More than 60,000,000 pounds of dynamite was used to excavate and construct the Panama Canal. They had to use so much dynamite, because the canal would have been impossible to build with the modern day technology. The Panama Canal is very important, though a lot of people died trying to build it, and people spent a lot of money on it, though a lot of people use it every day.
Because the Panama Canal was difficult to build, many people lost their lives trying to build it. About 20,000 French lost their lives during their control over the Panama Canal. 5,609 workers lost their lives due to accidents and health problems, 80% of those people were black and 350 workers were white Americans.
There were many difficulties that the workers faced building the canal, six faults and five volcanic cores. Because there were precipitous slopes, flooding was a huge problem because the water would fall down off the steep slope. Another huge problem was two things, malaria fever and yellow fever, people died because of a mist that came from the swamps and marshes. There was also a dense jungle covering the area.
The idea to create a canal that connects the Atlantic and pacific oceans can be tracked to 1513, and in 1534 Charles V. told the people of Panama to survey the area and look for the best route, and their governor said it was impossible for anyone to do. In 1880 the French unsuccessfully tried to build the canal, but had no luck. The French and the Americans made a treaty, and the canal was successfully built from 1904 – 1914.
The Panama Canal would have been easier to build today than in 1904-1914, because they didn’t have all of our modern day technology. There were many difficulties the workers faced building the canal, and many people lost their lives because of health problems and accidents. They had to use lots of dynamite because their technology wasn’t as advanced as our technology.
Picture from tocadacotia.com
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