WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How the Panama Canal Works 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.239 Hey, everyone, hope you're having a good weekend. Chuck Bryant. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:06.480 Here ho host of the podcast you're listening to, and 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:09.520 I am in charge with picking this week's stuff you 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.680 should know. Select episode. It is from April to two, 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.960 the day after April Fool's Day. But I don't worry. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.800 This isn't how three D printing works. When I famously 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.639 fake quit and was replaced by Ben Bowling. No, no, no, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.320 this is the episode about the Panama Canal. So interesting. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.880 I love civic projects. I love huge, um unwieldy projects 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.040 that seem impossible to complete, and the Panama Canal was 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.080 and is that? So? I know you're gonna love this one. Everyone, 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:44.240 how the Panama Canal works. Welcome to Stuff you should 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:53.120 know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.360 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Uh with me is 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.200 always a child's w Chuck Bryant. And that's if you 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.560 should know the podcast. The two of us together, a 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.200 couple of mincs, our voices. You know what I've been 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:11.080 singing all day, of course, Panama over and over and 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.080 I just whistled it and Jerry was, well, now I 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.399 got that stuck in my head. Yeah. When we were 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.760 growing up, my sister I was singing it and I 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.360 realized that she was singing turn and Run? Like what 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.360 what she's like that song? That Van Halen song, like 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.480 don't be an idiot? She thought that's what they were saying. Yeah, 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.680 that's so interesting because there's so many misinterpreted song lyrics 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.480 famously over the years, but I never have heard Panama 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.800 as being one of them. Yeah, especially since the song 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:41.480 is named Panama. Yeah parentheses, turn and run? Right, Maybe 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.800 they were talking about the people who were working on 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:48.760 the early French effort to build a canal and Panama. Yeah, boy, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.600 that didn't go over so well. We'll get to that, okay, spoiler, 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.480 the French didn't build the Panama Canal. I thought we 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.760 were gonna get to it right now. All right. Do 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.760 you want to talk about Da Gama Balboa? Which one? 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.720 Which one is? George Costanza's favorite explorer was a da 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.840 Gama or Balboa? O? Man, it was one of the two? 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.720 Da Gama, was it? Yeah? I think so? Okay, Um 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.600 that was a funny conversation though, Um so, Yeah. Balboa 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.680 back in the day was was wandering around in a 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.760 region called Darien and he summoned to the peak there 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.520 and was like, holy cow. If I look this away, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.360 I see the Pacific Ocean, and if I look at 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.079 that a way, I see the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.720 And the only thing between these two big bodies of 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.639 water it's this little isthmus of land. Yeah. I'm gonna 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:44.880 have a lot of trouble with that word. That's okay, 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.080 just say strip, okay. So the strip of land here 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.120 is the only thing in between, and we should figure 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:56.440 out a way to use this as a as a thoroughfare. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:01.000 because this is it. This connects the world us exactly. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.320 At the time, the Spanish we're trying to trade with 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.919 the um Chinese and we're doing a pretty good job 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.680 of it in the Philippines, and the best way to 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.960 get to that was to come across the Atlantic and 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:17.280 go into the Pacific. It worked very, very well. And 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.679 the idea of just having a place where you could 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.160 go straight through rather than go all the way down 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.800 South America and then back up it was just mind boggling. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:29.880 It's like you said, it opened up the world. This 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.000 guy got it immediately. The problem was it would take 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.920 about four dred more years before anyone finally got around 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.600 to completing it successfully. Well, yeah, and forget the rest 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.000 of the world. The United States just like, Hey, I 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.880 want to ship this by boat from New York to 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.840 San Francisco. How can I do that? I can just 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.680 like kind of sneak around Florida, right Nope, blocked? Right, Well, 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.520 then what do I gotta do? You gotta go eight 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:59.200 thousand miles nautical miles around South America to get to 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.600 California or um, you know when you and I were 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.560 in Nicaragua, we were in a town that in the 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.160 nineteenth century was a way station for minor forty niners 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.880 going on to California, and um, they would sail on 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.119 to Nicaragua, take a train, and then ship out from 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.440 Nicaragua up to California. Except the handful that was like 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.680 I think I might just kick it here exactly. Yeah, 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.800 I bet you there were some du oh, definitely, I'm sure. Um, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.840 but yeah, there was there was a continent in the way, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.680 in the idea that it was just this little narrow 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.359 strip of land that that made a lot of people 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.120 say this is the place to be. In the sixteenth 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.960 or know, the eighteenth