The history of the Panama Canal flies back almost to the earliest explorers of the Americas. It started as a hope for a waterway through Panama. The narrow land bridge between North and South America houses the Panama Canal, a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The earliest European colonists of Central America recognized this potential, and schemes for such a canal were floated several times in the subsequent years. By the late nineteenth century, technological advances and commercial pressure advanced to the point where construction started in earnest.
An attempt by France was made to build a sea-level canal failed, but only after a great amount of excavation was carried out. This was of use to the United States, which completed the
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For only being 48 miles long, it should’ve taken much shorter. The Erie Canal, built in 1823 (difference is 91 years), was 425 miles long, it only took 2 years to dig. 425 miles? In 2 years? Instead of 48 miles in 33 years? Wow. What a difference. And the Erie Canal was dug way before the Panama Canal. Almost a century! Why did the Panama Canal take so long? Well, construction of the canal began in 1881 by France, but there were engineering problems and too many people were dying due to diseases like Yellow Fever and Malaria. By 1906, more than 85% of the canal workers had been hospitalized. Frightened, the workers started to quit their jobs rapidly. Construction stopped until the US took over in 1904. Then they took 10 more years to complete the canal. The canal allows ships to travel between the two oceans more safely and in half the time. In 1999 the Panamanian government took control of the canal. The Panama Canal is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Approximately 7,300 or nearly 92 percent of the work force of the Panama Canal is Panamanian. The first boat to go thorough it was the S.S. Ancon, who was carrying a cargo of cement on August 15,