All language subtitles for The Engineering That Built the World s01e04 The Panama Canal

One of the great engineering wonders of
the world.

It has allowed for the movement of well
over a million ships back and forth from

the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Carrying a quarter trillion dollars
worth of cargo.

That was a huge goal, the American
economy.

But a little over a century ago, the
Panama Canal doesn't exist.

If you want to get from New York...

To San Francisco, you've got 13 ,000
miles to go by ship. The dream to build

is an unrelenting 35 -year struggle.

160 million cubic yards of material
would have to be excavated and then

somewhere. It's a kind of bonkers idea.

Battling natural disasters.

Whatever's underneath it is going to get
smashed.

And each other.

He gets the workers to fight amongst
themselves.

You're fired. This is an assignment.
He's not going to survive.

and eradicated the deadliest creature on
Earth, the mosquito.

The Spanish for yellow fever is the
black vomit, because at the same time

turn yellow, you begin vomiting blood.
It's a heated competition between the

world's most powerful nations.

Sorry, the Americans can't present
today.

Ferdinand de Lesseps is motivated by
money, and there's a lot of money to be

made. This was the biggest real estate
transaction in the history of the world.

In a race to engineer the impossible.

Failure is not an option.

There's no other project of that scale
and magnitude. It was an endeavor like

none other.

This is the story of the Panama Canal.

The world's economy is growing in the
1870s, and the introduction of the

steamship sparks an unprecedented rise
in international trade.

Goods can be transported faster, no
longer reliant on sailing ships at the

of the winds.

Global trade was booming. You had goods
from Asia, Africa, Europe, North

America, East Coast, West Coast, South
America, moving around the planet by

ship. But there's no direct route to get
products from the Atlantic to the

Pacific by sea.

From Europe to California is a
staggering 14 ,000 -mile trip around the

tip of Chile.

If you were trying to ship something
from Newfoundland, Canada, to San

Francisco, you almost literally go from
one Arctic Circle to the other. It's an

extraordinary distance to go.

A shortcut between the Atlantic and
Pacific would be a game changer.

Reducing a three -week journey to just
12 hours and saving hundreds of millions

in shipping costs.

But who will build it and where?

There are two countries that are most
interested in building a canal in the

1870s. The U .S.

and France.

The U .S. wants to build their canal in
Nicaragua. The French.

in panama the french envision themselves
as the world's preeminent canal

builders they've already completed a
giant project in the suez in egypt and

the french saw an opportunity to take
that engineering know -how apply it to

panama and gain a kind of regional
influence and power

In 1879, top engineers from 22 countries
meet to officially decide who wins the

bid to build the canal.

But the French have a secret weapon.

Ferdinand de Lesseps' claim to fame is
the Suez Canal.

He organized the Suez Canal project. He
oversaw the engineering.

He oversaw the financing.

He was the man who united Europe and
Asia.

He was a national hero.

The Suez Canal was one of the most
successful engineering projects in

By digging a trench from the Red Sea to
the Mediterranean, ships coming from

India and Asia could sail straight into
the European markets.

The Americans want to go through
Nicaragua.

They want to build a lock canal.

But that would be impossible to build on
such a scale as this.

So when contemplating a canal, there are
really two choices.

The French were very successful with
what's called a sea -level canal, just

digging a trench all the way through.

The Americans had some experience in
building canals, too, in the Great

They relied on locks, which flowed a
ship up as they pumped water in

it and then let the ship down on the
other side.

They're water elevators.

We need a sea -level canal as great as
the Suez.

Ferdinand de Lesseps is motivated by
money, and there is a lot of money to be

made. If he can get investors to invest
in a Panama project that he will then be

responsible for constructing, he stands
to make billions of dollars.

After a week spent evaluating the
feasibility, cost, and time to build

proposal, the Congress reaches a
decision.

The project goes to Fran.

De Lesseps is an incredible salesman.
This man has the gift of gab.

But there are a number of engineers who
go, that is a terrible idea, that will

not work. But De Lesseps is such a good
salesman, people buy into his idea

anyway.

