The Engineering Marvel – The Panama Canal part 1
By admin. Filed in Panama Canal |
I’ve been getting many request on the Panama Canal – so I thought I would include the section on the Panama Canal from the book. Here is the first section.
The Panama Canal
Since the time of discovery by the Spanish, a waterway to traverse Panama had become a challenge to many diverse nations and generations. Spanish, English, French, American, Colombian, Panamanians, and many others were intrigued by this possibility. Many great men put their efforts into making the dream of a canal into a reality. These men dared to explore the unknown. Through engineering and creative studies, throughout endless negotiations of treaties, through backbreaking labor with picks and shovels, through the danger of tropical diseases, and even through the creation a new independent nation, these men followed a dream. This is their story, one of heroism, sacrifice, and passion.
A mere 21 years had passed since Christopher Columbus’s first voyage into the New World and barely 12 years after Rodrigo de Bastidas stepped the first European foot on Panama, when Vasco Nunez de Balboa began his journey overland across Panama on September 2,1513. Searching for the existence of “the other sea” and its potential for greater gold, Balboa and his 190 men followed the direction of Panquiaco, the son of a native tribal chief. Panquiaco informed Balboa of the existence of a vast ocean if he journeyed south across the Isthmus. On September 25, 1513, Balboa, from the vantage point of a mountaintop, was able to see for the first time the blue Southern Sea, which famed Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan would later rechristen as the Pacific Ocean.
From the moment of Balboa’s discovery, the European desire to build a bridge between the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean was born. In 1534, Emperor Carlos V of Spain, commissioned Alvaro de Saavedra to study the possibility of constructing a canal to unite the two oceans. Hernando de la Serna and Pablo Corso explored the Rio Chagres; Alvaro de Quijio did the same for the Rio Grande in hopes of finding a waterway shortcut. In the 17th century, Felipe III suggested initiating studies of the Darien to find a feasible route. However, the Indies Counsel decided that a waterway passage would be a tempting prize for other nations, and based on this, the crown forbade under penalty of death any attempts to build a canal on the Isthmus. In the beginning of the 19th century, the Venezuelan general, Francisco de Miranda, who was fighting for the independence of Spain’s American colonies, proposed to England that they could build a canal in Panama in return for military assistance in the conflict.
In 1835, the idea of a canal caught the interest of the United States. President Andrew Jackson sent Colonel Charles Biddle to request a concession by the government of Granada to allow the U.S. the right to construct a canal. The Granada government did award the right to build a canal to a Granada company that Colonel Biddle was associated with but failed to give the U.S. entire rights. The project failed because the company could not obtain the needed funds and it lacked the support of the U.S. government.
To be continued…
Written by - A Panama Guide
Tags: history, Panama Canal