The Panama Canal: A Brief
History
The importance of the Isthmus of Panama dates to 8,000
B.C. The route allowed man to migrate north and south through the
Americas. The desire to speed the transport of gold and silver first
motivated the idea for a canal. King Charles V of Spain ordered the
feasibility studies for a water pathway between the Atlantic and the
Pacific oceans around 1534. Due to war and the quest for power, the plan
to build the canal was never carried out.
Actual construction of the Panama Canal began in the
early 1880s at the hands of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal
in Egypt. Disease; problems created by the rocky, volcanic area and lack
of funds plagued the project and de Lesseps abandoned the canal after
seven years.
A new French company was formed to continue the work on
the canal; however, the French wanted to stem the loss of funds and
considered sale of the canal zone. The suitor they courted was the United
States. The U.S. had already started surveying for a canal site in 1887.
Excavation in Nicaragua even started and stopped when the company
conducting the project lost its funding in a stock panic.
 The
death of President McKinley at an assassin’s hand prevented the signing of
a bill to fund the Nicaraguan canal. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
took his place and started a friendship with Panama, a republic of
Columbia. When Panama declared its independence from Columbia, Roosevelt
sent a battleship to protect Americans in Panama. In addition, he
recognized Panama’s declaration preventing Columbia from retaking the
area.
The site in Nicaragua was chosen due to cost. The two
main foreign advisors to the Panama Canal project, William Cromwell and
Philippe Bunau-Varilla, realized they would lose everything unless the
United States chose the Panama site. They started a campaign to convince
the U.S. government to go with Panama which had been prevented from
selling the land for the canal to the U.S before declaring its
independence. The advisors’ campaign succeeded and the Hay-Bunau-Varilla
treaty was signed and ratified by both the Panamanian and U.S. governments
by 1904.
The first goal was to deal with the malaria and yellow
fever that plagued the French during their tenure at the canal. All
standing or slow-moving bodies of water, perfect for breeding mosquitoes,
were dealt with and infected people were isolated and protected from the
mosquitoes that would transmit the diseases by wire-screen tents.
Next roads were paved, sewer and water systems built and
buildings repaired. Then it was time to start construction. The project
went through three different chief engineers until Army Lieutenant George
Washington Goethals introduced military discipline and control, which
allowed him to move the project along more smoothly, efficiently and
quickly. The canal was finally completed in August of 1914. The first ship
to cross was the Cristobal, even thought the Ancon is recognized as the
official first.
Take a Break From
Your Computer
 Are
your joints cramped and stiff from working at your computer all day? If
they are, you might want to stretch out a little.
Here are some tips from Karen Jacobs,
professor of occupational therapy at Boston University:
1. To stretch your forearms, put your
hands together in a prayer position. Then keeping your palms together,
slowly push your hands down until you feel a stretch in your forearms.
Hold each one for 10 seconds.
2. To stretch your wrists, put your
arms out in front of you with your elbows straight. Then bend your hands
at the wrists so that your fingers are pointing toward the floor. Hold for
15 seconds. Then bend your hands the other way so that your fingers are
pointing toward the ceiling. Hold for 15 seconds.
3. To stretch your fingers, make a
fist and squeeze for five seconds. Then stretch your fingers outward so
that your fingers separate and reach. Hold for five seconds. Repeat three
times.
— Adapted from Parenting
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