While most estimates were over $200
million, De Lesseps claims the canal

take just 12 years and cost half that.

$2 billion today.

Now he needs to somehow find the money.

He tries to raise money from big
institutional investors, and most of

no, this is crazy. So what he does is he
starts to use his fame from Suez to

persuade over 100 ,000 small investors
to give him $57

million.

in tiny little bonds that will pay off
when the Panama Canal starts operating.

The bonds are expensive, costing roughly
the annual salary of the average French

citizen. But within a year, he's raised
enough money to begin construction.

After arriving, the French team quickly
realizes they underestimated the

challenge. The French run into every
problem imaginable in trying to build a

-level canal, partially because it's a
kind of bonkers idea.

Unlike the Suez, Panama isn't flat,
sandy terrain.

The issue with creating a sea -level
canal in Panama is that the Pacific and

Atlantic Oceans are at different levels.

On the Pacific side of it is this ridge
of mountains about nine miles across.

The mountain pass becomes known as the
Culebra, Spanish for snake.

And they will attempt to cut it 210 feet
down to sea level.

All that material, 160 million cubic
yards of material, would have to be

excavated and then dumped somewhere.

No one in human history had ever
attempted to move that much material.

But after two years, they only managed
to cut three feet.

It turns out to be a lot harder to dig
this trench than they expected.

And incredibly dangerous.

Lots of the soil is clay -based, which
means when the rainy season comes, there

are these enormous mudslides. They bury
all their equipment, kill hundreds of

men, and let months of work be
evaporated in just minutes.

By 1883, only 660 ,000 cubic meters of
earth have been excavated, barely 10

% of what's been promised by this point.

And that's not the only setback they're
facing.

Yellow fever is a horrible disease, and
it was endemic in the region.

In English, it's called the yellow
fever, mainly because after several days

intense sickness, your liver fails and
you become jaundiced and turn yellow.

The Spanish for yellow fever is the
black vomit, because at the same time

turn yellow, you begin vomiting blood.

And they have no idea what's causing it.

By 1884, 400 workers die of the disease.

And several hundred others demand their
return to France.

De Lesseps is desperate to calm worried
investors and keep the project going.

De Lesseps pays off reporters.

He spends about 12 to 13 million francs,
which is about 1 % of the overall

budget, basically buying good press for
the canal.

It's money he can't afford.

And even worse, the bribes don't work.

The news of his failures is beginning to
leak out.

It's becoming known that he's behind
schedule and over budget, and that with

every step forward, he takes two steps
back.

By 1887, the French have removed just 10
feet from the Calais brocade.

A year later, just 20.

And De Lesseps is finally forced to pull
the plug.

In less than a decade, 20 ,000 men have
died.

And De Lesseps has burned through $287
million, equal to over $8 billion today.

The Panama Canal bankruptcy is one of
the largest in history up until this

point. It may have been one of the
largest ever.

It is massive enough that the phrase,
Cal Panama, what a... What a Panama

becomes a synonym in French for what a
mess or what a failure for

decades to come.

In these eight years, they've managed
only to dig a quarter of the way. 800

investors are built of their money. It's
a failure of global scale and a

disaster personally for De Lesseps.

Despite France's spectacular failure,
People around the world wonder, will

anyone be bold enough to take on
building the Panama Canal?

One man is, and he's about to become the
President of the United States of

America.

At the dawn of the 20th century,
innovations in electricity,

Mining and steel production make the U
.S. the world's largest exporter of

manufactured goods.

In 1850, total American exports amount
to about $147 million.

By 1900, that's more like $1 .45
billion.

So it's a tenfold increase.

If you want one word to think about the
United States in this period, think

about overproduction.

Our factories are really good. We have a
lot of resources.

We don't have as many...

buyers of our products. We need more
places to sell.

When Theodore Roosevelt becomes
president in 1901, he's determined to

canal, but not only to boost foreign
trade.

His philosophy is to speak softly and
carry a big stick. And part of that

being able to defend the nation.

