Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Panama Canal

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

Every since the lands of the New World were mapped, people dreamt of creating a canal through Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  For almost 500 years, that dream was just that. A dream. Creating such a canal would require one of the greatest engineering projects in human history.  It was finally achieved in the early 20th century with an enormous amount of machinery, money, human lives, and a whole lot of political arm-twisting.  Learn more about the Panama Canal and how it came to be on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since the lands of the new world were mapped, people dreamt of creating a canal through Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For almost 400 years, that dream was just that, a dream. Creating such a canal would require one of the greatest engineering projects in human history. But it was finally achieved in the early 20th century, with an enormous amount of machinery, money, human lives, and a whole lot of political arm twisting. Learn more about the Panama Canal and how it came to be on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why

Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help. help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what

you've been missing. You can listen to nothing much happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. Anyone who has ever looked at a map of the Western Hemisphere can immediately see the value of a canal going through Central America. North and South America collectively extend 14.6,000 kilometers, or 9,000 miles from the Arctic Ocean down to Cape Horn. It is a massive, continental-sized roadblock for anyone who wants to sail between Asia and Europe, or for anyone wanting to sail from the east to west coast of the Americas.

The first idea for a canal to cross the isthmus of Panama dates back only 25 years after Columbus arrived in the new world. In 1517, Vasco de Balboa crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific and found out just how small the distance was between the two oceans. In 1534, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered a survey to be conducted for the construction of a canal. His intent was to reduce the distance required to sail to Peru. The problem wasn't the distance per se. It was the fact that a mountain range ran through the middle of the isthmus. The ideal of a canal through Panama never went to a west. over the centuries. There were always ideas floating around about creating a canal. As trade and shipping

increased, the need for such a canal became greater and greater. Sailing around South America added as much as 8,000 miles to a voyage depending on where you were going. Perhaps most importantly, sailing around Cape Horn was inherently dangerous. The seas south of Cape Horn are part of the Drake Passage and have some of the roughest seas in the world. Moreover, the prevailing winds there make it very difficult to sail from east to west. And, oh yeah, there can be icebergs. The idea of a canal picked up steam in the 19th century, which was probably the greatest century of canal building the world has ever seen. The isthmus of Panama was originally part of the country of Grand Columbia when it became independent from Spain in 1821. The first serious plan for the creation of a canal

took place in 1826 when the United States approached the newly independent country of Grand Columbia about getting the rights to build a canal. The Colombians, however, declined because just having achieved independence, they really didn't want to get entangled with a larger country again. In 1843, the British were the next to take a stab at a canal. Their plan was to create what they called the Atlantic Pacific Canal, but it too was never even started. The California gold rush of 1849 renewed American interest in a canal. It resulted in the construction of the Panama Railroad, which was completed in 1855. The railroad carried passengers and goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific

and became the fastest way to get from the east to west coast of the United States. The first real attempt at creating a canal took place by the builder of the Suez Canal, the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps. He created a company, raised funds, and began work on January 1, 1881. The Suez Canal was a much longer canal, but it was also much easier to build. The Suez Canal is fundamentally a gigantic ditch that just connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Despite being only 40% the distance of the Suez Canal, a canal in Panama was a much greater engineering challenge due to the mountains, extreme precipitation during the rainy season, venomous snakes, dense jungle, and disease. The French team originally wanted to build a sea level canal, but hadn't done enough research and wasn't prepared for anything that they encountered.

The French team worked for eight years, spent over $287 million, and lost the lives of over 22,000 workers on the project, again, mostly from disease. However, there were also many work-related deaths and injuries from landslides, rock falls, and other industrial accidents. In 1889, the French project declared bankruptcy, and the investments of over 800,000 investors vanished. In 1894, a second French company took over the project and advocated a system of locks rather than a sea level canal. In 1997, the U.S. government once again became interested. There were two options that they investigated. One was a canal through Nicaragua and Lake Nicaragua, and the other was to purchase the French rights and pick up where they left off. They went with the Panama option.

The project received a big boost after the assassination of President William McKinley, when Theodore Roosevelt became president, who would be a new. was a big supporter of the canal project. In 1902, the United States purchased all the assets from the French Canal Company for $40 million. However, the U.S. still had to negotiate the rights to the canal. In January 1903, the United States and Colombia, of which Panama was still apart at this time, signed the He-Aran Treaty, which granted the United States a lease that they could renew in perpetuity. The U.S. Senate ratified it, but the Colombian Senate did not. It was then pointed out, that there had been an active separatist movement in Panama, which had existed for 80 years

since they achieved independence from Spain. So, unable to secure a treaty with Colombia, the United States threw its weight behind the Panamanian independence movement. On November 2nd, 1903, the United States blocked Colombian ships from transporting troops to Panama, which they couldn't reach by land because there were no roads going through the Darian Gap, which connected Panama to the rest of Colombia. The next day, on November 3rd, Panama declared independence from Columbia, and was immediately recognized by the United States. Just three days later, on November 6, 1903, the United States and the brand-new independent Panama signed the Hei-Bunau-Varia Treaty,

signed by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, and the Panamanian representative Philippe Jean-Bunau-Varria, who just so happened to be the French engineer who worked on the canal project. The treaty allowed the United States to a zone where they could build a canal and administer it indefinitely. If this whole becoming independent and then finalizing a treaty to give away a big hunk of your brand new country sounds kind of fishy, that was the case at the time. The Colombians were upset at losing a part of their country. There were Panamanians who were upset at giving away a big hunk of their brand new country, and there were Americans upset at how shady everything went down.

