The Panama Canal, a 77.1-kilometer (48 mi) ship canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean, was began to construct in 1881 by France, but had to stop because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease. The United States took over the project in 1904, and took a decade to complete the canal, which was officially opened on August 15, 1914.
It’s one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan. The shorter, faster, and safer route to the U.S. West Coast and to nations in and around the Pacific Ocean allowed those places to become more integrated with the world economy.
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| The United States took over the original canal-construction project from the French, 1904 |
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| Theodore Roosevelt visiting the Panama Canal construction site, 1904 |
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| The railroad in use in the Culebra Cut, December 1904 |
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| Steam shovels load rocks blasted away onto twin tracks that remove the earth from the Panama Canal bed, 1908 |
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| President Theodore Roosevelt on a steam-powered digging machine during construction of the Panama Canal, 1908 |
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| A work crew standing on the tracks by a locomotive while a steam shovel loads a dirt car in the background, 1909 |
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| Loading holes with dynamite, June 6, 1909 |
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| North approach, Pedro Miguel Lock, Panama Canal, ca. 1910 |
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| Panama Canal construction, ca. 1910 |
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| View of the Locks under construction, 1912 |
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| Panama Canal excavation, 1913 |
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| The fifty-mile Panama Canal under construction, 1913 |
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| Workers standing near a landslide that destroyed digging machinery, during the construction of the Panama Canal at Culebra Cut in Panama, May 29, 1913 |
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| Panama Canal, Gatun Lake spillway, 1914 |
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| The Panama Canal opened on Aug. 15, 1914. The first ship through was the U.S. steamer the SS Ancon |
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