The Land Divided, The World United
From the series Photographs of the Construction of the Panama Canal
For the last few weeks, my 3D printers have been acting up: Refusing to complete files that they’ve printed dozens of times and failing in the oddest ways. It’s almost like they’re on strike. I wonder if they’ve been talking to ChatGPT and getting ideas.
I flopped dejectedly back into bed in the wee hours of the morning after checking on the printers and finding yet another fail, and started up YouTube to find a documentary to help me back to sleep, and I ended up listening to this old episode of Modern Marvels about the construction of the Panama Canal. It really put my little woes into perspective (although it failed to put me back to sleep).
You know what’s crazy? Way back in the 1500s the conquistadors thought a canal would be a good idea. The French guy who built the Suez Canal gave it a try back in the 1880s and he failed, too. Then, on February 15th, 1898, someone destroyed the USS Maine, a warship, off the coast of Cuba. The USS Oregon, which was on the coast of San Francisco, had to embark on a 67-day journey to arrive at Cabo de Hornos and make its way back up north all the way to Cuba. This inspired my man Theodore Roosevelt to insist on opening the Panama Canal because the same trip could be made in three weeks instead.
So, in 1902, the American government bought the Panama Canal from the French and started construction in 1903. Sadly, between the French projects and American construction, more than 25,000 workers died because of Panama’s hot weather, heavy rainfalls, malaria, and yellow fever.
I guess I should be grateful that while I may swear at my printers and burn my fingers, my risk of death and yellow fever is pretty low. And global commerce isn’t really relying on innovative skull lighting solutions (yet) so if it takes a few days to reason with my printers, it’s not the end of the world. Perspective, people.
P.S. Here’s some quick fun facts to dazzle your friends with your knowledge of one of the most incredible feats of engineering in our history.