In fact, the New York Times called it an act of soared conquest. Nonetheless, the deal was done, and the Americans went to work on the canal. They took control of all former French assets in Panama in May of 1904. The U.S. government created the Ismissian Canal Commission to oversee the construction of the canal and the administration of the canal zone. The French infrastructure, having not been used in years, was in poor shape, so the first order of business was repairing everything. The Americans were able to do a much better job than the French did, if for no other reason than they had the resources of the government behind them, rather than just a private corporation with limited funds. A large number of Afro-Caribbean workers were brought in to work on the canal, many of whom settled in Panama permanently. They were recruited primarily from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados.

The Americans also learned from the French who suffered massive losses due to disease. The Americans instituted a large-scale mosquito eradication program in the canal zone, as they were the primary vector of disease transmission. The Americans initially made the same mistake as the French by trying to build a sea-level canal. The problem, the problem. The problem is the primary, the problem was that as they excavated the mountains, they had to excavate an enormous amount of earth to avoid landslides because the sides would otherwise be too steep. By 1906, the American government came to the conclusion that the sea level canal wasn't going to work. They instead opted for a series of locks and lakes that would raise ships a total of 85 feet or 26 meters above sea

level. This would require the construction of both the largest dam and the largest artificial lake in the world at the time. The new plan would require the excavation of an additional 13 million cubic meters of earth on top of the 23 million that the French had already moved. The plan completion date for this new lock strategy was 1916, 10 years after the new plan was to be put in place. The Americans upgraded all of the French equipment with more modern and powerful versions and also purchased significantly more equipment. For the next several years, thousands of men toiled in the construction of the canal. While the Americans adapted better to the climate than the French and made efforts to eradicate disease,

they still lost 5,855 men during the construction of the canal. Again, mostly to disease, but also to accidents. A landmark day in the construction of the canal took place on October 10, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson sent a signal from the White House via telegraph, which initiated an explosion that blew up a dike that filled up the Culebra or Gileard cut. This was the channel that crossed the continental divide and was the moment when the Atlantic and Pacific were finally connected by water. The Panama Canal was declared complete on August 15, 1914, two years ahead of schedule. The first ship to pass through the canal was an American cargo ship called the SS Ancon.

The opening of the canal had an immediate impact on shipping. Ports in South America saw a drop in traffic as ships simply bypassed them. transit times for shipping from the east to west coast of both North and South America were reduced. Construction on the canal never really ended. There were repairs and additions done over the next several decades, including a larger reservoir to keep the lakes filled and an extension of the locks in 1939 to allow larger military vessels through. The United States Virgin Islands was purchased from Denmark in 1917 in large part to help defend the canal. The canal zone, which extended five miles or eight kilometers from the canal on either side, was effectively an American territory, even though it was still

technically Panamanian land. The status of the canal zone became a contentious issue beginning in the 1950s. The United States encouraged the French and British to give up the Suez Canal to the Egyptian government. It then raised the logical question, if the Egyptians were to control the Suez Canal, then why don't the Panamanians get to control their canal? On January 9, 1964, riots broke out, which killed 20 Panamanians and five U.S. soldiers, a day which is still commemorated in Panama as Martyrs Day. After the riots, Panama broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. Negotiations to hand over control of the canal began in 1974 under the Nixon administration and the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. An agreement for the transfer of the canal was

finalized on September 7, 1977, with a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrios. The treaty stipulated that the canal would be transferred to Panama under the condition that it remained neutral to all shipping. The canal was formerly transferred to Panama on December 31, 1999. The Panama Canal is still extremely important. About 14,000 ships per year passed through the canal, and in 2010, the one millionth ship passage took place. One problem which has arisen is that cargo ships have gotten progressively larger. There is a particular design of ship known as the Panamax ship, which is the largest ship that can pass through the canal. In 2006, in a nationwide referendum, Panamanians approved an expansion of the canal with 77% of the vote.

The canal expansion began in 2007 and was completed in 2016. It added a new set of locks to increase the amount of ship traffic and allowed for larger ships to pass through. The new maximum-sized ship is known as a Neo-Panamax. The Panama Canal is not the end of the story when it comes to efforts to improve transit times from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There is still talk of a canal across Nicaragua and also for additional dry canal rail links for shipping containers. Over a hundred years after the completion of the Panama Canal, it still remains one of the greatest engineering projects in history. It is a vital part of international commerce and is one of the largest sources of revenue for the nation of Panama. The dream of a canal that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was over 400 years in the making.

Its fulfillment took an enormous amount of lives, money, and resources, and not an insignificant amount of political skullduggery. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener L. Stebbins over at Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, love this podcast. Gary, your podcast is so awesome. I love to learn about new things, and I'm interested in pretty much everything,

so your podcast is perfect. I'm working my way through all the shows. Can't wait to let you know when I've joined the Completionist Club. Until then, thank you for creating this most excellent podcast, your faithful listener from the garlic capital of the world. Thanks, L. Stebbins. I assume that when you speak of the garlic capital of the world, you're talking about Gilroy, California,

located between San Jose and Monterey. you'll be happy to note that when you join the Completionist Club, you will find a host of garlic themed dishes available in our California chapter. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostergram, you two can have it read on the show. And also remember that you can now leave reviews on individual episodes on Spotify.