century, the Scottish showed up. They 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.760 tried to establish an outpost, failed spectacularly. Yeah, that's there's 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:47.720 a great um section in about it. Yeah. Um, the 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.080 Spanish were there, the French were there. Uh, they established 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.080 pretty good outposts there. It was very clear that this 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.880 little area which was then part of Colombia is now 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.599 present day Panama, was going to be a hoping spot 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.640 because there was no thinner portion of the North or 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.400 South American continents than this one, and everyone needed to 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.200 figure out a way to get through. Yeah. And it 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.480 wasn't as easy as like, hey, let's just dredge all 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.599 this sand and let the waters meet, because that's not 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.479 too hard. It's like dense jungle and mountains and the 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.280 continental divide. Yeah, so it's it's My first thought was like, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.120 how hard could it have been? I didn't realize how 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.880 treacherous that area was. Yeah, and I think that, um, 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.120 that Balboa and a lot of people who succeeded him, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.800 I thought the same thing, like how hard is it? 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.760 But it is like, that's that continental divide. That's a 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.560 tough thing to break through. That's why they call it 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.120 a divide. Yeah. Well that's where two tech time plates 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.320 to come together and form a mountain range and like 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.640 that's you're cutting through not one, but two tech time plates. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.880 Everybody wrap your head around that. Seriously, let's talk about it, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.360 because obviously we were successful eventually. But the first attempt 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.719 was not in the first attempt, it was by the French, yeah, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.960 who in the eighteen twenties, I believe, started to undertake 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.320 a what is known as a sea level canal, which 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.520 is basically they were going to cut their way straight 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.760 through the Isthmus of Panama. That's right. And canals were 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.200 all the rage at the time because of steam technology. 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.440 So all of a sudden you didn't have to use 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.800 the very cool and quaint towpath and have a mule 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.760 walk alongside of a river or canal. Well, yeah, a 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.640 lot of them now are like jogging trails and stuff, 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.720 you know, which you know, that's great, it makes for 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.400 good us exactly. I don't see any mules on them 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.960 these days. But it's great that people can use these 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.800 topas now too, you know, it's like a nature trail. Yeah, um, yes, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.440 So the steam technology gave the French the idea that 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.839 hey man, we can we can build a sea level 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.360 canal here because we can just dig right through it. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.080 We have steam. We don't need the mules for the 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.159 tow paths any longer. All we need is some good 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.920 steam shovels. We're gonna cut right through this continental divide, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.520 right through this jungle. And as a result of this ambition, 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:07.440 twenty thousand people died. Yeah, and um, they were able 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.520 to you know, get a little, a little far thanks 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.960 to the railroad there in Panama. Believe it or not, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.520 it was the first railroad in the world to connect 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.520 both sides of a continent. Wasn't very big, but it 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.880 didn't need to be, which is kind of great. But 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.360 that allowed the French to get in there. They were 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.680 deciding between Nicaragua and Panama at the time. Um, and 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.120 they said, like you said, we can do sea level, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.280 we don't need these locks. Yeah. If you look at 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.400 a map of Nicaragua and look at Panama, like the 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.040 idea of going through Nicaragua over Panama is just nuts. Yeah, 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.480 and we'll explain how the locks work. But it essentially 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.040 just raises and lowers your ship right for sure, in 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.200 a little like bay station of water that's flooded and 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.560 then drained. Actually, that's how a lock works. So the 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.720 French organized this thing called the company Universal Duca Now 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:02.840 enter they cute and uh, led by a guy named 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.880 Ferdinand Lesseps who had created a sea level canal through 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.480 the Suez that connected the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.400 It was a big deal. So they brought him in 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.640 and he's like, sure, we'll do another sea level canal. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.960 I'm feeling good about this. Like I did the Suez 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.280 Canal with my eyes closed, exactly, Like I can do 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.120 this with one arm tied behind my back. Well, he 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.280 didn't realize was that digging through a bunch of sand 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.960 is not like digging through two tectonic plates and a 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.400 bunch of jungle and malaria. Uh. And like I said, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.920 twenty thousand people died as a result of this. Like 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.120 this guy was like, no, we can do it. We 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:37.959 can do it. We're gonna do a sea level canal. 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:39.760 We can do it. And then finally it was like, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.000 I don't think we can do this. It was too late. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.200 A lot a lot a lot of people were dead 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.800 from yellow fever, in malaria, from accidents. Um. It's privately financed, 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.839 so a lot of people lost a lot of money too. Exactly. 