The History of the Panama Canal :: American America History

The History of the Panama provideThe Panama transmission channel has been called the big ditch, the bridge everyplace betwixt two continents, and the greatest shortcut in the world. When it was finally blameless 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 transmission channel). This Canal is not the longest, the widest, the deepest, or the oldest distribution channel in the world, but it is the only canal to connect two oceans, and still today is the greatest man-make waterway in the world (Panama Canal Connects). Ferdinand de Lesseps, who played a gravid 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 pickax 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 envision with the Suez waterway, De Lesseps thought he was smarter than all the engineers beneath his command (Dolan). De Lesseps overrode all impedance of his sea-level canal due to his very popular reputation. He was sell on the idea of a sea-level canal and would not list to the ideas of others such as French engineer, Adolphe Godin de Lepinary. De Lepinarys idea was to create two giant lakes on either spatial relation of the mountains. In order to do this they would direct to dam the Chagres River on the Atlantic side and the Rio Grande River on the pacific side (Considine). Although as time went on more than just a ugly director held back the finalization of the canal. 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 earnest 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 drop dead (Panama Canal). Mosquitoes carried the diseases and when a person got bit he would crack a disease to the mosquito and the mosquito would pass it on to the next victim (Historical Overview).