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Panama Has Been Viewed As the “Crossroads of the World” by Those Who Would Use Its Position in the World to Further Commerce

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Panama Has Been Viewed As the “Crossroads of the World” by Those Who Would Use Its Position in the World to Further Commerce ERA OF SPAIN For more than five hundred years, since the time Columbus sailed along its Caribbean coast and Balboa crossed its isthmus, Panama has been viewed as the “Crossroads of the World” by those who would use its position in the world to further commerce. As early as 1534, Charles V of Spain decreed that a survey be made in the vicinity of Panama for a ship canal between the Chagres River and the Pacific Ocean, to connect the Atlantic and Pacific portions of the Spanish Empire. Although King Charles did not fulfill his vision, the Spanish regularly crossed the isthmus, from the walled city of Panama to Porto Bello, bearing the wealth of the Inca and the silver mines of Peru for treasures ships bound for Spain. FRENCH EFFORTS END IN FAILURE The French canal effort, undertaken by the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique, was badly under‐financed. In addition, early French canal planners seriously misjudged the rains, the rivers, and especially the diseases of Panama. Back in France, corruption and mismanagement led to the dissolution of the company and eventually to the fall of the French government. In May 1889, all work in Panama ceased. In October 1894 French efforts in Panama resumed with 2000 workers, under the reorganized Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama. The project, however, had lost the commitment of the French people. In May 1904, the properties of the French canal company were transferred to the United States. France’s unsuccessful effort cost 1.4 billion francs, or one billion francs more than the Suez Canal. It also cost over 20,000 lives. FRENCH EFFORTS END IN FAILURE The first French canal effort, undertaken by the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique, was badly under‐financed. In addition, early French canal planners seriously misjudged the rains, the rivers, and especially the diseases of Panama. Back in France, corruption and mismanagement led to the dissolution of the company and eventually to the fall of the French government. In May 1889, all work in Panama ceased. In October 1894 French efforts in Panama resumed with 2000 workers, under the reorganized Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama. The project, however, had lost the commitment of the French people. In May 1904, the properties of the French canal company were transferred to the United States. France’s unsuccessful effort cost 1.4 billion francs, or one billion francs more than the Suez Canal. It also cost over 20,000 lives. Panama – Land of the Mosquito One of the major obstacles encountered by the French canal builders in Panama was the prevalence of two tropical diseases, malaria and yellow fever. The French were not aware that mosquitoes were carriers of these illnesses. Instead, it was erroneously assumed that “bad air” or unsanitary living conditions caused the diseases. (Malaria, in fact, takes it name from the Italian “mal `aria”, or “bad air”.) The error of their assumptions led the French to adopt fatally flawed strategies in trying to solve the problems of disease. French physicians simply reacted to illness whenever it appeared, rather than trying to develop a proactive program to eliminate the root causes of the diseases. Because of its uniform year‐round temperature and heavy annual rainfall, the country of Panama was truly a “mosquito paradise”. The French took little action to mitigate the mosquito problem. They lacked even such essential supplies as wire screening or disinfectants. In the French Hospital at Ancon ornamental plants were protected from the ever‐present umbrella ants by water‐filled crockery rings. Similarly, the legs of hospital beds were placed in water filled cans to protected patients from insects. Ironically, these practices created ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which only added to the already high death rate among the workers of the French company. In the end, disease became a major factor in the failure of the French efforts to build a canal “LE GRAND FRANÇAIS” Fresh from his conquest of the sands at Suez in 1869, Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, “Le Grand Français,” turned his energies towards the mountainous jungles of Panama. He envisioned a one‐lock canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Panama Canal was to be France’s gift to the world and was to be funded by the people of France. A lottery system was instituted whereby private French citizens bought shares in the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceaníque. This was the era of Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty and Eiffel’s great tower in Paris. With confidence in French engineering, and filled with optimism, the men of de Lesseps’ vision began construction at Culebra Cut in January 