Ferdinand de Lesseps, who played a large role in building the Suez Canal in 1869 (Jones), was the director of the Compagnie Universelle Du Canal Interoceanique de Panama ("Historical Overview"). At first De Lesseps seemed to be "the perfect choice for the Panama task." Though as time went on De Lesseps was found to be "anything but the ideal" (Dolan). As soon as de Lesseps' company took over the canal it was doomed (Jones). De Lesseps was a 74-year-old man who was stubborn, vain, and very opinionated (Considine). Because of his experience with the Suez waterway, De Lesseps thought he was smarter than all the engineers beneath his command (Dolan). De Lesseps
George Goethals, the most organized of the three chief engineers, was in the army. He was unable to resign from the canal and also the canal was now under a "military-discipline control" (Jones). He was used to working within the governments rules and he knew how to get exactly what he needed (Jones). Part of Goethals success was the fact that he took time out of his schedule to listen to the needs of the workers (Jones). "Panama Canal Connects." Online. Internet. Available: http://www.ycaol.com/feature2.htm. 2 Feb. 1999.The canal was completed in August of 1914 under the budget by over twenty-three million dollars. Though the idea of having a waterway through the Isthmus of Panama was older then the respective name the completion could not have come at a worse time. When the canal was finished, World War I was just beginning. During the war the canal was used only by two thousand ships a year, but after the war the total jumped to five thousand ships annually. The toll was originally only $0.90 per ton but due to increasing costs of operation the fee was raised to $1.08 per ton in 1974. The Panama Canal was, is, and shall remain the terran-engineering marvel of the 20th century. Never before nor since has any project accomplished the feats of the canal, of engineering and construction, or of future planning as has been done at Panama. After 85 years of continuous service, it continues to be as useful today as the day it became operational. Something that was so impossible only 30 years earlier, the United States rallied behind the energetic laborers that were going to bend the isthmus between North and South America until it broke and a new path between the seas was created. Killer diseases, high costs, and seemingly impossible excavations all faced the engineers at the Canal Zone. But one by one they overcame until the Panama Canal alone stood out from among the trash and dirt and invited people of the world to come and cruise her waters - a new pathway for the ever-expanding, ever-changing human race. Disease, death, and rough terrain slowed down the completion of the canal. "The Terrain at the Isthmus was something they had never experienced and had not put a serious study of it, a very grave error" ("Panama Canal Connects"). Mosquitoes were responsible for many deaths. Illnesses such as yellow fever and malaria made "many of the work forces go to the hospitals or in some cases die" ("Panama Canal"). Mosquitoes carried the diseases and wh
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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