Difference between revisions of "Panama Canal"
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Originally the French attempted to build a canal through the isthmus, under the leadership of [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], the visonary who built the [[Suez Canal]]. He was the people's hero; the epitome of a Frenchman. They began digging on January 20, 1882, with much champange and dynamite. With de Lesseps to guide them, the French were cocky, thinking that such a canal expert could not fail them. During the convention which decided whether they would build the canal, any prophet predicting high costs and death tolls was not heeded. The workers were confident the job would be done in six years. | Originally the French attempted to build a canal through the isthmus, under the leadership of [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], the visonary who built the [[Suez Canal]]. He was the people's hero; the epitome of a Frenchman. They began digging on January 20, 1882, with much champange and dynamite. With de Lesseps to guide them, the French were cocky, thinking that such a canal expert could not fail them. During the convention which decided whether they would build the canal, any prophet predicting high costs and death tolls was not heeded. The workers were confident the job would be done in six years. | ||
| − | But their attempt ended after 22,000 of them died, due partly to [[yellow fever]] or desentary. Mostly, however, it was [[malaria]] that killed the workers. It was a widely accepted fact that jungle disease was caused by a "noxious vapor" in the air. The condition of the was atrotiously unsanitary. The initial cost of the canal was 300 millilon francs. | + | But their attempt ended after 22,000 of them died, due partly to [[yellow fever]] or desentary. Mostly, however, it was [[malaria]] that killed the workers. It was a widely accepted fact that jungle disease was caused by a "noxious vapor" in the air. The condition of the was atrotiously unsanitary. The initial cost of the canal was 300 millilon francs. |
| + | |||
The contemporaneous [[Dutch]] attempt at building the canal ended quickly and calamitously. A long narrow tract of the isthmus was purchased from the French in 1888 by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles, Cornelis Jansen Kieft, who saw fit to run the operation remotely, via courrier. Geographical surveys were performed on the area to measure the air and barometric pressure, and a large number of windmills were built along the planned route, the intent being to drain the land, provide fresh drinking water, and enable a rudimentary kind of alternating current, a remarkable insight that foreshadowed the electrical wind-turbines that would appear decades later.[http://www.fi.uu.nl/panama/panamapost/documents/lez-pp-vers1.pdf] While the project was initially successful, the windmill idea surviving and working to great effect in later water-projects throughout Holland, the structures would soon become safe-havens for local wildlife, notably diurnal Capuchin monkeys who sought shelter from rampant deforestation. Attempts to dislodge the new residents were difficult and time-consuming, and most workers took to drinking from the swamps and lakes, unintentionally causing a massive malarial outbreak.[http://www.encyclo.nl/zoek.php] When Kieft finally visited the site in November of 1890, rather than seeing the [[Atlantic]] and [[Pacific]] waters gently co-mingling in a lock, he witnessed his excavations brimming with diarrhea, and Capuchins howling from his prided windmills. Construction halted immediately, though the Dutch retained control of the tract until the entire property of the isthmus was transferred to the United States in 1902.[http://www.gammanieuwsdienst.nl/pages1/week5199/pan.htm] | The contemporaneous [[Dutch]] attempt at building the canal ended quickly and calamitously. A long narrow tract of the isthmus was purchased from the French in 1888 by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles, Cornelis Jansen Kieft, who saw fit to run the operation remotely, via courrier. Geographical surveys were performed on the area to measure the air and barometric pressure, and a large number of windmills were built along the planned route, the intent being to drain the land, provide fresh drinking water, and enable a rudimentary kind of alternating current, a remarkable insight that foreshadowed the electrical wind-turbines that would appear decades later.[http://www.fi.uu.nl/panama/panamapost/documents/lez-pp-vers1.pdf] While the project was initially successful, the windmill idea surviving and working to great effect in later water-projects throughout Holland, the structures would soon become safe-havens for local wildlife, notably diurnal Capuchin monkeys who sought shelter from rampant deforestation. Attempts to dislodge the new residents were difficult and time-consuming, and most workers took to drinking from the swamps and lakes, unintentionally causing a massive malarial outbreak.[http://www.encyclo.nl/zoek.php] When Kieft finally visited the site in November of 1890, rather than seeing the [[Atlantic]] and [[Pacific]] waters gently co-mingling in a lock, he witnessed his excavations brimming with diarrhea, and Capuchins howling from his prided windmills. Construction halted immediately, though the Dutch retained control of the tract until the entire property of the isthmus was transferred to the United States in 1902.[http://www.gammanieuwsdienst.nl/pages1/week5199/pan.htm] | ||
Some 5,609 Americans died in the ultimately successful attempt to build the canal, the lower number reflecting medical advances of the time. | Some 5,609 Americans died in the ultimately successful attempt to build the canal, the lower number reflecting medical advances of the time. | ||
Revision as of 16:00, November 9, 2007
A canal in the Isthmus of Panama. Completed in 1914, it was built by the Americans under President Theodore Roosevelt.
Originally the French attempted to build a canal through the isthmus, under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the visonary who built the Suez Canal. He was the people's hero; the epitome of a Frenchman. They began digging on January 20, 1882, with much champange and dynamite. With de Lesseps to guide them, the French were cocky, thinking that such a canal expert could not fail them. During the convention which decided whether they would build the canal, any prophet predicting high costs and death tolls was not heeded. The workers were confident the job would be done in six years.
But their attempt ended after 22,000 of them died, due partly to yellow fever or desentary. Mostly, however, it was malaria that killed the workers. It was a widely accepted fact that jungle disease was caused by a "noxious vapor" in the air. The condition of the was atrotiously unsanitary. The initial cost of the canal was 300 millilon francs.
The contemporaneous Dutch attempt at building the canal ended quickly and calamitously. A long narrow tract of the isthmus was purchased from the French in 1888 by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles, Cornelis Jansen Kieft, who saw fit to run the operation remotely, via courrier. Geographical surveys were performed on the area to measure the air and barometric pressure, and a large number of windmills were built along the planned route, the intent being to drain the land, provide fresh drinking water, and enable a rudimentary kind of alternating current, a remarkable insight that foreshadowed the electrical wind-turbines that would appear decades later.[1] While the project was initially successful, the windmill idea surviving and working to great effect in later water-projects throughout Holland, the structures would soon become safe-havens for local wildlife, notably diurnal Capuchin monkeys who sought shelter from rampant deforestation. Attempts to dislodge the new residents were difficult and time-consuming, and most workers took to drinking from the swamps and lakes, unintentionally causing a massive malarial outbreak.[2] When Kieft finally visited the site in November of 1890, rather than seeing the Atlantic and Pacific waters gently co-mingling in a lock, he witnessed his excavations brimming with diarrhea, and Capuchins howling from his prided windmills. Construction halted immediately, though the Dutch retained control of the tract until the entire property of the isthmus was transferred to the United States in 1902.[3] Some 5,609 Americans died in the ultimately successful attempt to build the canal, the lower number reflecting medical advances of the time.
The canal was not just an engineering, but also a medical triumph, as U. S. Army physician Walter Reed identified the mosquito Aedes aegypti as the carrier of yellow fever. Mosquito-control measures limited the spread of infection and made it possible to complete the work.
Trivia
- A well-known palindrome (a sentence that reads the same forwards and backwards) is:
- A man, a plan, a canal—Panama!
The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough, 1977
