For what reasons did the US have interest in building a canal in South America?

The main reason why the Americans wanted the Panama Canal built was to cut travel time from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.

Explanation (if you need it) :

The Panama Canal was inaugurated in 1914. Its construction had been started by the French, and when they abandoned the project, the Americans took it in 1903.

The intention of Theodore Roosevelt's government was to shorten travel time and distances between the two coasts of the United States, while creating a fast and accessible connection between both oceans, which would allow America to compete more easily in trade international, also giving a greater capacity to react to the Navy in case of a war.

Until that moment, the sea route that connected both oceans was around the Strait of Magellan, with which the American ships had to surround all South America to get from one ocean to the other.

consider an orange peel: if you want to try and lay it flat, you have to stretch it, we know exactly how things are being stretched or squashed at any given point. we have many different map projections because each has different patterns of some projections can even preserve certain features of the earth without