The Panama Canal, which connects the world's two largest oceans, has been called one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Nearly 15,000 ships pass through it each year. Without it, ships would have to travel an additional 8,000 miles, and would also have to spend an extra hundreds of thousands of dollars on fuel costs. Still, it was an enormous pain in the butt to make. More than 30,000 lives were lost during its construction. Here is the story of one of the greatest engineering feats of all time- the construction of the Panama Canal.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, you had to go all the way around the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn. Because the lovely continent of North America is attached to the handsome continent of South America by the bond of the Isthmus of Panama (formerly the Isthmus of Darien), there was only one way around. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas. The Isthmus of Panama is only about 30 miles wide at its most narrow, but it's dense jungle- hard to travel through and filled with insects that carry diseases like malaria, yellow fever, or cholera, poisonous snakes, and other dangerous animals.
When gold was discovered in California in 1848, many people who lived on the east coast of the United States did not want to travel by land to get there. Traveling by sea, they generally had two choices- they could take a boat to what is now known as the Isthmus of Panama, cross the jungle, and then catch another boat up to California. This trip usually took up to 3 months, and cost as much as $400. The other option was to take a boat all the way around the southern tip of South America and all the way back up to California. Though this option was cheaper, costing as much as $300, the trip usually took up to 6 months, and conditions were usually more harsh. After a few weeks, the fresh food would be gone, with many passengers resorting to eating bugs and moldy bread to survive. Not only that, some of the roughest waters in the world are at the southern tip of South America. Cape Horn is a sailor's worst nightmare, with strong winds, large waves, strong currents, and icebergs.
So yeah, it's no wonder then that the earliest mention of a canal across the isthmus was in 1534 by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor/King of Spain/one powerful dude. He wanted an easy route through the Americas to give the Spanish a military advantage over the Portuguese. But over a period of 285 years, for various reasons, Spain was never able to bring this idea to a reality, and they lost the isthmus to what would eventually become the Republic of Columbia.
In the early 1850s, the Panama Railroad Company brought in thousands of African and Chinese workers to lay the tracks for railway lines that would make construction of a canal possible. Most, as many as 12,000, would die from tropical diseases or suicide.
Meanwhile, developers in France, led by a guy named Ferdinand de Lesseps, were successful building a canal of their own in Egypt. Completed in 1869, the Suez Canal, which joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, significantly reduced sailing distances between Europe and Asia.
Because of his success with the Suez Canal, De Lesseps next turned his attention to Panama. He was backed by an international company called The Universal Company of the Inter-Oceanic Panama Canal. The company was given permission to build by the Columbian government that controlled the area. A huge labor force was assembled. 9 out of 10 workers were from the West Indies. They earned about 10 cents an hour. Engineers were much better paid, and the project attracted some of the best engineers from France.
Construction of the canal began on January 1st, 1881, and it's safe to say that it was poorly planned. The machinery was not strong enough for the work. There was a large turnover of labor because the work was so difficult- only one in five workers would stay longer than a year. The dump areas were too close to where they were digging the canal. Often trash would slide back into where they were digging whenever it rained. The deeper the digging, the worse the mudslides. The large amount of sticky clay in the digging area would often stick to the steam shovels. Sometimes they even had to shovel by hand when equipment broke down.
Worst of all, thousands of workers faced horrible tropical diseases and a harsh climate. They faced yellow fever- a disease with symptoms that include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains, and sometimes yellow skin due to liver damage. They faced malaria- a disease with symptoms like severe headaches, fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, jaundice, retinal damage, and convulsions. That almost sounds like a drug commercial when they list the side effects, doesn't it? Malaria has no effective vaccine to date and still manages to kill around 1 million people a year.
An estimated 22,000 workers lost their lives working on the canal in the 1880s. Most of them were the West Indian workers, who did not have access to the same medical treatment as the French.
Originally, De Lesseps wanted the canal to be built at sea level, like the Suez Canal. By 1885, it was clear that a canal built at sea-level was not going to work, and that an elevated canal with locks was the best answer. De Lesseps, however, was stubborn, and it wasn't until October 1887 that a lock canal plan went into effect.
By this time, The Universal Company of the Inter-Oceanic Panama Canal was running out of money. With about 2/5 of the canal completed, they had already spent well over what they had estimated the
entire project would cost.
The New French Canal Company was established in 1894 to try to salvage the failed construction of the canal, but the French effort was doomed for failure from the beginning. Despite the heavy losses of life and money, the French did manage to excavate, or dig out material from the earth, over 78 million cubic feet of material. That's a lot of earth they dug up.
Around the time the French were about to give up on the canal, the United States became interested in leasing the land from Columbia. The United States looked at the possibility of building a canal further north, through Nicaragua. That is, unless the New French Canal Company would sell their canal for only $40 million.
