Building the Panama Canal Essay - 1697 Words

Known as one of the greatest engineering feats in all of history, the Panama Canal is an essential asset for international trade and travel today, uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the Central American Isthmus in Panama, Colombia. Its construction required the perseverance, innovation, time and money of at first, France and of second, America. Construction began with Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps at the helm of the project in the early 1880’s; however, dreams of a Central American canal were had as early as the 1500’s with the Spanish and Christopher Columbus. His plan was to dig a sea level canal, similar to a successful one he had made previously. But after nearly 8 years of futile labor, and lack of progress, Lesseps†¦show more content†¦The very river that kept destroying the labor and engineering of the workers, along with causing the mudslides that buried them. After, spending about $287 million and 20,000 worker’s lives, while makin g little progress in 8 years, it was no wonder why Lesseps quit the canal, in December 1888. However, the reason why so many workers had died was confounding to the French. Why had disease struck so profoundly? Thanks to Walter Reed, the answer was discovered. Walter Reed was an American Physician whose contributions to medical science were astounding. He is the youngest man to ever have earned a MD at University of Virginia at age 19. It was he who led the research team in discovering the cause of Yellow Fever. His research was risky though, experiments had to be done on human volunteers. In that, he had to deliberately infect humans to test the strain of disease. Speculative, as it may have been his research produced results in the end. He and his team were able to conclude that the Yellow Fever was not spread through the people infected with it, but by disease carrying mosquitoes. His discovery not only allowed the United Sates to resume construction of the Panama Canal, it also gave start to new fields in medical science such as: epidemiology and biomedicine. In appreciation of his work, heShow MoreRelatedThe Building of the Panama Canal539 Words   |  2 PagesThe Building of the Panama Canal In order to get to the Pacific Ocean from the east coast of the United States you must either, go around Canada, go around South America, or go all the way around the world. These were the only ways to get to the Pacific from the Atlantic Ocean until 1914. The most common way the American navy would get there was around South America. In many instances when there was problems on the west or east coast that needed naval intervention it took a significant amountRead MoreThe Amazing Achievement Of Building The Panama Canal Did Not Come Without Great Loss1517 Words   |  7 PagesThe astounding achievement of building the Panama Canal did not come without great loss. 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The Panama Canal is no exception. From around the start of the 16th century people have been trying to find a way to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Many misfortunes and deaths have been sacrificed to obtain this goal. Finally in 1914 the American had completed one of the greatest feats of all time the Panama Canal, cutting a many months journey to nine hours. Read MoreThe Panama Canal1413 Words   |  6 PagesShey Gibson Mr. Grate World History Period 2 5 December 2015 The Panama Canal The Panama Canal is the only canal in the world to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans together. It was built in the country of Panama and first used on August 15th of 1914. It became one of the most useful canals in the world for trading and transportation. 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The Panama Canal is an extraordinary part of world history because it links two oceans and eliminates the hazardous voyage of ship travel around the tip of South America. This exceedingly difficult engineering project is even known to be one of the seven wonders of the industrial world. The canal is still beneficial today, and it will always be an aid to the world. Although the building of the Panama Canal took years of planning, caused disease and death