Panama Canal Project

Panama Canal Travis Cleveland Linda Garder Mehdi Najah Thomas Rona

The beginning… ,[object Object]

Vasco Nuñes de Balboa- first to discover the narrow piece of land separating Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ,[object Object], leadership to build the canal. ,[object Object]

The project was postponed because of numerous wars that broke out in Europe.

Restarting the project… ,[object Object]

German scientist Alexander von Humboldt showed interest in the project.

1819- the Spanish government gave authorization for the project.

International company was hired to build the Canal

The International Company failed.,[object Object]

Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was leading the company.

De Lesseps had previously constructed the Suez Canal.

American started showing interest in building the Canal; the main reason for that was the discovery of gold in California in 1848. * 1879- De Lesseps came up with the proposal for the Canal.

Roosevelt and the Canal… ,[object Object]

Offered the Colombian government $10 million in order to gain control over the fifty-mile strip over the isthmus. ,[object Object]

After refusal, decided to no longer negotiate and started supporting Panama’s independence movement. ,[object Object]

The newly independent Panama accepted his offer and was compensated by an initial payment of $10 million and an annuity of $250,000.

Building of the Canal by the U.S… ,[object Object]

The workers had to put up with the heat and mosquitoes that carried malaria.

Methods that had to be undertaken to fight the mosquitoes carrying malaria included “clearing 200-yard-wide areas around where people lived and worked, draining more than 100 square miles of swamp, building nearly a thousand miles of earthen ditching, about 300 miles of concrete ditch, 200 miles of rock-filled trench, almost 200 miles of tile drain, cutting hundreds of acres of wild vege- tation, spraying standing water with thousands of gallons of oil, and breeding spiders, ants, lizards to feed on adult insects” etc. ,[object Object], dramatically. ,[object Object], villages from the area, the fact that Panama was insufficiently developed or equipped to support the additional population created by the growing Canal labor force, providing satisfactory housing and food for the workers

John Frank Stevens… ,[object Object]

It was the Chief Engineer of the project, John Frank Stevens, who convinced Roosevelt to build a lock canal as opposed to a sea level canal. ,[object Object], building a sea level canal would take at least until 1914. ,[object Object], months of that year more than 512,500 cubic meters of material was excavated and the total workforce exceeded 39,000 men. ,[object Object], fall behind schedule.

Locks and Dams… ,[object Object]

Gatun- two parallel sets of locks and each one consists of three flights.

At Gatun the locks are 33 meters wide.

Pedro Miguel- the locks only have one flight; can raise or lower ships 10 meters.

Miraflores- two flights, they can raise or lower ships 16.5 meters.

The excess oil was used to construct the Gatun dam.

The Gatun dam is 1.5 miles long and almost 0.5 miles wide.

There are also small dams at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.,[object Object]

Celebration was cancelled due to World War I.

Total cost of the Canal: $375,000,000 (including the $10 million paid to Panama and $40 million paid to de Lesseps). ,[object Object]

Total cost of the project was about $23,000,000 less than the 1907 estimate.

Panama Canal Project

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