Tuesday, 12/15 It is 1900 and you want to sell Hawaiian products in your New York City business. Pick-up a map to help! List the different paths of travel for your products. What is good/bad about them?

The Panama Canal Greatest Shortcut on Earth!

Why Build a Canal? A trip from San Francisco to New York is 7,872 miles shorter using the canal instead of going around South America.

What the Heck’s an Isthmus? Isn’t the Atlantic in the East and Pacific in the West??

By noon the temperature is around 100 degrees.

The average yearly rainfall is about 105 inches. Flooding makes the ground like pudding, and you can sink up to your knees in mud.

It’s so humid that after it rains steam rises from the ground Your clothes are nearly always soaking wet.

The Jungle grows at an amazing rate! (Panamanian Railroad est. in 1855/56)

The terrain is NOT level!

Tropical diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria are spread easily by mosquitoes.

1880s In 1881, the French were given permission to build a canal across Panama. They do not know how to contend with the diseases found in Panama.

After eight years and over 20,000 French construction worker deaths, the French abandon the project. The company building the canal goes bankrupt.

The United States begins work on the canal in It is a project of the U.S. government so unlike the French, they did not run out of money. William Gorgas discovered (1898 – after the Sp.Am War) that mosquitoes cause the diseases - defeat them and you end disease!

Remember the Edison videos? His company was hired to go to Panama and record the building of the canal. This section discusses the efforts led by Dr. Gorgas to eliminate disease.

In 1903, Panama was a province of Colombia (kind of like Delaware is part of the United States) The United States offers to buy rights to build the canal from Colombia for $10 million dollars and $250,000 per year.

Colombia refuses – holding out for more money… On November 3, 1903 Panamanians, led by officials of the Panama Railroad and others hoping to gain from the construction of a canal, launched a revolution.

The United States sends warships to protect Panama and prevent Colombia from retaking it’s own territory.

The rebels are quickly victorious and on November 6, 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt officially recognizes the new nation of Panama who in turn signs the treaty previously refused by Colombia.

Another major decision had to be made – should the canal be sea level – like the French had tried to build or should they follow the natural rise of the land?

What are locks? A lock is a part of a canal with gates at each end where boats are raised or lowered to different water levels.

Go to Canal.asf video to See How a Lock WorksGo to Canal.asf video to See How a Lock Works

Building the Lock Chambers

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt visits the canal zone. Don’t you always wear white to a MUDDY construction site?

Construction progressed using steam shovels and human muscle By 1914, the canal is completed – ahead of schedule and under budget! Total cost to Americans = $375,000,000

As of July 2011, 1,015,721 vessels have used the waterway since its opening on August 15, 1914.

In 1977, the United States signed a treaty with Panama that agreed to give Panama control of the canal in 1999 Part of the agreement included that the waterway “shall remain open to peaceful and uninterrupted transit of vessels of all nations.”

A vessel passing through the Panama Canal pays a toll proportionate to its size. The average toll is about $45,000

Tolls are determined by the “ship measurements parameters” and services used The lowest toll ever paid is 36 cents, paid by Richard Halliburton for swimming the Canal in In 2010 a new toll record was made at the cost of $325,000!!

On average, a vessel will take between 8 to 10 hours to transit.

Although longer than 3 Statues of Liberty laid end to end, the current locks are too small. Many ships, known as “Pana-Max”, barely fit through…

Due to be completed between 2014 and 2015, Work is under way to modernize the canal and enable it to handle much larger ships. At a cost of over $5 Billion, work includes deepening and widening the canal along with adding newer and larger locks.

By 2005, 5% of all world trade passes through the Panama Canal

Closer Tues., 12/15 Create an Instagram post for the Panama Canal. Include the following: An image of the canal zone that you could have taken if you were to visit (past or present). A description of your image with at least three hashtags.