The Panama Canal
As early as the 1500s, Europeans thought a canal might cross the isthmus* in Panama. In 1850, a geographer from Great Britain discovered a trail across the isthmus. Officials from the U.S., France, England and Colombia explored the area, but the difficulties of traveling through the jungle discouraged them. * An isthmus is a narrow strip of land with water on either side.
Imagine yourself as a businessman living on the East Coast of the United States 170 years ago. The country is growing toward the West, and your company’s products, iceboxes, are needed in new settlements. But the railroad that will cross the continent is still 25 years from completion. You would like to move your goods by ship.
In the 1800s, a ship traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast of North America had to travel all the way around the tip of South America. The journey was long and dangerous, as the winds around Cape Horn stir up huge waves. People began to look for a shorter, safer passage.
A trail across Panama
A different idea
A group from the United States thought a railroad could cross the isthmus. The Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 and was hugely successful.
While building the railroad, engineers found a gap in the mountains at Culebra that they thought would offer a perfect setting for a ship canal.
Colombia makes a deal
At the time, Panama belonged to Colombia. For more than 20 years, governments and engineers argued about the best place to build a canal.
A French businessman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, had built the Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas in Egypt. He thought he could build a similar canal in Panama. Finally, in 1881, construction began.
But the conditions in Panama were very different. Equipment rusted quickly in the humid atmosphere. An earthquake damaged the work in progress. Landslides slowed the work and killed or injured workers. Laborers suffered from disease.
Finally, de Lesseps and his business partners gave up, and construction stopped on the canal in 1889.