So for him, having a vibrant, strong
navy.

is crucial, and an important part of
that strong navy is the ability to be

to get to the east or west coast.

By 1902, Roosevelt has the support of
Congress to start construction, but

quickly hits a roadblock.

Panama is still a Colombian province,
and Colombia refuses to sign a treaty.

Teddy Roosevelt is not the most patient
man on earth. If you wanted to design a

negotiating strategy to antagonize Teddy
Roosevelt, you could not have done

better than the Colombian strategy.

Roosevelt makes an audacious move.

He collaborates with Panamanian
separatists to start an uprising.

This is probably one of the most sleazy
national origin stories that one could

find. Literally, a separatist revolt is
planned.

In a hotel room, because Teddy Roosevelt
is finally sick and tired of the

Colombians dragging out the
negotiations.

He stations the gunboat USS Nashville
off the coast of Panama as a show of

force.

And without a shot fired, Roosevelt gets
his way.

On November 3, 1903, the Panamanians
succeed in forming their own nation.

And a year later, Roosevelt spends $50
million.

to take over the project.

Panama would get $10 million in exchange
for ceding control of the entire 50

-mile canal zone.

But also, the French company that was
there previous would get $40 million for

all the assets and the remainder of
whatever they left behind.

When the Americans got there, however,
they realized that perhaps they'd been

swindled. And the equipment the French
left behind had all been left.

to the elements. What wasn't buried in
mud had rusted out.

Even Roosevelt's handpicked chief
engineer, John Wallace, isn't optimistic

his chances for success.

It's said that he brings two coffins
with him, one for himself and one for

wife, because he assumes, based on what
he's heard about how dangerous and what

the conditions are in Panama, that this
is an assignment he's not going to

survive.

When construction begins, familiar
problems arise.

Progress was slow. They met all the same
obstacles the French did. There was

nothing different, nothing new in their
approach to cutting through Panama.

After two difficult years, the chief
engineer quits. He did not cite anything

publicly other than he had family
issues, but privately he was exhausted.

128 million into the project.

And Roosevelt's bold gamble in Panama is
already on the verge of failure.

Roosevelt faces a lot of criticism, and
people are already referring to it as

Teddy's folly or Roosevelt's folly.

But this is where Roosevelt's stupendous
ego comes into play. In his mind,

failure is not an option.

Roosevelt knows strong leadership could
be the key.

and looks for a chief engineer who's as
tough as he is.

John Frank Stevens was an engineer's
engineer.

Come on, let's pick up the pace.

He had built some of the most
challenging railroads in North America.

lived to build ambitious infrastructure.

He's not just accomplished as an
engineer in terms of design.

He's accomplished in terms of what we
today would call project management. He

actually thinks holistically about what
is needed and what needs to be done, and

that appealed to Theodore Roosevelt.

Tell the president I'll let him know
tomorrow.

Stevens is being asked to go to Panama
to manage a construction disaster.

You got to go down to a tropical country
that's disease -ridden, far from your

family. And you're not actually getting
paid huge sums of money to do this.

It took his wife to convince him that
every engineering project he'd ever

completed had led him to this one
moment, the big project, larger and more

consequential than anything he had taken
on before.

Stevens knows if he succeeds, he'll do
what neither the French nor America's

best engineer could do.

You almost really have to appeal to
somebody's patriotism and sense of

to get them to accept this nightmare
job.

On July 26, 1905, John Stevens arrives
in Panama to take over the challenge.

Stevens comes in, looks at this thing
and says, this is a excrement show.

It's a rolling disaster.

On the other hand, I think he's a little
relieved because the problems are so

big that he thinks, okay, I know how to
fix this. This is like such a disaster

that it is not rocket science to sort
out the mess that's happening over here.

Tell everyone to stop.

But the first thing he did is stop the
digging completely.

He knew from his days in the railroad
that a happy and safe workforce was a

more productive one.

So instead of focusing on cutting
further, he built towns, he built

bakeries, he built bars and schools and
churches and roads.

Stephen's decision to stop the work,
increasing their comfort, therefore

motivation, their productivity, their
efficiency, was an absolute must -do.

