The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
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The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 description
On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, the United States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation of Panama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th century, Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow but mountainous isthmus; Panama was then a remote and overlooked part of Colombia. All that changed, writes David McCullough in his magisterial history of the Canal, in 1848, when prospectors struck gold in California. A wave of fortune seekers descended on Panama from Europe and the eastern United States, seeking quick passage on California-bound ships in the Pacific, and the Panama Railroad, built to serve that traffic, was soon the highest-priced stock listed on the New York Exchange. To build a 51-mile-long ship canal to replace that railroad seemed an easy matter to some investors. But, as McCullough notes, the construction project came to involve the efforts of thousands of workers from many nations over four decades; eventually those workers, laboring in oppressive heat in a vast malarial swamp, removed enough soil and rock to build a pyramid a mile high. In the early years, they toiled under the direction of French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt while pursuing his dream of extending France's empire in the Americas. The United States then entered the picture, with President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrating the purchase of the canal--but not before helping foment a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian rule and placed it squarely in the American camp. The story of the Panama Canal is complex, full of heroes, villains, and victims. McCullough's long, richly detailed, and eminently literate book pays homage to an immense undertaking. --Gregory McNamee |
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The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
God Bless America
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Feb 28, 2008
Ardsley, PA
Transiting the Canal in 2005 with my family in our sailboat I wished that I had known more about the canal. THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS fits that bill perfectly. I highly recommend this book. It is both an interesting and an easy read.
My impression at the end was surprise at how little about the actual construction is included in over 600 pages of research and writing. The amazing thing is that there is so much to this story; that the physical construction, while ultimately the real story, is but a part of that story. The book paints a broad picture of the whole canal effort from the Private French Effort and failure through the American purchase and eventual success.
With the benefit of hindsight it is inconceivable that Ferdinand de Lesepps would attempt to build the canal as a privately funded project. Most of the first half of the story unfolds beneath the backdrop of the incredible costs of the project. Ultimately, these costs along with the tropical diseases overcame the French effort.
Beyond the gargantuan efforts needed to fund the French Canal is the amazing realization that the work was started without a clear idea of how it was to be completed. In this age of thousand page contracts, imagine starting to dig through the Culebra Cut without any idea of how to cross the Chagres River!
I was stunned to learn that a decade later even our American effort was begun without a clear idea of how to finish the job. Yes, this was the time of Iron Men: men of vision, courage and audacity.
The narrative of Panamanian Independence reflects poorly on all involved: the Panamanians, Colombians and American Foreign Policy, but it is not quite fair to pass judgment with 100 years of perspective.
The medical successes of Dr Gorgas and the Engineering success of Wallace, Stevens, Goethals and their teams should be a source of immense pride for every American and should be a story with which every educated American is familiar.
De Tocqueville observed: "America is great because America is Good." Our country's efforts in Panama were indeed great and the results of those efforts have resulted in an incalculable good for all of mankind.
Read this book and make sure your children know this story.
Semper Fi,
Joe Rooney |
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