32 
Pacific to the Caribbean Sea in Indian canoes and tradi¬ 
tion says that it fulfilled its mission for many years. 
The Panama Canal came into its own in the 19th 
Century. Spain had apron-tied her colonies for three 
centuries. No foreigner could do business with them, 
in fact, could not even cross their boundaries without 
rarely bestowed royal permission. After the Independence 
in 1821, it was open season for all and naturally many 
schemes were devised for supplanting the two month’s 
voyage around Cape Horn. 
international policies were involved from the start. The 
great trading nations—England, France, and Holland— 
watched each other warily, unwilling that another should 
capture this juicy commercial plum. The United States 
entered the field in 1823 with its Monroe Doctrine, in 
which European nations were warned that American soil 
was no longer open to colonization. Finally England 
and the United States signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 
of 1850, whereby each country agreed not to exercise 
exclusive financial or political control over an Isthmian 
canal. 
By this time the question had become momentous. 
Gold was discovered in California in 1848. The march of 
the Forty-niners across the Isthmus increased in volume 
as more adventurers joined the New Crusade. American 
capitalists, who already had a contract to build the 
Panama Railroad, rushed it to completion and harvested 
lush dividends. But although the railroad solved the 
problem of passenger traffic, the high prices charged for 
landling freight and the hazards of transshipment only 
increased the clamor of industry for a canal. 
Twenty separate routes were surveyed between Tehuan¬ 
tepec in Mexico and the Atrato River in Colombia, the 
majority by United States Army and Navy engineers. 
Some of these routes contemplated digging a ship tunnel 
through the mountains of the continental divide, especially 
those in the Darien region. This, needless to say, was 
before modern liners like the Queen Mary were dreamed of. 
A concession, based on a survey by the French engineer, 
Lt. Lucien Wyse, was finally wrested from the Colombian 
Government in 1876. This was sold to a French group 
and in 1881 the New French Canal Company was launched 
by no less a personage than Ferdinand DeLesseps, famed 
33 
French engineer who built the Suez Canal. The French 
actress, Sarah Bernhardt, enhanced the brilliance of the 
local inaugural celebrations by giving a gala performance 
on the Isthmus. 
The tale of the French Canal Company is that of a stub¬ 
born fight against tremendous odds. Tropical conditions 
were not sufficiently provided against and one report 
estimates that as many as one-fourth of all workers im¬ 
ported died from fever or other causes. In spite of disease 
in Panama and graft in Paris, many fine men performed 
valiant service; and when the money ran out in 1888, more 
than one third of the excavation estimated to be necessary 
had been completed. 
According to the terms of their contract, the French 
concession would lapse if the work did not go on. There¬ 
fore, after bankruptcy, a new company was formed for the 
sole purpose of holding the concession" for a profitable sale. 
During the nineties a small force idled at Gaillard Cut 
while the financiers shuttled between London and Wash¬ 
ington, using every known political dodge in an effort to 
sell out to the highest bidder. 
The Spanish War in 1898 brought matters to a head. 
When the battleship Oregon had to round Cape Horn to 
get from San Francisco to Havana, it was generally felt 
that our national security demanded a canal. As soon 
as peace was assured President Theodore Roosevelt 
tackled the job. A treaty with Colombia was drawn up, 
but politics prevented its passage in the Colombian 
Congress. Long-suffering Panama, convinced that its 
future depended upon winning the canal from Nicaragua, 
its most dangerous rival, revolted in 1903. 
Panama’s first act as an independent nation was to sign 
the Canal Treaty with the United States, which thereupon 
bought out the French rights for $40,000,000. Three 
names stand out as unforgettable among the thousands 
of men and women who contributed in one way or another 
to making the dirt fly in Panama. John F. Stevens, a 
great railroad engineer, planned the elaborate transporta¬ 
tion system that made the work possible. General 
George W. Goethals, of the Army Engineer Corps, carried 
the job to completion. And General W illiam C. Gorgas, 
of the U. S. Medical Corps, is remembered as the man 
