The history of the Panama canal ideal for students worksheet included, this is part of a legacy left to us by the great engineers of the 18th and 19th Century.

1. Construction of locks on the Panama Canal, 1913.

2. Where is The Panama canal?

7. Ferdinand De Lesseps 1805-1894 Born on November 19th, 1805 in Versailles, France. His Family was for a long time distinguished in the French diplomatic service.

8. Joining the Waters In 1878 Ferdinand De Lesseps, the French engineer who built the Suez Canal, began to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, which was then part of Colombia. Tropical disease and engineering problems halted construction on the canal, but a French business (the New Panama Canal Company)

9. still held the rights to the project. Roosevelt agreed to pay $40 million for the rights, and he began to negotiate with Colombia for control of the land. He offered $10 million for a fifty-mile strip across the isthmus.

10. A schematic of the Panama Canal, illustrating the sequence of locks and passages

11. 1882 A Cheque from the French Company for the amount of 1,500 pounds

12. Birds-eye view , map of the Panama Canal

13. Steam dredge 1984

14. Bas Obispo1886 Excavator at work near Empire. Averaging 400 cubic yards a day.

15. Bas Obispo1886 The hilltop at Bas Obispo torn up by dynamite. The French dump cars had a capacity from five to eight cubic yards.

16. Culebra Cut 1898

17. Disgrace .

18. When the French abandoned the project they had spent over twenty years and $260,000000

19. In 1903 the Americans took over

20. 1905 Yellow Fever Quarantine Station

21. Yellow fever (also called yellow jack , black vomit or sometimes American Plague ) is an acute viral disease.It is an important cause of hemorrhagic illness in many African and South American countries despite existence of an effective vaccine . The yellow refers to the jaundice symptoms that affect some patients. Yellow fever has been a source of several devastating epidemics . Transmitted to Humans primarily by mosquitoes.

22. Malaria is a vector -borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites . It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas , Asia , and Africa . Malaria parasites are transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes . The parasites multiply within red blood cells , causing symptoms that include symptoms of anemia (light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia etc.), as well as other general symptoms such as fever , chills , nausea , flu-like illness , and in severe cases, coma and death.

23. 1905 fumigation car eradicating the mosquitoes Panama City 1905

24. "We were dealing with a government of irresponsible bandits," Roosevelt stormed. "I was prepared to . . . at once occupy the Isthmus anyhow, and proceed to dig the canal. But I deemed it likely that there would be a revolution in Panama soon."

25. AND THERE WAS ! WHICH ONES ?

26. A train of flat cars needed to carry all the excavated material from the canal It would circle the earth four times the Equator. A total soil excavated from the canal would build a pyramid 4,2OO feet (1,280meters) high

27. Steam shovels digging the Panama Canal

28. 1904 TO 1905 John Findley Wallace

29. John F. Stevens was named Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal in 1905.

30. 1906 US President Roosevelt visiting the Panama Canal construction site

31. Construction work on the Gaillard Cut is shown in this photograph taken in 1907

32. In 1907 Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals as Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal.

33. Miraflores Lock Doors Construction 1913

34. Miraflores Locks 1913 First flooding

35. The Culebra Cut - later known as the Gaillard Cut - under construction

36. Historic Postcard from the Panama Canal showing the opening of the Gates at Miraflores Locks

37. 1914 Panama Canal Opening Steamer SS Ancon at Pedro Miguel Locks

38. The Panama canal Length 79,6 km, Width 152 meters (in average ), Deep 13 meters, Difference in height 26 meters (six Locks), Construction started in 1881, Ended in 1914, Number of m3 of water released is 259 millions, Time of transit takes 8 to 10 hours, Number of boats 14 000 a year.

39. When the canal opened the United States had spent $352 million

40. The opening of the waterway to world commerce on August 15, 1914 , represented the realization of a heroic dream of over 400 years. The 50 miles across the isthmus were among the hardest ever won by human ingenuity.

41. A Historic Postcard from Panama Lesseps Anniversary

42. Interesting Facts The cargo ship Ancon was the first vessel to transit the Canal on August 15, 1914. A boat traveling from New York to San Francisco saves 7,872 miles by using the Panama Canal instead of going around Cape Horn. The highest toll paid for a transit through the Panama Canal until 1995 paid by the Crown Princess on May 2, 1993; it was US$141,349.97. The lowest toll paid was US$ 0.36 and was paid by Richard Halliburton who crossed the Canal swimming in 1928. The San Juan Prospector was the longest ship to transit the Canal; it was 751 ft. (229 m.) in length with a 107 ft. (32.6 m.) beam. The Hydrofoil Pegasus of the United States Navy did the fastest transit of the Canal by completing it in 2 hours and 41 minutes. Each door of the locks weights 750 tons.

43. 1. The canal is not just a “path” of water between the two oceans. There are a series of 6 locks in two parallel tracks that raise and lower ships between the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. 2. The locks had to be built because of the terrain. The highest point is 85 feet above sea level. 3. The canal runs North and South, not East and West. 4. The locks are about 1000 feet long, so ships must be shorter than that to pass through. Many ships are built specifically to fit the Panama Canal. A new canal is being built to accommodate larger ships. 5. Ships do not simply sail through the canal. They idle through while they are guided by electricity-powered “mules” attached to the ship with cables. 6. A ship like ours pays over $200K in cash, well in advance, to enter the canal. You pay the same amount whether you go through from one side to the other or turn around in the middle.

44. 7. The canal is self-powered. Three dams produce electricity to power the mules, lights and other equipment. 8. There are no pumps on the canals. Valves allow water to pass from the higher elevations to the lower ones by power of gravity. The water accumulates in man-made lakes produced from tremendous amounts of rainfall. 9. The canal was completed in 1913 by the United States after France failed twice at getting it built. We controlled it until 1999. 10. Nine military bases the Americans constructed around the base. They were all vacated by 1999. Many of them are deteriorating. 11. “A man, a plan, a canal - Panama” is rather long palindrome. Gen. John Stevens was the man with the plan.

45. Modern day photo of the Panama Canal. This is yet another modern day legacy left to our world, from the engineers of a glorious 19th Century.