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.319 This company goes under well, he tried to salvage it though. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:01.280 First he tried to hire Gustav Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, right, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.840 and said, hey, I think we need those locks after all, um, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.800 and you're good at building big steel things, so can 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.320 you help? And he was like, of course I can. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:12.319 And then it was too late though that the business 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.199 was done right, and they had done a little bit. Well, 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.360 they had done a lot, Like they made eleven miles 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.679 of canal up to that point. Not bad, it's about 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.600 a quarter of the way there, right, But this was 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:27.000 the when did they start chuck the eighteen Yeah, so 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.280 chuck as we understand it, they started in the eighteen 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.840 twenties and this thing went bust by nineteen o two, 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.320 I believe. Well that's when Congress. I mean they were 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:40.199 busts before that, but that's when the US stepped in 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.080 and said, hey, we'll buy your junk. Oh I'm sorry. 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:49.240 Eight So in like sixties, about sixty years they they 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.080 had managed to dig eleven miles of canal, build a 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.240 bunch of buildings. They had a lot of equipment and 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:58.679 supplies there. Um, and yeah, the US said, we smell 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.800 a really really great opportunity. And congres said, let's spend 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.600 some cash. We're feeling good about things these days, where 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:10.400 we annexed Hawaii recently Puerto Rico, Philippines. What else, How 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.560 why not take over this very ambiscious project. Why it's 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.120 the American century by now, and we can stick it 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.840 to the French at the same time. Exactly, So they 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.880 did this in nineteen o two, UM with the one 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.160 stipulation that said, you know what, you guys have to 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.400 Columbia controls Panama right now, and you guys have to 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.120 work out a deal with them. And we tried and 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.120 that failed. So he said, you know what, We're just 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:38.400 gonna overthrow Columbia then and give the control to the Panamanians. Yeah, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.800 they we supported this Panamanian independence movement and yeah, threw 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.800 off the shackles of Columbia. And Columbia is like, what 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:52.080 did you just do? Because we gain control of that. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.360 We we followed that congressional mandate and gain control of 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:00.160 this Panama Canal zone. Basically, the swath uh that went 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:05.080 through Panama was considered American soil thanks to a treaty 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.720 UM from my believe nineteen o two, the hey Bunal 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.720 Varia treaty UM where Panama signed over the canal zone. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.840 There was no Spanish translation of this treaty. Yeah, so 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.000 basically the U S went in over through Colombian control 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.640 of Panama, supported Panamanian independence and then rob Panama of 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.480 its canal one fell in like a year, yeah, and 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.400 Columbia is like, well, just I guess we'll just start 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.120 exporting cocaine and massive exactly, we'll get you back one day. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.600 So um. In the end, they paid about forty million 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.320 bucks in nineteen o four for the assets of this 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.200 French company, just a lot of money back then, and 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.680 about ten million dollars um as this very cheeky article 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:52.200 by the way, did you notice um they offered they 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.480 she referred to it as um alimony of sorts to 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.160 Panama ten million bucks to get gain the rights to 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.400 this canal zone. And basically, hey, we're gonna run the show. 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.480 We're gonna finish your canal from the eleven mile mark 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.040 to the you know, to the ocean where it belongs. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:10.960 And like you said, I think there was a certain 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.600 amount of snub to it, right, probably so um, but 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.360 they said, you know what we gotta do first, though, 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.120 is we have to decide on if we can go 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.240 sea level. Um, like, was it just the French were 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.400 incompetent or is it really impossible to do sea level? Yeah, 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.880 like we need to do our own due diligence basically, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.880 And they did that, and Theodore Roosevelt chose chief engineer 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.240 John Frank Stevens, and he was like, it's all about 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.760 the locks, dudes. If you want to canal here, you 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.760 can have to go over these mountains, not through them. Right. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.160 So here's the thing. And this is just brilliant because 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.960 there was another problem with this isthmus And there's this 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:52.400 thing called the Chagres River and it is very temperamental. