Narrator: The Americans had been in Panama for more than a year, and $78 million already had been spent. Post Views: 634. Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum of Photography Matthew Parker, Author: John Stevens was an absolutely brilliant railroad engineer. Channel 5 websites use cookies. Eustace Tabois, Canal Worker: They had to drill these holes, you know, through the rock. Among the passengers on board was Jan van Hardeveld, a 30-year-old engineer from Wyoming. And that was the birth of the nation of Panama. Matthew Parker, Author: The gentlemen of the commission simply didn't believe the mosquito theory. Narrator: Jan van Hardeveld arrived in Panama just as Chief Engineer Wallace was leaving, and for the first few weeks, it was hard not to wonder if he'd made a mistake. Marco A. Mason, Panamanian Council of New York: Whoever could connect and have the two seas -- the Atlantic and the Pacific -- will be the global power. Julie Greene, Historian: West Indians found as they got to the Canal Zone that things were very different from what they had known in Barbados. Matthew Parker, Author, Panama Fever: The canal really announced the United States as the leading country in the world. And one of the leading yellow fever specialists was an army doctor called Colonel William Gorgas. National Library of Medicine A very Long video, but an excellent presentation, showing the history of the PANAMA CANAL during the days of its construction, that was authorized by the former US president, TEDDY ROOSEVELT, who had liberated PANAMA from the clutches of COLOMBIA, and took over the construction of the PANAMA CANAL, when FRANCE´s engineer, DE LESSEPS could NOT continue to construct the CANAL, because he could not get rid of the yellow fever transmitted by mosquitoes bites, which was causing the death of hundreds of canal construction workers, who were digging the ditch across the ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, to unite the ATLANTIC OCEAN, with the PACIFIC OCEAN, WEST of the ISTHMUS…, A US doctor, by the name of GORGAS, discovered that it was the bites of the mosquitoes that had transmitted the YELLOW FEVER to the construction workers, and he found the solution for exterminating the mosquitoes from the ISTHMUS, and developed a serum that cured the workers, and saved them from dying, and thereby, completed the construction of the PANAMA CANAL…, The ” BELIEVE IT or NOT” , had classified the PANAMA CANAL, as one of the 8th WONDERS OF THE WORLD,,,,along with the PYRAMIDS in EGYPT, along with then other 6 WONDERS OF THE WORLD…. They not only rejected it -- the Colombian legislature rejected it unanimously. But he went to Washington, and he talked face to face with Roosevelt and convinced him, convinced the President that a sea level canal would be total madness. "The house was clean and comfortable," Rose remembered, "just about the type of home a man in the States would try to provide for his family.". Matthew Parker, Author: In order to get to this lake, the ship would be raised by a series of locks. Assigned to supervise a work gang in the Culebra Cut, he spent his days building track for the spoil trains, while all around him roads were being paved and streetlights installed, wharves and warehouses built, dormitories and dining halls banged together. I raise my hands to God. Early that afternoon, a crowd began to gather at Gamboa, on the edge of Gatún Lake -- workers and their families, visiting dignitaries from the United States, tourists from as far away as Europe and East Asia. Sarah Rentz, Consultant Then her youngest, whom the family called "Sister," came down with a fever. The locks themselves are of uniform length, width, and depth and were built in pairs to permit the simultaneous transit of vessels in either direction. Narrator: As Jan van Hardeveld put it to Rose, the event would either be "a historic success -- or a historic failure. Foster Film As Goethals told a friend: "It's a case of just plain straight duty.". Carol R. Byerly, Historian: Yellow fever could cause internal bleeding. Matthew Parker, Author: When the news of the Panama revolution came through, it was immediately apparent that it carried out with the connivance and with the support of the United States. Narrator: Late on the night of January 30th, 1907 -- 18 months into his tenure and at the close of yet another 14-hour day -- John Stevens sat down at his desk in his office near Culebra, and composed a letter to Theodore Roosevelt. The Panama Canal was made by building dams on the Chagres River to create Gatun Lake and Lake Madden, digging the Gaillard Cut from the river between the two lakes and over the Continental Divide, … Narrator: For nearly 400 years, people had dreamed of building a canal that would slice through the slender isthmus of Panama and make the world's great oceans meet. In less than a decade, more than a billion francs -- about $287 million -- had been all but squandered. They're gonna raise ships up over the American continent, in effect. Narrator: Though the Panama Canal was arguably his greatest legacy, Theodore Roosevelt never saw it once it was finished. A Dutchman by birth, Jan was a newly-minted citizen of the United States, and a fierce champion of his adopted country. Carol R. Byerly, Historian: The project looks doomed. He was seen as incredibly virile. Narrator: In the system Stevens ultimately devised, the railroad would function as a giant conveyor belt, and its position would shift continuously to accommodate the work as it progressed. By Stevens' estimate, the two rigs would do the labor of 900 men working by hand. This is a place where the teacher can post information, ideas, or questions for the class. To oversee the project on the ground, Roosevelt had selected a seasoned, seemingly unflappable 51-year-old engineer from Chicago named John Findley Wallace. What man can endure with pick and shovel to dig the canal. This item: Modern Marvels: Panama Canal (The History Channel) by Panama Canal DVD $24.95 Only 1 left in stock - order soon. American Experience: Panama Canal DVD,On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower. Created by Bruce Nash. It couldn't have been more different from the Panama Canal. Life for workers in the Canal Zone was filled with hardships: constant rain, backbreaking work, racial tension, and the constant fear of yellow fever