What is the history of cana in panama?

Question

What is the history of cana in panama?

Answer 1

Ever since the 1500s, men dreamed of having a passage across the narrow (50 miles wide) isthmus of Panama.  It would save ships weeks of sailing around the southern tip of South America if they could only build a canal.

After they successfully built the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French thought they could also build a sea-level canal from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Their attempt to construct a canal began in 1880.

This attempt failed because a sea level canal, one without locks - to raise and lower ships - was impossible. The French were defeated by their poor design, stubborn leadership, a lack of sufficient financing and Yellow Fever, which killed thousands of workers including many top management and engineers.

Some wealthy NY stock brokers thought they could make a profit by "engineering" a deal with Colombia, as Panama was at the time, a province of Colombia. They would pick up where the French left off, but they would build a canal with locks that would lift the ships and eliminate a lot of digging.

They made the government of Colombia offer to acquire the rights to build the canal, which was refused. They then set about looking for well known Panamanians to lead a revolt against Colombia. The USA supported the revolt and the Colombians were powerless to stop it.

It worked. Panama was independent.  The NY stock brokers (J.P. Morgan was one of them) then convinced the U.S. Senate that Panama, not Nicaragua, was the place to build the canal.

In 1904, the project was begun by civilians but it was very difficult and several quit. So the President put the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to the task. They were in the Army and they couldn't quit. They completed the project of building a canal in Panama.  It was opened in 1914. The effort cost the lives of about 21,900 people; most from Yellow Fever and Malaria.

Answer 2

I recommend Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_cana...