Look at a map of the world. Where North America and South America connect there is only a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. That skinny piece of land is called the Isthmus of Panama. For the past 400 years people have wanted to dig a canal through it. If ships sailing between East and West could go through a canal right there, they would not have to go all the way around the end of South America. The trip could be shorter by thousands of miles.

It took over 30 years and cost a lot of money to dig a 50-mile canal through the swamps, jungles and hills of Panama. Even worse, many of the people working on the canal died from sicknesses. But by August 1914 the Panama Canal was ready to let steamships through. Some people called the canal the “World’s Greatest Engineering Work.”

Here is a selection of images on the machines and men involved in building the canal, from the archives of Scientific American from 1881 to 1920, with modern captions.

Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Kevin McGarry and his 8th grade Social Studies students at P.S. 49, the Dorothy Bonawit Kole School in Queens, N.Y., for field-testing this slide show, and Principal Anthony Lombardi for facilitating.

» View the Panama Canal Slide Show

5 Comments

1. 1. geojellyroll 01:05 PM 11/10/12

   It 'was' the greatest engineering project but has been eclipsed by several projects since then.

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2. 2. SuperString in reply to geojellyroll 02:18 PM 11/10/12

   Yes, it has been eclipsed. But for the time? good Lord, they did this thing without chainsaws; just dynamite, manual labor and steam engines. When they built and electrified the locks it was only a few years after alternating current was invented. Finely balanced and superbly engineered. Oh, and after the human toll was brought in line, new advances in prevention and treatment of tropical diseases. However, I do agree with your comment.

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3. 3. Obie1 02:51 PM 11/10/12

   The shovels that dug the canal were from The Marion Steam Shovel Co. in Marion Onio. They later became the Marion Power Shovel Co. and went on to build some of the largest shovels and drag lines in the world.
   
   There is a lot of information about these machines with pictures online.
   

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4. 4. patrickh74 01:10 PM 11/12/12

   to Obie1 :The Marion Steam Shovel Co. in Marion, Ohio had a branch in Bucyrus, too. It is the building that currently houses the Ohio Locomotive Crane Company. Many of the parts used to assemble the steam shovels were produced in Bucyrus (my home town).

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5. 5. clarkel 09:20 AM 11/15/12

   This beats reading Comments from the election.

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