Eiffel Tower

Clock Tower

St. Louis Arch

Statue of Liberty

Channel Tunnel

Panama Canal

Hoover Dam

References

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Imagine wanting to travel from New York to San Francisco and having to sail all the way around the tip of South America to get there! In the days before transcontinental railroads, that was your only choice. Even after the railroads were completed, both people and goods still faced a long, difficult sea voyage to reach the Pacific coast. How could the United States solve this problem?

The French had tried to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama, but their attempt was not successful. So in 1904, under the leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States took over the French property and began to construct the Panama Canal.

When building the Panama Canal the project faced three problems that could keep it from completion. They were engineering, sanitation, and organization. John F. Stevens and Col. George C. Goethals solved the problems of engineering and organization. Col. William C. Gorgas overcame the final problem, sanitation, combating the diseases of malaria and yellow fever so the workers would stay healthy. By 1905, Colonel Gorgas had cleaned up the area and improved sanitary conditions so that construction could begin.

The engineering problems were enormous. Because the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are at different elevations, a series of three sets of water-filled chambers, called locks, that raise and lower ships from one level to the next, had to be excavated and constructed.

Thousands of workers labored on the canal for 10 years, using steam shovels and dredges to cut through jungles, hills, and swamps. Workers took out 211 million cubic yards of ground and rock to create a canal that is 50.72 miles long.
On July 12, 1920, President Woodrow Wilson officially opened the Panama Canal.

The United States has controlled the Panama Canal Zone since 1903. However, a treaty approved by Panama's voters in 1977 and by the United States in 1978 will give Panama control of the canal on December 31, 1999.