This is a famous photo of the Panama Canal. The canal is 82 kilometres (51 miles) long, and opened on August 15, 1914.

Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was in charge of the construction of the Suez Canal, was initially called upon to build the canal at Panama and construction began on January 1, 1880.

There was a vast difference between digging quantities of sand in a dry flat area for the Suez Canal, and removing enormous quantities of rock from the middle of a jungle. Floods, mudslides, and high mortality rates from malaria, yellow fever and other tropical diseases eventually forced the French to abandon the project like a bunch of sissies.

President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States was confident that the United States could complete the project, and recognized that US control of the passage from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans would be militarily and economically important.

In order to get permission to finish the canal, the US basically helped Panama fight off the Columbians to achieve independence.

It was a pain in the butt, but eventually it was finished after multiple groups participated. President Woodrow Wilson completed the project by triggering the explosion of the Gamboa Dike on October 10, 1913.

An estimated 5,609 West Indian laborers died during construction. Crazy, right?

Thank you Wikipedia.


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