2. The French Attempt After building the Suez Canal, Ferdinand De Lesseps proposes to the French people about his plans for the Panama Canal in 1879. The plan was to be a canal at sea level that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Eventually, a combination of the poor working and living conditions, the extreme rain and weather, and lack of funds, the French effort failed.
3. The U.S. In 1901, president McKinley is shot and Theodore Roosevelt becomes president. In 1902, the U.S. senate approves the building of the Panama Canal. Columbia does not agree to this and at that time Columbia was apart of Panama and vise versa. Columbia sends ships to Panama while Theodore Roosevelt already had a gun ship waiting at Panama.
4. The U.S. Continued… In 1904, construction started on the canal, however, it was very unorganized and slow to progress until John Frank Stevens takes over as Engineer and improves living and working conditions for the laborers. These improved conditions helped eliminate disease, such as, malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, typhoid, and many others. As a nature result, the moral of the men was up. Stevens eventually quits for unknown but speculated reasons, and he was replaced by George Washington Goethals, who was a colonel of the U.S. Navy.
5. Completion The canal was made by damming the Chagres River and creating Madden Lake. A series of locks would raise ships to the level of the lake and then lower them to the ocean on the other side. The canal was completed in 1914. About 5,600 men died during the U.S. development of the canal and many more including the French effort. It takes about 9 hours to get across the canal and the toll varies on the ship and other factors.
