The Canal of Panama,was initially been commenced by a French company led by the same engineer who oversaw the construction of the Suez Canal, between 1859 and 1869, Ferdinand de Lesseps. The French attempted to build the canal using hand tools such as picks and shovels, but a number of complex problems such as the frequent landslides in the area, the 9-meter difference between the sea levels of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the overwhelming abundance of mosquitos, vectors of the yellow fever which claimed the lives of hundreds of workers, forced the French company to quit.
After the U.S. helped Panama to become independent from Colombia, the U.S. government sent the Army Engineering Corps to tackle the task of building the canal. As the mosquitos were a big problem to reckon, it was determined that the best way to terminate them was to desiccate the stagnant ponds where they lay their eggs and provide all workers and personnel's dorms with mosquito nets. Once the yellow fever was eradicated in the Canal Zone, the Army Corps proceeded to use heavy equipment for removing large amounts of dirt and rocks and explosives in order to speed up the construction process. In order to deal with the different sea levels of the two oceans to be linked up, canal locks were built, in order to lift ships up on their way to the Pacific and lift them down on their way to the Atlantic. A canal lock consists of canal sections that can be isolated from the rest of the canal system and then water can be added or subtracted to raise or lower a ship as needed.
It took eleven years, from 1903 to 1914 to complete the Panama Canal.