But Stephen still faces the biggest
threat to the canal's progress, disease.

With hundreds of workers dying every
month, Stevens turns to a specialist.

Dr. William Gorgas is hired as the
sanitation expert for the project.

He came from a time in Cuba in which he
fought yellow fever there and had an

idea about how to handle it in Panama,
but it was controversial.

Most people thought that disease was
likely transmitted by ants.

So what's the solution if you are
worried about ants? You put everything

own... in little standing pools of
water.

The ants can't get past the water. It's
a brilliant solution.

Little did they realize, of course, that
they were creating the perfect breeding

environment for the thing that was
actually killing them.

William Gorgas is the first major
believer in the idea that major diseases

the tropics are transmitted
parasitically through mosquitoes.

Under Gorgas' leadership, a huge team,
over 4 ,000 workers, forged an all -out

war against mosquito breeding grounds.

He moves to get rid of still bodies of
water where mosquitoes lay their larva.

He's spraying water with oil to create a
film on top that will prevent larva

from being able to hatch.

He's also trying to get screens added to
all buildings. He wants screens over

beds.

Gorka's plan is expensive.

Screening the living quarters alone
costs the equivalent of $2 .5 million

and few believe it will work.

People have deep skepticism about
Gorgas' methods. They think that he is

kind of experimenter who is more
interested in getting his name published

scientific journals than in actually
bringing the canal project to fruition.

For Stevens, supporting Gorgas' plan is
an enormous risk of time and money.

Stevens is a brave man.

He's willing to risk his reputation.
He's willing to risk criticism to do

he thinks is right.

So whether that means attacking
mosquitoes, trying to stop the problem

disease, he's willing to take these bold
risks when he's convinced that they're

the right thing to do.

And if it fails, so will America's dream
for a canal.

It takes several months, but Dr. Gorgas'
unprecedented war on the mosquito has

infection rates across the canal zone
plummeting. And amazingly, in November

1905, Panama has its last case of yellow
fever ever.

Gorgas manages to reduce death rates
from yellow fever and malaria by a

of 10. And without it, it's quite likely
that the Americans would have faced a

disaster on the scale of the French.

Eighteen months into construction, the
workforce grows to 24 ,000 men, and

engineer John Stevens can finally resume
trying to cut through the 200 -foot

Calabria Mountains.

In order to build this canal, they have
to remove enough dirt that would be

comparable to building 117 Empire State
Buildings or 92 polytheums. The big

elephant for Stevens is waste disposal.

Digging these giant trenches you're
cutting down a mountain you need to get

of all the detritus The French had
relied on a system of steam shovels to

dirt But it's a painfully slow process

What attracts doing all the way out here
the

old railroad

Trans -oceanic Railroad.

You've got something.

Stevens begins rebuilding the old Panama
Railroad, seeing potential that the

French didn't, and spending $9 million
to get it back up and running.

Rehabilitating the railroad and using it
to move the dirt?

was genius.

I mean, it was a very practical use of
something that was in existence that

sense, and it worked.

So he actually creates special train
wagons that have sides that collapse

flatbed, and then he creates a plow that
allows the dirt to be moved off these

carts. So that allows him to progress in
a much more efficient way than what the

French have done before.

Soon, workers are digging in a single
day, with the French dug in a month.

But a year and a half into his time on
the canal, there's still one thing

Stevens hasn't been able to conquer.

The jungle itself is what holds the soil
together in Panama.

And so when they start digging away and
exposing it and it gets wet, it no

longer has that cohesiveness and becomes
basically just like a sticky fluid

that's going to flow downhill.

And whatever's underneath it is going to
get smashed.

Stevens and his workers face nearly 10
mudslides a year, which erase any

progress cutting the mountains down to
sea level.

It'll never work.

The sea level canal will never work.

You could say it was a Sisyphean task.
They would dredge out this channel, but

then more mud and rocks would slide in
and fill in all the work they'd just

done. We can't go through the mountain.

We'll have to go over it.

