Transcript

3.20.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Ey's History Show, and I'm your reader
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and hosts for today, Joseph Bolt, so happy to be
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with you for this time. And as always, before we begin,
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I just want to remind you that RADIOI is listener driven,
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so that means you and we welcome any of your
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comments suggestions about what we do and about our programming,
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and particularly for this particular show. So if you have
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three nine zero and let us know what you are thinking.
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As you know, RADIOI is a reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities to make
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it difficult to read printed material. Sources for today's show
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will be cited toward the end, so let's get to reading. Today.
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I thought we delve into the history of the Panama Canal,
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so I've put together several sources to make a story
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out of it. So let's let me get the reading
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here and let's learn about the Panama Canal. The idea
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of creating a water passage from the Isthmus of Panama
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to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans dates back to
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at least the fifteen hundreds after explorer Vasco Nunez d
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Baboa realized that a narrow strip of land separated the
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two oceans, King Charles the fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor,
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tapped his regional governor to survey a route along the
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Chagris River. The realization of such a route across the
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mountainous tropical terrain was deemed impossible at the time, although
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the idea remained tantalizing as a potential short cut from
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Europe to Eastern Asia. The only other route was to
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sail around South America via the stormy, unpredictable Strait of Magellan,
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or used the Panama Railroad to transfer goods and people
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from one ocean to another. France was ultimately the first
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country to attempt the task. Led by Count Ferdinand d Lesseps,
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the builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the construction
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team broke ground on a planned sea level canal in
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eighteen eighty. Gustov Eiffel, who designed the famous tower in
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Paris that bears his name, was then hired to create
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locks for the canal. The French quickly comprehended the monumental task.
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Ahead of them, there were the incessant rains that caused
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heavy landslides. There was the recalcitrant landscape, there was no
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effective means for combating the spread of yellow fever and malaria.
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Along with the spiraling costs and the death of over
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twenty thousand workers, de Lesseps belatedly realized that a sea
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level canal was too difficult and reorganized efforts toward a
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lock canal, but funding was pulled from the project in
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eighteen eighty eight. The canal's ventures collapse caused a major
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scandal in France. De Lesseps and his son Charles, along
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with Eiffel and several other company executives, were indicted on
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fraud and mismanagement charges. In eighteen ninety three, the men
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were found guilty, sentenced to prison, and fined, although the
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sentences were overturned. After the scandal, Eifel retired from business
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and devoted himself to scientific research. Ferdinand de Lesseps died
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in eighteen ninety four. That same year, a new French
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company was formed to take over the assets of the
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bankrupt business and continue the canal. However, this second firm
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soon abandon and the Niver as well. Throughout the eighteen hundreds,
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the United States, which wanted a canal linking the Atlantic
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and Pacific for economic and military reasons, considered Nicaragua a
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more feasible location than Panama. However, that view shifted thanks
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in part to the efforts of Philippe Jane but now Virella,
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a French engineer who had been involved in both of
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Francis Canal projects. In the late eighteen nineties. Now Virella
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began lobbying American lawmakers to buy the French canal assets
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in Panama, and eventually convinced a number of them that
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Nicaragua had dangerous volcanoes, making Panama the safer choice. Following
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the deliberations of the US Ismian Canal Commission and a
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push from President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States purchased the
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French assets in the canal zone for forty million dollars
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In nineteen oh two. When a proposed tree rights to
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build in what was then a Colombian territory was rejected,
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the US threw its military weight behind a Panamanian independence movement,
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eventually negotiating a deal with the new government. On November sixth,
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nineteen o three, the United States recognized the Republic of Panama,
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and on November eighteenth, the hay We now Rilla Treaty
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was signed with Panama, granting America exclusive and permanent possession
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of the Panama Canal zone. In exchange, Panama received ten
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million dollars and an annuity of two hundred and fifty
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thousand dollars beginning nine years later. The treaty, negotiated by
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US Secretary of State John hay and the aforementioned French
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engineer Buen now Vorella, was condemned by many Panamanians as
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an infringement on their country's new national sovereignty. Seemingly not
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grasping the lessons from the French effort, the Americans devised
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plans for a sea level canal along the roughly fifty
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mile stretch from Colon to Panama City. The project officially
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commenced with a dedication ceremony on May fourth, nineteen oh four,
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but chief engineer John Wallace encountered immediate problems. Much of
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the French equipment was in need of repair, while the
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spread of yellow fever and malaria was frightening off the workforce.
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Under pressure to keep construction moving forward, Wallace instead resigned
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after a year a railroad specialist named John Stevens took
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over as chief engineer in July of nineteen oh five
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and immediately addressed the workforce issues by recruiting West Indian laborers.
