History of the Panama Canal

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In 1513 the Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa first crossed the Isthmus of Panama. When the narrow nature of the Isthmus became generally known, European powers noticed the possibility to dig a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A number of proposals for a ship canal across Central America were made between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chief rival to Panama was a canal through Nicaragua. By the late nineteenth century, technological advances and commercial pressure allowed construction to begin in earnest. French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps led the initial attempt (1880–1889) to build a sea-level canal, as he had previously achieved in the building of the Suez Canal (1859–1869). A concession to build the canal was obtained from the Colombian government, at that time the possessor of the Panama Isthmus. The canal was only partly completed, as a result of the severe underestimation of the difficulties in excavating the rugged terrain, heavy...

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