Stevens is convinced the only way to
succeed is to build a lock canal

to raise and lower boats over the
mountains.

But in order to put his more expensive
plan into action, he'll have to do

something more difficult than moving a
mountain.

Convince the United States government to
completely change course.

After barely a year, Frank Stevens is on
the verge of being the second American

engineer to fail at building a canal
through Panama.

His only hope, somehow convince members
of Congress to make a change.

A locked canal will take eight years.

A sea level, 18 if it can be done at
all.

Stevens claims that while his new plan
will cost over $150 million, it will

$100 million in the long run.

He made it very clear what the stakes
were.

If there was to be a canal at all, it
had to be a locked design. The only

was to change designs and move in a
different direction.

So if there's one thing people in
Washington don't like, it's hearing bad

especially when the bad news comes in
the form of, hey, this thing that we

a lot of money on isn't going to work.

A few days later, a skeptical Senate
casts its vote.

There are moments in our American
history in which there is only one right

decision to accomplish the goal.

And this was the moment.

Pivotal crossroads in which America very
easily could have gone the way of

France and made itself an embarrassment.

By a thin margin of 36 to 31, the Lot
Canal passes.

Stevens knew the right way, and he
convinced the Senate that he knew the

way. The projected cost of the new canal
is astronomical, $375 million,

nearly $9 billion today.

And with Congress setting the deadline
for 1914, just eight years away, Stevens

has no room for error.

A log canal required a lot of more
diverse skills.

If you think of a sea -level canal, it's
just excavation and dirt disposal.

Building logs required a lot of
engineering.

There were no computers, and there's no
materials in Panama, so everything has

to be imported.

For Stevens' plan...

160 feet of the Colabor Mountains will
still need to be excavated, 40 feet less

than the French were attempting, and
then flooded.

Two sets of locks will be built on the
Pacific side, one set on the Atlantic

side, which can raise and lower ships to
85 feet above sea level. They'll sail

between the locks using the largest man
-made lake in the world, but creating it

will mean building the largest earthen
dam in history.

Stevens and his team came up with a plan
to dam the Chagres River, turn a major

part of the interior of Panama into a
giant lake. This was brilliant for

several reasons.

For one, it helped them control the
mudslides that had been wiping away

equipment and causing all kinds of
problems.

Two, they didn't even have to dig the
canal through central Panama because for

more than 20 miles, the boats could just
sail across this giant lake.

Within months, dirt trains are carrying
soil and rock to build the gigantic

earthen wall.

But progress is still slow, and there's
worry that the Lock Canal might also be

impossible to build.

As the canal continues to go forward...

Stevens has brought to bear his gifts
and talents. He's made this more of a

railroad project. He's put
infrastructure in place. And now things

as rapidly as Congress and other powers
would like it to.

Undoubtedly, he's feeling stress and
pressure.

You have to imagine it's at this moment
that he thinks, or fears maybe, that

he's not the man for the job.

For Stevens, the timing couldn't be
worse for a visit from the president.

In 1906, Roosevelt decides that he needs
to go down to personally inspect the

progress of the canal.

And so, as with anything with Roosevelt,
it's going to be a political and media

spectacle.

Roosevelt wants to go to Panama to prove
that it's safe.

The timing of his visit comes at a
moment when the canal project is under

serious threat.

Roosevelt believes that the only way to
re -inspire the public and to inspire

Congress that this project can be
completed is to go there in person.

It's the first time a sitting president
has ever left the United States.

And it's a huge morale boost.

Marked by an iconic photo opportunity.

Roosevelt gets into the construction
machinery.

How he keeps that suit so pristine
white, I have absolutely no idea.

He shows himself to be action president.
It's a huge triumphal visit for him.

But for the chief engineer, it's just
another obstacle.

Stevens lacked the skill of managing and
massaging superiors who wanted to stick

their nose in what you were doing. He
did not tolerate unwarranted

He was in charge.

He knew better. It drove him crazy.

Two months after Roosevelt's visit,
Stevens writes him a six -page letter.