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Stevens ordered new equipment and devised efficient methods to speed
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up work, such as the use of a swinging boom
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to lift chunks of railroad track and adjust the train
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route for carting away excavated material. He also quickly recognized
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the difficulties posed by landslides and convinced Roosevelt that a
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lock canal was best for the terrain. The project was
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helped immensely by Chief Sanitary Officer, doctor William Gorgis, who
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believed that mosquitoes carried the deadly diseases indigenous to the area.
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Orgis embarked on a mission to wipe out the carriers.
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His team painedsakenly fumigating homes and cleansing pools of water.
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The last reported case of yellow fever on the Isthmus
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came in November of nineteen o five, while malaria cases
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dropped pursuit siptously over the following decade. Although construction was
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on track when President Roosevelt visited the area, in November
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of nineteen o six. The projects suffered a setback when
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Stevens suddenly resigned a few months later, and since Roosevelt
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named Army Corps Engineer Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Gunhals the
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new Chief Engineer, granting him authority over virtually all administrative
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matters in the building zone. Gunhals proved a no nonsense
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commander by squashing a work strike after taking charge, but
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he also oversaw the addition of facilities to improve the
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quality of life for workers and their families. Focused efforts
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on Culebra. On the Culebra Cut, the clearing of a
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mountain range between Gamboa and Pedro Miguel. Excavation of the
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nearly nine miles stretch of mountainous terrain came became rather
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in around the clock operation, with up to six thousand
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men contributing at any one time. More than three and
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a half billion cubic feet of dirt had to be moved.
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The work consumed more than seventeen million pounds of dynamite
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in three years alone. Despite the attention paid to this
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phase of the project, Caulubra Cut was a notorious danger zone,
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as casualties mounted from unpredictable landslides in the dynamite explode.
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Imagine digging a trench more than two hundred and ninety
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five feet wide and ten stories deep over a length
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of something like one hundred and thirty football fields, in
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temperatures that were often well over eighty six degrees fahrenheit,
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with sometimes torrential rains, and with equipment from nineteen ten
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dynamite picks and coal fired steam shovels. The canal was
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built by thousands of contract workers, mostly from the Caribbean.
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To them, the Colubre Cut was Hell's gorge. They lived
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like second class citizens, subject to a Jim Crow like
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regime with bad food, long hours, and low pay, in
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constant danger. In the nineteen eighties, filmmaker Roman Foster went
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looking for these workers. Most of the survivors were in
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their nineties by then. Only a few copies of Foster's
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film Diggers, made in nineteen eighty four, can be found
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in libraries around the world today, but it contained some
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of the only first hand testimony of what it was
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like to dig through the spiny backbone of Panama in
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the name of the U S Enterprise. Constantine Parkinson was
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one of the workers, who told his story to Foster,
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his voice firm, but his face barely able to look
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at the camera. He started work on the canal at
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fifteen years old, he said. Like many, he may have
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lied about his age. He soon became a brakeman, probably
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on a train carrying rocks to a breakwater. On July sixteenth,
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nineteen thirteen, a day he would never forget, he lost
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his right leg and his left heel was crushed. Parkinson
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explained that his grandmother went to the aforementioned canal chief
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engineer George Gunhals to ask for some sort of assistance.
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As Parkinson tells it, Gunhal's response was simple, quote, my
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dear lady, Congress did not pass any law to get
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compensation when the workers lose limbs. However, not to fret.
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Your grandson will be taken care of us soon as
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he's able to work, even in a wheelchair. End quote. Well,
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Gunhals was only partly right. At the outset, the US
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government had essentially no legislation in place to protect the
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tens of thousands of four workers from Barbados, Jamaica, Spain,
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and elsewhere. Administrators like Gunthals were confident that the laborer's
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economic desperation would prevent excessive agitation. For the most part,
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their gamble worked. Though there were scandals overliving conditions, injuries
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seemed to have been accepted as a matter of course,
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and the administration's charity expanded only slowly, providing the minimum
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necessary to get men back to work. In nineteen o eight,
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after several years of construction, the Isthmian Canal Commission finally
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began to apply more specific compensation policies. They also contracted
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New York manufacturer AA Marx to supple fly artificial limbs
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to men injured while on duty, supposedly quote irrespective of color, nationality,
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or character of work engaged in end quote. By nineteen twelve,
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AA Marks had supplied more than two hundred artificial limbs.
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The company had aggressively courted the Canal's Commission's business, and
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they were delighted with the payoff. Construction of the locks
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began with the pouring of concrete at Gattoon in August
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of nineteen o nine. Built in pairs, with each chamber
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measuring one hundred and ten feet wide by one thousand
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feet long, the locks were embedded with culverts that leveraged
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gravity to raise and lower water levels. Ultimately, the three
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locks along the canal route lifted ships eighty five feet
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above sea level to man made Gatoon Lake. In the middle,
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hollow buoyant lock gates were also built, varying in height
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from forty seven to eighty two feet. The entire enterprise
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was powered by electricity and run through a control board.