or malaria. With the segregation that was a whole dehumanizing strategy and that gave the moral justification for viewing them as beasts of labor. Roosevelt offered 10 million dollars and 250,000 dollars in rent every year if Colombia would let us build the canal through Panama. At Panama, the antimalarial work was principally rural, located for 47 miles along the line of the railroad between Panama and Colon. Ride through the Panama canal with this time-lapse video of the locks in action. Jan got small flags for the children, and told us about when the train would pass, so we were standing on the [front] steps. The people who were designated to show him around were totally exhausted after the first few hours. Panama Canal has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom. It's a great photo that really announced the key themes of the United States in the Canal Zone: peerless leadership, American industry, efficiency, technology. Carol R. Byerly, Historian: It used science and engineering and government to improve the country and really improve the world. Son of the South And it's with pride that my grandfather and his contemporaries look across at that. Matthew Parker, Author: He was called "Le Grand Francais." Of the tens of thousands of West Indians who had come to Panama to build the canal, most simply returned home again, quite often with not much more money in their pockets than they'd had when they left. The United States was the number one industrial power in the world. Despite the pandemic, Panamanian banana exports grew in 2020, Polaris Infrastructure Extends Memorandum of Understanding for 10 MW Run-of-River Hydro Project in Panama, Panama- OPINION – The Blameless Gentlemen, Suez Canal emerges as Panama alternative for US LNG. No one knows." The Americans took a different view. In the local stores, she remembered, "not one edible thing looked familiar," and she wound up feeding her children a steady diet of fruit, beans and soggy crackers. It is safe for viewing by all ages. He was endlessly appearing in the magazines, with his beautiful wife and his lovely children. The British were arrogant, the Germans were arrogant. Narrator: By the time Goethals took over, the Americans had been in Panama for three years, and the bulk of the work still lay ahead. With the opening of the American canal, the power in the world had shifted irrevocably and the American century effectively could begin. DIGGERS: A Roman J. Teresa Arosemena Comments are closed. Give them pride of what they were doing for the United States. In 1534, after no such passage across the isthmus had been found, Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, ordered a survey to determine if one could be built, but the s… It worked. Dr. Stanley Heckadon-Moreno reflects on the building of the Panama Canal and the importance of the Chagres river to its success. Gina Tolentino, Archival Stills Courtesy of Salamagundia Club I say, "Thank God, thank You." Canal History . The history of the construction of the Panama Canal is the saga of human ingenuity and courage: years of sacrifice, crushing defeat, and final victory. It was like the dance of the witches…. And he's, you know, saying, "That's bully great to have so much rain," because he wants to see Panama at its worst. Two weeks passed, then four. Julie Greene, Historian: John Stevens wasn't happy about relying on West Indians because he, you know, sharing in the racial beliefs of the day, he saw them as too lazy, not intelligent. But the U.S. paid a price for victory: a decade of ceaseless, grinding toil, an outlay of more than 350 million dollars — the largest single federal expenditure in history to that time — and the loss of more than 5,000 lives. All Rights Reserved. They had to screen gutters. Twelve days before, a ship called the Cristobal made a final practice run -- and became the first seagoing vessel ever to successfully cross from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the Panama Canal. Nobody wants to come to the isthmus to work. Because I could have been, I could have been dead several times. This is what American power, technological know-how, determination, managerial organization, all of those things that Americans prided themselves on and still do to a certain extent, this is what it can do for the whole world. Ovidio Diaz Espino, Writer: After 500 years of people dreaming, now it was done. So now they have to bring in more men and more men and more men. His project was a lot bigger, though, because in Havana he just had to clean up one city, but in Panama he had to clean up two urban areas separated by 500 square miles of swamp and jungle. No matter how fast asleep I might be, when the first sound of that eerie screeching slapped the air, I was wide awake and out of bed. Matthew Parker, Author: They were already the best paid people on the isthmus. Jackson Lears, Historian: T.R. Patricia Yusah, An Insignia Films production for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, (c) 2010 Julie Greene, Historian: The canal project increasingly became looked upon by Americans as kind of a utopian representation of the United States. In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to discover that the Isthmus of Panama was just a slim land bridge separating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Narrator: It had taken 10 years of ceaseless, grinding toil, an outlay of more than $350 million -- the largest single federal expenditure in history to that time -- and the loss of more than 5,000 lives. Word had it that he'd since built more miles of railroad than any other man alive. I mean, that is mind-boggling. Original Concept Developed by Marco A. Mason, Panamanian Council of New York: It worked exactly like it worked in the United States. And Roosevelt decides that he'll go down to Panama and see what's going on firsthand. Theodore Roosevelt Association Films Colleciton/Library of Congress, Legal Services Jan van Hardeveld (Josh Hamilton): [Dear Rose,] the slowness of work would be discouraging, if I were not certain that our Government can and will accomplish whatever it sets out to do. Sociedad de Amigos del Museo Afro-Antillano de Panama The new Panamanian government authorized French businessman Philippe Bunau-Varilla, to negotiate a treaty with the United States. 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