For the past several years, I've had my
methods questioned by people I wouldn't

wipe my boots on.

I've given up hundreds of thousands of
dollars of income, time with my family.

Stevens' decision has to be one of
heartbreak, but it's another instance in

which he probably faced the facts.

He looked at himself hard and decided
that this is the wrong direction.

And he can't work on the canal anymore.

Less than 20 months into his tenure,
America's second Panama Canal chief

engineer resigns, leaving the world to
wonder

whether it can ever be built at all.

By 1907, Just one year into Congress's
eight -year deadline to build a latke

now, President Teddy Roosevelt loses
another chief engineer.

But for his replacement, rather than
look for someone who won't quit,

Roosevelt finds someone who can't.

He names George Washington Gothel, chief
engineer.

Gothel was an Army engineer, and so he
wasn't going anywhere.

He knew the chain of command. He knew
how to follow an order. He wasn't going

stop until he was told to stop.

So if ever there was a person to finish
a job, it would be an army man like

Gothels. George Washington Gothels is an
incredibly meticulous engineer with a

reputation for being what you could call
a hard ass and getting results.

He is your stereotype of a military
officer in terms of his desire and need

order.

Break time's over.

Get back to work.

But not everyone welcomes him with open
arms.

Well, workers really liked Stevens.

So not only is Gothel coming in as the
new guy who's replacing the former

popular boss, but he's also military.
And for a lot of these workers, that's

a positive thing.

So in this moment...

Some of the steam shovel operators, they
see this as their time to try and push

back. And the vast majority of them go
on strike.

Then go.

All of you.

You're fired.

Get out of here.

Rather than give in to their demands,
Gothels has the European steam shovel

operators deported.

Gothels starts to bring in West Indian
workers, primarily from Barbados, to

replace the Spanish.

who are making too many demands. They're
going on strikes.

Gothel seems to think of the workers
merely as pawns on a chessboard.

Gothel's no -nonsense style earns him
the nickname the Tsar of Panama, and the

workers fall into line.

But to have any hope of finishing in
less than seven years, Gothel's men

need to get the Colabor cut down to 40
feet above sea level.

And the only way to do that is with
dynamite. And what they're doing is

taking this knowledge from mining,
they're taking this knowledge from the

Transcontinental Railroad, where going
through mountain ranges requires the use

of huge amounts of explosives.

In engineering terms, Guthals comes up
with techniques to better use explosives

in the Culebra Cut to drill deeply into
the rock, set off dynamite, and clear

the resulting rubble. They eventually
use as much explosives, in terms of

tonnage, as Great Britain produced
during the first year of World War I.

Ultimately, more than 60 million pounds
of dynamite will be used in building the

canal. But there's a downside.

On December 12, 1908, the last dynamite
charge is being set up for excavation,

and there's a huge explosion.

Twenty -three people are killed
instantly, and 40 others are injured.

It's an enormous tragedy.

Gothel's reaction is extraordinarily
cold.

He just comments about the flesh flying
everywhere, but not a whole lot changes

in the wake of the accident.

Look, Gothel is a soldier. This isn't to
say that he has no concern for human

life, but he sees an unfortunate
byproduct of the line of work that

He kind of just keeps chugging along.

Gothel's orders 6 ,000 men.

to keep digging Calabar cut around the
clock.

But for Roosevelt, the progress is
bittersweet. He leaves office in March

1909, just a few months before
construction begins on the first set of

the Gatun locks on the Atlantic side.

The locks for the Panama Canal will be
the biggest built in history, 1 ,000

long. and 110 feet wide, large enough to
hold an object the size of the Eiffel

Tower.

This is one of the first projects that
used millions of cubic meters of

concrete, which previously had really
been limited to home construction, maybe

some foundations or basements and things
like that.

More than 2 million cubic tons of
concrete needs to be poured, enough to

six Empire State Buildings, and Gothels
is struggling with how to do it.

The challenges of building the lock
walls out of concrete are pretty large

because the wall is quite large itself.
So traditional stone working techniques

of placing block by block, it would be a
nightmare.