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.680 It was prone to flooding. All sorts of crazy stuff 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.000 associated with this river. So not only did you have 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.320 the continental divide, the jungle and the malaria to deal 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.680 with once you completed it, what were you gonna do 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.600 with this river? Stevens came up with this great idea 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.560 that you go over the mountains, and you go over 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.719 the mountains. You killed two birds with one stone by 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.559 damming the river, and you create a lake that will 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.719 carry you over the mountains. Like, yeah, I'm sure that's 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:20.920 not pronounced correctly. Think about that. That is one of 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.200 the most brilliant feats of engineering I've ever heard of, 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.240 the Panama Canal. Yeah, but that's specific aspect of it 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.000 damming the river to create a lake so you can 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.600 go over the mountains. Yeah, that's just incredibly beautiful the 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.160 whole thing too. And at the time, dude in the 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.440 early nineteen hundreds is just like, it's amazing that they 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:40.640 could pull us off. Yeah, because they're all wearing like 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.840 knickers and stuff. Yeah, it's very there's some awesome documentaries 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.600 out there, by the way, you should watch. In fact, 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.839 there's one. There's one cool. Just go to the YouTube's 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.640 and uh, put in time laps Panama Canal and it 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.160 takes you the full route in like a minute and 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.520 a half. Nice and said eight to ten hours. And 0:13:58.559 --> 0:13:59.880 it's kind of neat. You know. The boat goes in 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.360 and sinks and then not sinks but lowers and then raises, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.160 and then it tools along in the lake for a 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.240 little while and then sinks and lowers and raises and yeah, 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.760 because it's like an eight to ten hour transit right 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.600 from from deep water to deep water eight to ten hours. Yeah, 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:18.720 depending on your boat. I guess once you finally get 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.080 clearance to go through. That's right, So he's damned up. 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.920 The river created got tuned lake. Um ships going towards 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.040 the Pacific kind of enter it uh Lemon Bay in 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.800 the Caribbean, go through a couple of locks upward and 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.040 just it's like walking up steps basically, except it's a 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.360 big boat and it's done with water. And then they 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.480 navigate through that lake for a little while and then 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:46.040 go towards Panama City through another series of locks and down, down, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.640 down over the mountains and boom, you are connected to 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.120 the rest of the world. Right, So when they when 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:57.720 they um agreed on the lock method, they had one 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.960 other thing to handle. And that's why the scott is 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.160 maybe they were getting confused with locks meaning lakes, right, 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.680 maybe that's a bunch of locks. They're like, where are 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:08.960 all the locks? They're like they're right there. They're like, no, 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:13.080 but where are the locks? So there was one other 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.160 big problem that had leveled the French effort, which was 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.840 um yellow fever, which you can be immune to if 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.320 you're exposed to it in childhood, but if you're from 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.440 New York, you're not. So you go down to Panama 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.360 and you are stung by a mosquito and you die. Um. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.640 The thing is, nobody knew that it was mosquitoes until 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:40.000 a guy named Ronald bross uh in seven studied mosquitoes 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.640 in India and found malaria present in their stomachs and 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.000 that it was transmittable through their saliva. Yeah, they didn't 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.680 know what it was. They were all sorts of different theories. Yeah, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:55.320 they thought it was maybe from like unclean living whatever. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.000 When they found out that it was the mosquitoes, they 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.400 that changed everything. So they to this really rigid um 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.200 anti mosquito uh program. They cleaned up the country basically 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.840 and basically eradicated came close to eradicating yellow fever in 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.840 the area, which paved the way for this lock system 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.440 to be built. Yeah, and you can thank Colonel William 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:21.160 Gorgas for heading up that sanitation squad. And um, yeah, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:22.760 I mean it worked, and that was the key, because 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.240 you can't have your workers dropping dead of yellow fever 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.000 every day. You have to they have to drop dead 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.160 of landslides. Yeah. Even though a lot of these workers 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.480 were you know, poor black people. I think eighty five 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.640 percent of the people that died were black. Um, and 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.960 a lot of people still died, but it wasn't like 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:44.480 the dropping dead from yellow fever, you know. But it's 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.080 still a very dangerous project. Mudslides, all all sorts of drownings, 0:16:48.160 --> 0:17:23.120 things like that. So we've got the the we've got 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:27.879 yellow fever licked. We've settled on the lock system, and 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.680 um John Frank Stevens is replaced by a guy named 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.760 Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Gothals and he was a lock 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.400 expert and he looked at the plan and he said, 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.760 you know what, We're gonna divide this up into three sections. 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.160 That makes perfect sense. It does. You've got the Pacific 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.280 section that's going to be working from Limon Bay, which 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.800 by the way, means lime in Spanish. Did you know that? 