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The grand project began drawing to a close in nineteen thirteen.
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Two steam shovels working from opposite directions met in the
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center of the Clubra Cut in May, and a few
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weeks later, the last spillway at the Gatun Dam was
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closed to allow the lake to swell to its full height.
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In October, President Woodrow Wilson operated a telegraph at the
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White House that triggered the explosion of Gamboa dyke, flooding
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the final stretch of dry passageway at Clubra Cut. After
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ten years of construction, the forty eight mile long Panama
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Canal officially opened on August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen, although the
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planned grand ceremony was downgraded due to the outbreak of
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World War One. Completed at a cost of more than
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three hundred and fifty million dollars, It was the most
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expensive construction project in US history to that point. Although
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some three point four million cubic meters of concrete went
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into building the locks and nearly two hundred and forty
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million cubic yards of rock and dirt were excavated during
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the American construction, many people, however, died building the Panama Canal.
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Of the fifty six thousand workers employed between nineteen oh
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four and nineteen thirteen, roughly five thousand, six hundred were
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reportedly killed, though the actual number is probably much higher
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since the French only recorded deaths that occurred in hospital.
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The Panama Canal costs the United States around three hundred
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and seventy five million dollars, includes the ten million paid
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to Panama and the forty million paid to the French
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when they abandoned the project. At the time, it was
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the most expensive construction project in history. Bolstered by the
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addition of Madden Dam in nineteen thirty five, the Panama
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Canal proved a vital component to expanding global trade routes
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in the twentieth century. The transition to local oversight began
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with a nineteen seventy seven treaty signed by then US
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President Jimmy Carter and Panama leader Omar Torrijoss, with the
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Panama Canal Authority assuming full control on December thirty first,
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nineteen ninety nine. The treaty gave the United States the
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right to use military force to defend the waterway against
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any threat to its neutrality. The American Society of Civil
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Engineers recognizes the Panama Canal as one of the seven
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Wonders of the Modern World. On average, it takes a
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ship eight to ten hours to pass through the canal.
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Ship captains aren't allowed to transit the canal on their own. Instead,
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a specially trained canal pilot takes navigational control of each
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vessel to guide it through the waterway. In two thousand
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and ten, the one millionth vessel crossed the canal since
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it first opened in nineteen fourteen. In two thousand and seven,
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work began on a five point twenty five billion dollar
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expansion project that enabled the canal to handle post Panamax ships,
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that is, those exceeding the dimensions of so called Panamax
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vessels built to fit through the canal, whose locks are
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one hundred and ten feet wide and one thousand feet long.
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The expanded canal, which was completed in two thousand and sixteen,
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can handle cargo vessels carrying fourteen thousand twenty foot containers,
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nearly three times the amount previously accommodated. The expansion project
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also includes a new, larger set of locks and the
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widening and deepening of existing navigational channels. However, while the
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new locks are able to fit many modern ships, they
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still aren't supersized enough for some vessels, such as MERSK
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Triple E class ships, the planet's biggest container ships, which
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measure one hundred and ninety four feet wide and third
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eighteen hundred and twelve feet long, With a capacity of
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eighteen thousand twenty foot containers, The Panama Canal facilitates at
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least five percent of the world's trade and must keep
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up with the times. The United States continues to be
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the heaviest usuer of the Panama Canal, followed by China, Chile, Japan, Colombia,
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and South Korea. Every vessel that transits the canal must
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pay a toll based on size, cargo volume, and weight.
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Tolls for the largest ships can run about four hundred
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and fifty thousand dollars. The average toll is around one
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hundred and fifty thousand. The record toll is held by
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a cargo ship called Mol Benefactor from Hong Kong, which
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paid over eight hundred and twenty nine thousand, four hundred
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dollars to pass through. The smallest toll ever paid was
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plunked down by American adventurer Richard Halliburton, who swam the
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entire length of canal in nineteen twenty eight. Since his
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toll is based on weight, he only had to pay
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thirty six cents. Today, some one point eight billion dollars
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in tolls are collected annually. Sources for today's story came
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from History dot com, Panama Canal, History dot com editors,
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May of twenty twenty five, History dot com. Seven fascinating
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facts about the Panama Canal, written by Elizabeth Nix May
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of twenty twenty five, smithsonianmag dot com. How the Panama
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Canal took a huge toll on contract workers, written by
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Carol Leafers in April of twenty eighteen. And Interesting Facts
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dot com. Five things you may not know about the
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Panama Canal. No author date sighted. Well, I guess it's
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time to close again. I sure hope you enjoyed today's
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program Thank you so much for listening and giving me
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your time. To day, I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and
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I'll be back with another chapter of Radio I history.
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Until then, happy trails to you,