Rather than make concrete blocks and
stack them, Goffles creates a series of

cables stretching some 800 feet to
suspend the buckets of concrete.

Each bucket weighing nearly six tons.

is swung through the air high above the
lock, dropped into position, and dumped.

It's an easier concrete delivery method
in order to create such massive walls,

and also your equipment and everything
is localized to where you're conducting

the pour, and it's right there on site,
so you can pour faster.

Over the next three years, Gothels
completes the Gatun Lock on the Atlantic

Pedro Miguel Lock on the Pacific.

But by 1912, concrete isn't done being
poured on the final set of locks, and

Calabra cut is still being excavated.

This ray will be finished in six years,
not two.

For a soldier who wants to take orders
and execute, accomplish them, this puts

lot of pressure on him.

To have any hope of finishing on time,
Gothels needs a miracle.

It's two years until the Panama Canal is
supposed to be finished, and Chief

Engineer Gothels is struggling to stay
on schedule.

He has an idea to separate his workers
into two groups and use a psychological

strategy to motivate them.

Gentlemen, on the other side of that
lake are a bunch of soldiers who are too

soft for real battles.

He tells the civilians that there's no
way they could beat the military guys.

And he tells the military workers that
they're lagging behind the civilians.

On the other side of that lake are a
bunch of soft railroad workers who think

they can pour concrete faster than you
can.

Soon enough, there's a full -fledged
competition between the two groups, each

one vying to outdo the other.

Prove them wrong.

Now, the re -energized workforce.

turns their attention to the massive
iron gates that will feel the water in

locks. The huge lock gates in the canal
are an engineering marvel in and to

themselves because they're so big, but
they're hollow, and it's a structure

is massive but also light and nimble. To
move these huge gate locks, it only

takes about 25 horsepower, which is
basically like a riding lawnmower.

By May 1913, a year ahead of schedule,
all three sets of locks are finally

completed.

The whole construction of the Panama
Canal was like mission impossible when

think about where it was built, when it
was built. The engineers that designed

these locks went to school in the 1800s.
So it's a pretty amazing technological

endeavor.

On the afternoon of October 10, 1913,
the newly elected president, Woodrow

Wilson, presses a button in Washington
that blows the center dike.

Waters from the Gatun Lake immediately
begin filling the Culebra Cut, creating

single path of water 51 miles long and
as much as 1 ,000 feet wide.

It's the culmination of centuries of
dreaming and a decade of hard work.

On August 15, 1914, the SS

Ancon becomes the first ship to travel
through the Panama Canal.

Nothing is ever the same.

Again, the world is utterly transformed.

We go from having an Atlantic and a
Pacific Ocean functionally to having one

global ocean.

But it's at a huge cost.

With over 30 ,000 lives lost, it's the
third deadliest construction project in

history after the Suez Canal and Burma
-Siam Railway, and one of the priciest.

During its 10 years of construction, the
U .S. spends $352 million on the Panama

Canal. This is four times the cost of
the Suez Canal, and yet

it's $23 million under budget.

Five years after the canal opens,

Theodore Roosevelt passes away, having
never seen it completed in person.

While John Stevens is seldom remembered
for his contributions, George Washington

Gothels is celebrated as the engineer
who did the impossible.

Both Gothels and Stevens brought very
strong track records in their own

spheres, and both of them accomplished a
lot, and Gothels stands on the

shoulders of Stevens. So I could see
Stevens saying, sure, you might be

finishing this off, but you're welcome.

I laid the track.

The Panama Canal produced big economic
benefits from the United States. Those

benefits came from moving cheap oil from
California and cheap timber from the

Pacific Northwest and moving them to
markets on the East Coast. And that was

huge boom for the American economy.

In the last decade, giant new locks have
been constructed alongside the

originals to accommodate a new
generation of super container ships.

Panama Canal is one of those ideas that
is literally world -changing.

And even though there was plenty of
failure, even though it was very

there was something inevitable about it.
It had to happen.

And it almost had to happen at this
time, and it almost had to happen for

nation.

It changed the world.