1880. The high point in the French effort was 1887‐1888, when 17,885 workers removed 15,000,000 cubic yards of earth per year. HOW THEY LIVED Since yellow fever and malaria were still serious problems and government provisions for the employees not yet fully implemented, the first years of the American construction period were difficult canal employees as they tried to make the Canal Zone home. Morale was poor, and many employees decided to leave. However, in succeeding years as measures taken by Dr. Gorgas to control mosquitoes began to take effect and entire communities were established, morale greatly improved. The Isthmian Canal Commission (I.C.C.) provided housing, mess halls, barracks, hospitals, schools, churches, a baseball league, clubhouses, cold storage facilities, laundries, sewage systems, post offices, a bakery, and a hotel. Women, initially discouraged by I.C.C. authorities from coming to the unhealthy construction environment, came and brought a taste of home with them. Their presence and influence inspired President Roosevelt to call the U.S. wife on the Isthmus of Panama a "better fellow" than even the male worker. Saturday night dances at the I.C.C. Tivoli Hotel, Sunday I.C.C. band concerts, Y.M.C.A. clubhouses, sightseeing, the beach, and clubs and fraternal organizations provided leisure activities for the employees and their families after the workers’ ten‐hours a day, six‐day work week. Many of these activities were available to only the skilled (“gold”) employees and their dependents. Schools, commissaries, and housing were among the separate and generally unequal facilities and services provided the unskilled (“silver”) employees and their families. Skilled and unskilled bachelors lived in separate barracks; but those of the unskilled bachelors had no screened windows or doors and crammed together as many as 72 men, who slept on folding canvas bunk beds. Family housing for unskilled workers was so lacking that many looked elsewhere—to Panama’s cities or jungle‐‐for housing at their own expense. Skilled workers with families, on the other hand, lived in single cottages, duplexes, or four‐family houses rent free. Towns were built on construction sites, and town sites moved as construction progressed. But all employees enjoyed free medical care, strong I.C.C. safety regulations, and reasonably priced food at the commissaries. And despite inequities and hardships, most employees and their families experienced a standard of living that was comparable to or even better than that which they had experienced prior to their arrival in the Canal Zone. This was an important factor in keeping a motivated, successful work force. THE LOCKS – A STAIRWAY FOR SHIPS Rather than attempting to build a sea level canal, like the French, the Americans decided to build the U.S. canal with a series of locks. A lock type of canal significantly reduced the volume of soil and rock that would have to be removed in order to bring the entire length of the waterway down to sea level. The presence of locks also solved a potentially serious problem stemming from tidal differences between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Although the two oceans lie basically at the same level, their tidal patterns differ significantly. Tides at the Atlantic end of the canal have a range of less than 24 inches, whereas tides at the Pacific end rise and fall more than 20 feet each day. Without the barrier afforded by the locks, these differences in tidal patterns would have generated extreme tidal currents within the canal itself, making ship traffic difficult, if not impossible. In all, three sets of locks were built; one set each at Miraflores, Pedro Miguel, and Gatun. At the request of the navy, the locks were designed to accommodate the largest warships in the U.S. fleet – each chamber being 1000 feet long by 110 feet wide. Construction of the locks took more than four years. Nearly 5 million cubic yards of cement were poured to form the massive lock chambers, and, at the time they were built, the locks of the Panama Canal were the largest concrete structures in the world. THE PANAMA RAILROAD Fifteen years before the U.S. transcontinental railroad connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the two bodies of water were linked by the Panama Railroad. William H. Aspinwall and his associates, John L. Stephens and Henry Chauncey, envisioned an “iron road” across the isthmus to carry steamship mail from New York and New Orleans to California and Oregon. The railroad would also carry the “Forty‐niners”, rushing to get to the newly‐discovered gold fields in California. The Panama Railroad Company was incorporated on April 15, 1850 and work began the following month under the supervision of Chief Engineer Col. George W. Totten. Overcoming weather, topography , and disease, Totten and his multi‐national work force completed the herculean task in January 1855, connecting Aspinwall (today’s Colon) on the Atlantic side with Panama City on the Pacific side. The job was finished ahead of the schedule as granted by the Government of New Granada.
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