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The narrow isthmus which connects North America and South America was recognized early on as a promising shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

By the 19th century, technology and necessity had advanced to the point where serious consideration was given to the idea of cutting a canal across Panama.

Inspired by the 10-year build of the Suez Canal, La Société Internationale du Canal Interocéanique obtained the rights in 1878 to build a version in Panama. The Colombian government, which controlled Panama, gave permission for the project.

A map of the planned canal.

1885 - French employees of the Panama Canal Company pose for a photograph.

1885 - Workers gather to receive their wages.

1885 - Jamaican laborers push a wagon of earth along a narrow-gauge railroad.

1900 - Workers clear earth by hand.

The project was a disaster. It quickly became obvious that a sea-level canal was impossible, and that building sets of locks leading to an elevated canal was the only workable plan. The engineers stubbornly stuck to the sea-level plan.

Meanwhile, laborers and engineers were dying of malaria, yellow fever and dysentery, and construction was frustrated by frequent floods and mudslides. By the time the raised-locks plan was adopted, it was already too late.

An estimated 22,000 workers had died. The project was years behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget.

1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt sits in the cab of a crane during a visit to the canal construction site.

1908 - American engineers sent by President Roosevelt.

Contending with the same disease problems as the French, the Americans embarked on an aggressive mosquito extermination campaign. (The link between malaria and mosquitoes was still a very new theory.)

This drastically reduced the instances of sickness and improved productivity.

After a few years contending with inadequate machinery and infrastructure, excavation ramped up, and the canal began to take shape.

1910 - A mosquito exterminator at work in the canal zone.

1910 - A railroad is displaced after a landslide.

The Gatun Dam was built across the Changres River, creating Gatun Lake, the largest manmade lake at the time. The lake stretches across half the span of the isthmus, carrying ships 21 miles in their traversal.

Massive sets of locks were constructed at the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal. These 110-foot-wide locks allowed ships to pass through a series of chambers with adjustable water levels, stepping up to the elevation of Gatun Lake and the canal, 85 feet above sea level.

1910 - President William Howard Taft (left) visits the Gatun Locks with Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (seated right) and Chief Engineer Colonel George Goethals (standing right).

1912 - The Miraflores lower locks under construction.

1912 - A view of the Culebra Cut from the west bank.

Aug. 6, 1912

Nov. 1912 - A view of the upper locks of the Gatun Locks, looking north toward the Atlantic Ocean.

1912 - A man stands in one of the canal locks.

June, 1913 - One of the deepest points of the Culebra Cut.

1913

"A finer body of men has never been gathered by any nation than the men who have done the work of building the Panama Canal…. They have made not only America but the whole world their debtors by what they have accomplished." --- Theodore Roosevelt

1913

1913 - Workers take a break atop the canal locks.

1913 - Trains and cranes intersect at the Pedro Miguel Locks.

1913 - Locks under construction.

"My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and west coast of the United States". --- William Howard Taft

1913 - Engineers stand in front of the massive gates of the canal locks.

Aug. 8, 1913 - The Gatun Locks under construction between the Atlantic Ocean and Gatun Lake.

1913 - The spillway of the Gatun Dam, which impounds manmade Gatun Lake, a major section of the canal.

Oct. 1913 - The gates of the Miraflores Locks open for testing.

The blasting of Gamboa Dike clears the canal's path to the Pacific Ocean.

The dike separating the canal from the Atlantic Ocean is blasted away.

On Dec. 10, 1913, there was finally a traversable water route between the two oceans. On Jan. 7, 1914, the French crane boat Alexandre La Valley made the first passage through the canal.

Today, 4% of all world trade passes through the canal, around 15,000 ships every year. Plans are underway to build an additional set of wider locks, as well as a competing canal through Nicaragua.

The largest toll ever charged for passage was $142,000 for a cruise ship. The smallest was $0.36, for adventurer Richard Halliburton, who swam the canal through the locks in 1928.

1913 1914

The tugboat U.S. Gaton is the first to traverse the Gatun Locks.

1914 - Men look on as dredges clear the results of a landslide at Cucaracha.

April 29, 1915 - The S.S. Kronland traverses the canal.