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.480 I did not. Uh. So they're working from Limon Bay 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.600 to the newly created Lake Gatun. Yeah that was the 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.000 Atlantic Division. Yeah, okay, you're right. So the Atlantic divis 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.560 is synonymous with the Caribbean um. And then so you've 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.320 got the Atlantic Division working from Gattuned to um or 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.399 Lemont to get tune. You have the Central Division. This 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.320 is the hardest part. Yeah, they're working in Lake Gatune 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:19.440 to basically create a channel through this Continental Divide. You 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.440 don't have to cut sea level, but you you don't 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.320 need to make sure these ships aren't gonna like run 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.560 around in a mountain. Um. And then you have the 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.399 Pacific Division, which is working from uh the end of 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.720 the Continental Divide pass which is Pedro Miguel locks down 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:39.320 to the Pacific, right, that's right. And like we said, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:44.680 the railway, the Panamanium Railroad is there, and um, we 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.440 had like awesome gear at the time. It was no 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.200 longer you know, men with chisels and sledgehammers and stuff. 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:56.119 It was steam shovels, rock drills, dynamite and uh they 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:00.359 moved ninety six million cubic yards of earth and rock, right, 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.280 which is seventy three million cubic meters, that's right. And 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:06.359 uh it was really hot though, and it was a 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.919 pretty bad scene and they called that Hell's Gorge and 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:11.520 it was dangerous and that's where I think most of 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.840 the lives were lost on this second pass. Yeah, and 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.600 that was definitely the hardest work, but they made it through. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:22.159 Um and by nine a crane that was used in 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.760 the construction of the Panama Canal was the first thing 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.520 to ever make it through all the way and they 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.560 were like sweet, yeah, and eight months later it was 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.840 open for business as far as I understand, Yeah, big business. 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.000 Um should we should we walk people through or I 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:43.119 guess swim people through? Yeah? I think we should. Okay, Uh, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.399 you approach from the Atlantic, you go through the gattoon locks. 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.359 It's gonna lift your vessel up eighty five ft pretty awesome, 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.160 and take you to Gatun Lake. Very nice. There. You're 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.680 gonna wind through that channel for about twenty three miles, 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:02.160 then enter the Gallard cut about eight miles through there, 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.560 and you're gonna reach the Pedro Miguel locks, and then 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.639 they're gonna lower your ship about thirty feet to the 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.080 mirror floors lake. You're gonna pass through this, it's about 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.959 a mile long, and then the two steps mirror floors 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.040 locks are gonna return you finally back to sea level 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.199 to seven mile passage from there to the Pacific, And 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.840 all told, you've gone fifty miles in about eight to 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.119 ten hours. And um, mind bogglingly, I saw that it 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.399 takes fifty two million gallons of fresh water to move 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.920 a ship from one end to the other two million, 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.560 and they're getting all that from Lake Gatun. Yeah, and 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.600 it's just I imagine it's just recycled back into the system, right, No, 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.040 what is it? What happens to it? They lose it, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.399 most of it. It's it's either pumped back in. It 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.679 either goes flows back into Lake Gatun or else it 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.480 flows out into the oceans, which is not necessarily good. 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.639 They're worried that Lake at Tune may become brackish and 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.960 like a Tune is now the freshwater supply of Panama 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.360 and it they're using a lot of it up. Yeah. Well, 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.439 it's always presented a bit of an environmental quagmire, especially 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.720 with their plans to expand, which we'll get to. But 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.800 right now they have two way traffic. Um. They're looking 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.760 to make that a three lane highway, which would actually 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:23.720 adding that third lane, um will double the amount of traffic. Yeah, 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:25.840 which is crazy. You would think it would increase it 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.959 by a third. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's wider. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:31.520 Oh maybe it allows for two ships at a time. 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.919 They just jam like eight in there once. I don't know. 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.160 I do know that if you are a large enough ship, 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.480 they don't let you drive yourself because you know you've 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:41.600 got one drunk sea captain and all of a sudden, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.960 your locks are out of commission, so they use electric 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.240 towing locomotives to tow those big bad boys. Right, And 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.639 we should say, just briefly, with the locks, if you 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.200 want to move a ship upward, you flow into a lock. 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:57.040 The lock closes behind you and it fills up with 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.520 water so that you can float over the lip of 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.159 the next higher lock that the gate closes behind you 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:05.760 with that one and it fills in with water, and 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:09.000 so on and so forth. Yeah, it's remarkably basic. Yeah, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.600 and then the opposite takes place when you're stepping down. Yeah, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.480 it's just basically going into a little square pool, raising 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:17.280 or lowering the water level so you can go up 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.440 or down. It's really neat. Yeah. And if you've got 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:20.880 a minute and a half to kill, you can take 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:25.000 this voyage in high speed on the YouTube. So uh, 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.640 Like we said, the US used gunboat diplomacy to and 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.359 I guess good old fashioned, old timey nineteen o two 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:37.000 swindling to gain control of the Panama Canal zone. And 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:42.399