The Panama Canal opens
After a failed French attempt in the 1880s, the United States took over construction in 1904. Ten years and tens of thousands of workers later, the SS Ancon made the first official transit in August 1914, cutting the sea route between New York and San Francisco by roughly 13,000 km.
See it on the globe
What happened
A canal across the Isthmus of Panama had been a dream since the 16th century. France tried first, under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, but the attempt collapsed in 1889 amid bankruptcy, scandal and the deaths of more than 20,000 workers from yellow fever, malaria and accidents.
The United States took over in 1904, after backing Panama's independence from Colombia and securing control of a Canal Zone. Under chief engineers John Stevens and George Goethals, and with Dr William Gorgas leading a campaign against mosquitoes, the project switched to a system of locks lifting ships 26 metres to the artificial Gatún Lake. Workers, many from Barbados and other Caribbean islands, cut through the Culebra mountains in brutal conditions, and around 5,600 died during the American phase.
The SS Ancon made the first official transit on 15 August 1914, just as the First World War broke out in Europe. The canal cut the sea journey from New York to San Francisco by about 13,000 km and reshaped world trade. The United States controlled it until it was handed over to Panama in 1999.
Around the same time
- The San Francisco earthquake and fire, San Francisco, USA, 1906
- The Battle of the Somme, Somme, France, 1916
- The Russian Revolution, Petrograd, Russia, 1917 to 1918
- The first modern Olympic Games, Athens, Greece, 1896
Earlier: The first modern Olympic Games, 1896 · Later: The San Francisco earthquake and fire, 1906
Further reading
Encyclopedia article: Panama Canal (en.wikipedia.org)