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Panama Building the Canal
When the United States canal builders arrived in 1904 to begin
their momentous task, Panama City and Colón were both small,
squalid towns. A single railroad stretched between the towns,
running alongside the muddy scars of the abortive French effort.
The new builders were haunted by the ghosts of de Lesseps's failure
and of the workers, some 25,000 of whom had died on the project.
These new builders were able, however, to learn from de Lesseps's
mistakes and to build on the foundations of the previous
engineering. The most formidable task that the North Americans
faced was that of ridding the area of deadly mosquitoes.
After a couple of false starts under a civilian commission,
President Roosevelt turned the project over to the United States
Army Corps of Engineers, guided by Colonel George Washington
Goethals. Colonel William Crawford Gorgas was placed in charge of
sanitation. In addition to the major killers--malaria and yellow
fever--smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, and intestinal parasites
threatened the newcomers.
Because the mosquito carrying yellow fever was found in urban
areas, Gorgas concentrated his main efforts on the terminal cities.
"Gorgas gangs" dug ditches to drain standing water and sprayed
puddles with a film of oil. They screened and fumigated buildings,
even invading churches to clean out the fonts of holy water. They
installed a pure water supply and a modern system of sewage
disposal. Goethals reportedly told Gorgas that every mosquito
killed was costing the United States US$10. "I know, Colonel,"
Gorgas reportedly replied, "but what if one of those ten-dollar
mosquitoes were to bite you?"
Gorgas's work is credited with saving at least 71,000 lives and
some 40 million days of sickness. The cleaner, safer conditions
enabled the canal diggers to attract a labor force. By 1913
approximately 65,000 men were on the payroll. Most were West
Indians, although some 12,000 workers were recruited from southern
Europe. Five thousand United States citizens filled the
administrative, professional, and supervisory jobs. To provide
these men with the comforts and amenities to which they were
accustomed, a paternalistic community was organized in the Canal
Zone.
The most challenging tasks involved in the actual digging of
the canal were cutting through the mountain ridge at Culebra;
building a huge dam at Gatún to trap the Río Chagres and form an
artificial lake; and building three double sets of locks--Gatun
Locks, Pedro Miguel Locks, and Miraflores Locks--to raise the ships
to the lake, almost twenty-six meters above sea level, and then
lower them. On August 15, 1914, the first ship made a complete
passage through the canal.
By the time the canal project was completed, its economic
impact had created a new middle class. In addition, new forms of
discrimination occurred. Panamanian society had become segregated
not only by class but by race and national origin as well
(see Ethnic Groups and
Social Organization
, ch. 2). Furthermore, United
States commercial competition and political intervention had
already begun to generate resentment among Panamanians.
Data as of December 1987
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