. A history of the United States. The Panama Canal. — The most interesting story of workdone in a tropical climate is that of the Panama Canal. Beforethe war with Spain began, the battleship Oregon was stationedon the Pacificcoast. As it wasneeded in the WestIndies for thecoming strugglewith the Spanishfleet, it was or-dered to steam atfull speed aroundSouth America, adistance of 13,000miles. The peopleof the UnitedStates waitedanxiously for thenews that it hadreached the otherships in the WestIndies. Theysaw that manydays would besaved if therewere a canalthrough the Isth-mus of Panama.^ For
. A history of the United States. The Panama Canal. — The most interesting story of workdone in a tropical climate is that of the Panama Canal. Beforethe war with Spain began, the battleship Oregon was stationedon the Pacificcoast. As it wasneeded in the WestIndies for thecoming strugglewith the Spanishfleet, it was or-dered to steam atfull speed aroundSouth America, adistance of 13,000miles. The peopleof the UnitedStates waitedanxiously for thenews that it hadreached the otherships in the WestIndies. Theysaw that manydays would besaved if therewere a canalthrough the Isth-mus of Panama.^ For centuries. ATLANTIC OCEAN Relief Map of the Panama Canalmen had dreamed of such a canal. They thought that they 1 There were other reasons which made the people wish to have a example, an all-water highway from the Pacific coast to the Atlanticwould enable shippers to send their goods from one coast to the other at lesscost than by the railroads. 528 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD could cut the passageway which Columbus had tried in vainto discover. In 1536 the king of Spain formed a plan for aship canal near the Chagres River. A French companystarted in 1881 to build one, but became bankrupt beforethe work was half finished, seven years later.^ The United
Size: 1653px × 1511px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidhistoryofuni, bookyear1913