When Theodore Roosevelt became President in 1901, he made it a high priority that the United States purchase the canal from the French. Recently the United States had become imperialistic, acquiring territories like the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Roosevelt and other Americans believed that the United States controlling a canal would be of great strategic value for the country.
In 1902, Congress approved the purchase of the canal, but the United States first had to secure a treaty with Columbia for the use and control of a canal zone. When Columbia refused to negotiate, the United States took advantage of the fact that a group known as the Panamanian Liberals were wanting independence from Columbia. The Panamanians held control of the isthmus and wanted a country of their own, and they now had American support. Roosevelt sent the Navy ships down to the isthmus in an act of "gunboat diplomacy," or basically intimidation through the threat of naval power. In other words, the United States was telling the Panamanians, "we got your back."
It worked. Columbia backed out, and the country of Panama was created. The victorious Panamanians returned the favor to Roosevelt by giving the United States control of the Panama Canal Zone on February 23rd, 1904, for an additional $10 million. Some United States senators felt guilty about the deal, as if the Canal Zone had been stolen from Columbia.
Regardless, the Americans went to work fast on the canal. Colonel William C. Gorgas was in charge of sanitation of the Canal Zone before workers even arrived. He made sure that yellow fever was wiped out of the Canal Zone by using massive amounts of pesticide to kill the mosquitoes carrying the disease. He also ordered all the swampland, where mosquitoes often laid their eggs, drained or filled. After workers began to arrive again, Gorgas quarantined all workers infected with yellow fever and malaria to prevent the diseases from spreading. In the end, these efforts were a huge success. By 1906, yellow fever was virtually wiped out in the Canal Zone.
Tragically, West Indian workers- the majority of the canal workforce- continued to die at a rate
ten times that of white workers in 1906. This was mostly because black workers had to live in tents and buildings outside of the mosquito-controlled zone. In the end, 350 white workers had died compared to 4,500 West Indian workers.
Once the yellow fever was gone, the workers moved in. Work on the Panama Canal was either extremely boring or extremely dangerous. The most dangerous job- usually assigned to West Indian workers, was blowing up stuff with dynamite. There were several malfunctions- dynamite often exploded not when it was supposed to. The worst dynamite accident occurred by a premature explosion in the Bas Obispo cut on December 12, 1908, causing the death of 23 workers and injuring 40 others.
The Culebra Cut was a pain in the butt to excavate. Each day workers moved miles of construction track and filled the trains that ran in and out of the area. There, landslides occurred with little warning, usually burying workers and equipment within seconds and destroying months of progress.
One difficult obstacle to the canal was the continental divide, which originally rose to more than 360 feet above sea level at its highest point. If it weren't for the dynamite and steam shovels, the work might have been impossible.
Finally, on September 10th, 1913, dry excavation ended. Four dams were completed to create two artificial lakes- Lake Gatun and Miraflores Lake. The Gatun Dam was built across the Chagres River. At the time it was created, Lake Gatun was the largest man-made lake in the world, and the dam was the largest dam on Earth. Lake Gatun is 85 feet above sea level, so they needed a way to lift ships that high. The solution was building a series of concrete locks, which are filled to lift ships and drained to lower ships.
On October 10th, 1913, the dike which separated the Culebra Cut from the Gatun Lake was demolished. The canal was finally nearly complete.
On January 7th, 1914, the Alexandre La Valley, a French crane boat, became the first ship to cross the Panama Canal using its own power. By this time, the United States had spent around 350 million dollars, far more than the cost of anything built by the country up to that point.
The canal officially opened on August 15th, 1914. A big celebration was originally planned for the occasion, but the outbreak of World War I forced the cancellation of the main festivities.
After construction, the canal was ran by the United States and the surrounding Canal Zone was controlled by the United States. In 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty agreeing to return 60 percent of the Canal Zone to Panama within two years. Another treaty guaranteed that, even in times of war, the canal would be safe for the passage of ships from any country. After a period of joint American-Panamanian control, the canal was handed over to Panama on December 31st, 1999.
In 2007, work began to expand the Panama Canal. Expected to be completed later this year, its expansion will allow ships double the currently allowed size to pass through the canal, dramatically increasing how many goods can pass through. Also expected later this year is the beginning of construction of a brand new canal through Nicaragua that will compete with the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal took around 34 years to make, from its first effort in 1881 to when it opened in 1914. An estimated 80,000 people helped build it, and an estimated 30,000 lives were lost in both the French and American efforts. Today, the canal remains extremely important to international trade. When I look at the Panama Canal, I am amazed to know it was built by human beings. I'm especially amazed to know it was built by human beings
100 years ago, without the technology of today. Even today, its construction would be an impressive feat.
It will always be remembered as one of the most magnificent projects ever completed in the history of the world.
