One of Teddy Roosevelt's greatest feats was building the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. Before the canal was built, American tradesmen had to travel thousands of miles around all of South America just to domestically transport products from coast to coast. The project's aim was to save American tourists and tradesmen the hardship of traveling around an entire continent. It worked, but only after overcoming a lot of politics and engineering obstacles.
During this time period, what is now Panama was part of Columbia, which didn't agree to the building of a canal. Tensions, however, were rising as the Panamanians wanted independence. He also knew that an independent Panama would support building the canal. So, Roosevelt used publicly supported the revolution. He used his classic "big stick" politics by bringing the American navy down to Columbia, showing America's strength. They never fired a shot.
Europeans had tried to build a canal about 20 years before Roosevelt. A frenchman named Ferdinand de Lesseps, seeking riches and stock increases for his company, had brought in a whole crew that used advanced technology to start digging. However, due to day upon day of torrential rain, insects, snakes, swamps, hellish heat, and disease, they quit halfway through, leaving their materials behind. This was perfect for Roosevelt! He agreed to pay the old French company $40,000,000 (while the Columbian government only got $10,000,000).
After the US helped Panama be free, work began. Engineering miracles were accomplished. To make ships travel up and downhill, a series of locks would raise ships from the Atlantic side to the level of the lake. The boats would cross the lake, then descend by another set of locks to the Pacific. The workers also dammed the Chagres River and created the Gatun Lake which stands today. Pesticides eradicated yellow fever in the area. Hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of rock were removed and destroyed. Remember, this is over a century ago, where equipment was more limited!
When the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, the world barely noticed. All eyes were turned toward a growing world war in Europe. The greatest engineering project in the history of the world had been dwarfed by the totality of World War I.
http://www.fasttrackteaching.com/ffap/Unit_6_World/U6_Panama_Canal.html
Bennett, your post helped to give me a better understanding of how Roosevelt was able to build the Panama Canal. I thought it was interesting how Roosevelt paid the French company 40 million dollars just for the leftover equipment and materials. This seems like a lot of money spent for very little value. Also, how were the Americans able to withstand the poor conditions and disease which caused the French to abandon the project? Did Americans find solutions to the major problems that the French couldn't solve or were Americans simply more willing to or used to working in these conditions?
ReplyDeleteI find it really interesting that engineers were able to accomplish this over a century ago. The entire project cost the U.S. over $350 million, which was the most expensive construction project in American history up to that point. However, the Panama Canal was a vital component to expanding global trade routes in the 20th century. The U.S. continued to maintain control over the canal until 1977, when president Jimmy Carter and Panama leader Omar Torrijos signed an agreement that gave Panama full control over the canal on December 31, 1999. In 1994 the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized the the Panama Canal as one of the seven wonders of the modern world, and in September of 2010 the canal hosted its 1 millionth passing ship.
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http://www.history.com/topics/panama-canal
Bennett I really like your post. Using the source http://www.history.com/topics/panama-canal I learnt about engineering behind the Panama canal and was able to answer the question posed by Shawn about why the Americans succeeded and the French did not. The construction engineer leader was a man by the name of John Stevens. As Cody mentioned, the project received tremendous funding because Americans recognized its usefulness. Since they were able to invest much more in it compared to the French, they were able to buy better equipment that made it possible. An example of the equipment used was the swinging boom. This helped them make the railroads faster and better which allowed them to get rid of the dirt that they were digging up. I also learned how the Americans got Dr. William Gorges to fumigate and to clean water which made the yellow fever carrying mosquito population decline drastically. The Americans were not more willing to work in these conditions. In fact it was mostly non-Americans that actually did the building. During the french construction 22,000 workers died, but with better funding and innovative techniques, the Americans were able to successfully complete the canal with 5,609 deaths.
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