Ep. 42 Panama Canal

This week I look at the Panama Canal and find out some interesting facts about its creation. Come along for the ride this week as I ask, the Panama Canal, how did that happen? The Beginning: The idea of creating a water passage across the isthmus of Panama to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans dates back to at least the 1500s. An isthmus is defined as a narrow strip of land with sea on either side, forming a link between two larger areas of land. Political map of Panama with capital, national borders, most important cities, rivers and lakes. Vector illustration with English labeling and scaling. After explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa realized that a narrow strip of land separated the two oceans, King Charles I of Spain tapped his regional governor to survey a route along the Chagres River. The only other route was to sail around South America via the stormy, unpredictable Strait of Magellan, or use the Panama Railroad to transfer goods and people from one ocean to another.  Types of Canals: A sea level canal is one through. which vessels may pass without obstruction of any kind. A lock canal is an enclosure or basin located in the course of a canal or a river (or in the vicinity of a dock) with gates at each end, within which the water level may be varied to raise or lower boats. The French France was the first to attempt to make the canal. There were actually 2 locations that the French were deciding between. The other was in Nicaragua but they chose Panama due to the Panamanian railroad.  There were incessant rains that caused heavy landslides and there was no effective means for combating the spread of yellow fever and malaria. An estimated 22,000 people died during the French effort. Its necessary to mention malaria and its impact on these endeavors because if it weren’t for the discovery of mosquitoes role in malaria there may not be a Panama Canal today.  The term Malaria comes from the ancient Greeks. They initially thought malaria came from drinking swamp water and then their ideas shifted to that it came from the air. so you get Mal meaning bad and aria meaning air. Bad air. Malaria In 1892 Sir Ronald Ross became interested in malaria and, having originally doubted the parasites’ existence, became an enthusiastic convert to the belief that malaria parasites were in the blood stream when this was demonstrated to him by Patrick Manson during a period of home leave in 1894. On his return to India in 1895, Ross began his quest to prove the hypothesis of Alphonse Laveran and Manson that mosquitoes were connected with the propagation of malaria, and regularly corresponded with Manson on his findings.  Enter America: The actual Panama Canal was developed following the failure of a French construction team in the 1880s. The United States commenced building a canal across a 50-mile stretch of the narrow Panama isthmus in 1904. When a proposed treaty over rights to build in what was then a Colombian territory was rejected, the U.S. threw its military weight behind a Panamanian independence movement, eventually negotiating a deal with the new government. Following the deliberations of the U.S. Isthmian Canal Commission and a push from President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States purchased the French assets in the canal zone for $40 million in 1902.  Now this is worth stopping and digging deeper. Because I did not know much about that part of the world. So I would like to take a moment to talk about the history of Panama. First off, it’s whats known as a transcontinental country because it is a country that is technically on two different continents. It’s at the bottom of North America and at the top of South America.  It was originally inhabited by indigenous people before the Spanish showed up. They broke away from Spain in 1821. They eventually fall in with Nueva Granada and create the republic of Columbia around 1831.