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Panama Canal

Panama Canal1903-1914

• Although the French had attempted construction of a canal in the 1880s, the Panama Canal was successfully built from 1904 to 1914. Once the canal was complete the U.S. held a swath of land running the approximately 50 miles across the isthmus of Panama

• Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal

Building the Canal

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQU_LiWDL0

John Frank Stevens• Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal from 1905 to 1907, • successfully argued the case against the sea-level canal, such the French had

attempted. • He convinced Roosevelt of the necessity and feasibility of a canal built with large

dam and lake system with three double sets of locks to raise ships to the level of the reservoir and then lower them in locks at the other ocean.

• One of Stevens' primary achievements in Panama was in building and rebuilding the housing, cafeterias, hotels, water systems, repair shops, warehouses, and other infrastructure needed by the thousands of incoming workers. Initially, the reputation of the Canal Zone made recruiting labor difficult.

• The major inducements were wages ranging from $0.90 per day for common laborers to $8.00 per day for steam shovel operators, a nine-hour work day, three meals a day for as low as $0.30 per day, subsidized housing, vacation and sick leave, along with full medical coverage for nearly all. After a few years, when it became clear that the Canal Zone was a reasonably safe place (for the time) to work with good wages and hours, labor recruitment became much easier.

John Frank Stevens

Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever• Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes• Yellow fever has three stages: • Stage 1 (infection): Headache, muscle and joint aches, fever, flushing, loss of appetite,

vomiting, and jaundice are common. Symptoms often go away briefly after about 3-4 days. • Stage 2 (remission): Fever and other symptoms go away. Most people will recover at this

stage, but others may get worse within 24 hours.• Stage 3 (intoxication): Problems with many organs occur. This may include heart, liver, and

kidney failure, bleeding disorders, seizures, coma, and delirium. • Symptoms may include:• Irregular heart beats(arrhythmias)• Bleeding (may progress to hemorrhage)• Coma• Decreased urination• Delirium• Fever• Headache• Yellow skin and eyes (jaundice)• Muscle aches • Red eyes, face, tongue• Seizures• Vomiting, possibly vomiting blood

Colonel William C. Gorgas

• Formerly chief sanitation officer in Havana, Cuba, was appointed chief sanitation officer of the canal construction project in 1904

• The sanitation and mosquito abatement projects involved identifying and isolating patients with yellow fever or malaria; fumigation of buildings by burning sulfur or pyrethrum to kill mosquitoes; spraying insect-breeding areas with oil and larvicide; paving roads in Panamanian towns to minimize stagnant water; installing mosquito netting over beds; introduction of window screens; installing citywide water systems to minimize or eliminate the often stagnant drinking water stored in cisterns; elimination of stagnant water in open containers; and draining swamps; among other measures

Colonel William C. Gorgas

• After two years of extensive sanitation and mosquito abatement work involving thousands of workers and millions of dollars, the mosquito-spread diseases were nearly eliminated.

Prevention Fumigation Brigades

Panama City 1905 Fumigation CartPanama City 1905

Quarantine Station 1905

President Roosevelt 1906

Cost

• The United States spent almost $375,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $8,600,000,000 now[), including $12,000,000 to build facilities used to guard the canal, to finish the project. • This was by far the largest American

engineering project of that or any previous era. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

First TransitSS Ancon 1914

Fees

• The average toll is around US $54,000

• Panama Canal Today– Web Cam of Canal