A century ago, the building of the Panama Canal and construction of Lake Gatun was met with great fanfare. It captured the attention of the world, showing that the seemingly impossible was indeed possible. The engineers were heroes, household names. Newspapers were obsessed with how much earth would be excavated to build the canal – [...]
Panama wants to make its famous canal bigger and better. The government is enlarging the waterway to allow more and larger ships to pass through it. 7,000 people will work on widening the canal. Some are doing a different kind of digging. Paleontologists are already following along the excavation. They’re searching for fossils. And they’re [...]
Today we continue our series exploring the expansion of the Panama Canal. Panamanians recently voted in favor of a $5 billion project to upgrade the century-old waterway. A wider passageway will be able to accommodate larger ships… and bring in more money. Panama has run the canal since 1999, when the American government handed over [...]
A century ago, American engineers embarked on what was then the greatest building project in history. It took 10 years and 75,000 men to construct. Three presidents oversaw its completion. Teddy Roosevelt called it, “the giant engineering feat of the ages.” We’re talking about the Panama Canal. Now a hundred years later, Panama is in [...]
The century-old Panama Canal has become too small for today’s massive ships. So the country decided to widen the canal. The World’s Jason Margolis went to Panama to report on the excavation project, to examine the engineering, and Panama City’s current explosive growth.
