WEBVTT - How the Panama Canal Works 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.680 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.680 Josh Clark. Uh with Me is always a Child's de 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.960 wt Chuck Bryant and that's stuff you should know the podcast. 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.799 The two of us together a couple of months, our voices. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:25.720 You know what I've been seeing all day? Of course, 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.600 Panma over and over and I just whistled it and 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.080 Jerry's you know, I got that stuck in my head. Yeah, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.879 when we were growing up, my sister was singing it 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.479 and I realized that she was singing turn and Run, Like, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.559 what what she's like that song? That Van Halen song. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.720 Don't be an idiot? She thought that's what they were saying. Yeah, 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.240 that's so interesting because there's so many misinterpreted song lyrics 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.040 famously over the years, but I never have heard Panama 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.360 as being one of them. Yeah, especially since the song 0:00:54.440 --> 0:01:00.000 is named Panama. Yeah parentheses, turn and run? Right, Maybe 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.360 they were talking about the people who were working on 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.319 the early French effort to build a canal in Panama. Yeah, boy, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.160 that didn't go over so well. We'll get to that, Okay, spoiler, 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:15.039 The French didn't build the Panama Canal. I thought we 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.319 were gonna get to it right now. All right, do 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:22.319 you want to talk about Da Gama Balboa? Which one? 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.280 Which one was? George Costanza's favorite explorer was a da 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.399 Gama or Balboa? Oh man, it was one of the two. 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.560 Da Gama was Yeah, I think so okay, um that 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.399 was a funny conversation though, Um so, yeah. Balboa back 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.679 in the day was was wandering around in a region 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.399 called Darien, and he summoned to the peak there and 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.680 was like, holy cow, if I look this away, I 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.360 see the Pacific Ocean, and if I look at that away, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.120 I see the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean. And the 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.960 only thing between these two big bodies of water it's 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.440 this little isthmus of land. Yeah. I'm gonna have a 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.000 lot of trouble with that word. That's okay, just say 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.840 strip okay. So the strip of land here is the 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.920 only thing in between. And we should figure out a 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:15.000 way to use this as a as a thoroughfare. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.560 because this is it connects the world. It does exactly. 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.840 At the time, the Spanish we're trying to trade with 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.560 the Chinese, and we're doing a pretty good job of 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:28.400 it in the Philippines, and the best way to get 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.880 to that was to come across the Atlantic and go 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.000 into the Pacific. It worked very, very well, and the 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.320 idea of just having a place where you could go 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.680 straight through rather than go all the way down South 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.359 America and then back up it was just mind boggling. 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:48.440 It's like you said, it opened up the world. This 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.560 guy got it immediately. The problem was it would take 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.480 about four dred more years before anyone finally got around 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.160 to completing it successfully. Well, yeah, and forget the rest 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.440 of the world that you know, added states, Just like, Hey, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.360 I want to ship this by boat from New York 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.240 to San Francisco. How can I do that? I can 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.240 just like kind of sneak around Florida, right Nope, blocked? Right, Well, 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.080 then what do I gotta do? You gotta go eight 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:18.400 thousand miles nautical miles around South America to get to California, 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.000 right or? Um, you know, when you me and I 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.120 were in Nicaragua, we were in a town in the 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.000 nineteenth century was away station for minor forty niners going 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.399 on to California, and um, they would sail on to Nicaragua, 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.560 take a train and then ship out from Nicaragua up 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.400 to California, except the handful that was like I think 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.640 I might just kick it here exactly. Yeah, I bet 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.360 you there were some d oh, definitely, I'm sure. Um, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.400 but yeah, there was. There was a continent in the way, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.240 in the idea that it was just this little narrow 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.920 strip of land that that made a lot of people 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.680 say this is the place to be. In the sixteenth 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.520 you know, the eighteenth century, the Scottish showed up. They 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.040 tried to establish an outpost, failed spectacular literally, Yeah, that's 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:06.120 there's a great um section in about it. Yeah. Um, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.000 the Spanish were there, the French were there. Uh, they 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.480 established pretty good outposts there. It was very clear that 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.240 this little area which was then part of Colombia is 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.760 now present day Panama, was going to be a hop 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.720 in spot because there was no thinner portion of the 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.719 North or South American continents than this one, and everyone 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.520 needed to figure out a way to get through. Yeah. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.479 And it wasn't as easy as like, hey, let's just 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.800 dredge all this sand and let the waters meet, because 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.280 that's not too hard. It's like dense jungle and mountains 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.279 and the continental divide. Yeah. So it's it's My first 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.000 thought was like, how hard could it have been? I 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.560 didn't realize how treacherous that area was. Yeah, and I 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.119 think that um that Balboa and a lot of people 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.520 who succeeded him, I thought the same thing, like how 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.880 hard is it? But it is like, that's that continental divide. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.839 That's a tough thing to break through. That's why they 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.000 call it a divide. Yeah, well that's where two tech 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.880 time plates come gather and form a mountain range. And like, 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:06.200 that's you're cutting through not one but two tech time plates. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.440 Everybody wrap your head around that. Seriously. Let's talk about it, 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.920 because obviously we were successful eventually. But the first attempt 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.400 was not in the first attempt, it was by the French, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.520 who in the eighteen twenties, I believe, started to undertake 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.880 a what is known as a sea level canal, which 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.080 is basically they were going to cut their way straight 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.320 through the isthmus of Panama. That's right, and canals were 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.760 all the rage at the time because of steam technology, 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.000 So all of a sudden, you didn't have to use 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.360 the very cool and quaint towpath and have a mule 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.320 walk alongside of a river or canal. Well, yeah, a 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.200 lot of them now are like jogging trails and stuff, 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:50.280 you know, which you know, that's great, makes for good thing. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.120 I don't see any mules on them these days, but 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.279 it's great that people can use these to pass now too, 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.560 you know, it's like a nature trail. Um. Yes, So 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.440 the steam technology gave the French the idea that hey man, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.080 we can we can build a sea level canal here 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.920 because we can just dig right through it. We have steam. 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.839 We don't need the mules for the towpaths any longer. 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.000 All we need is some good steam shovels. We're gonna 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.400 cut right through this continental divide, right through this jungle. 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:24.160 And as a result of this ambition, twenty thou people died. Yeah. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.159 And um, they were able to you know, get a little, 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.640 a little far thanks to the railroad there in Panama. 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:33.880 Believe it or not, it was the first railroad in 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.720 the world to connect both sides of a continent. Right. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.440 Wasn't very big, but it didn't need to be. It's 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.560 just kind of great. But that allowed the French to 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.960 get in there. They we're deciding between Nicaragua and Panama 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.640 at the time. Um, and they said like you said, 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.160 we can do sea level we don't need these locks. Yeah, 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.200 if you look at a map of Nicaragua and look 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.720 at Panama, like the idea of going through Nicaragua over 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.479 Panama's just nuts. Yeah, and we'll look plain how the 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.600 locks work. But it essentially just raises and lowers your ship, 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.520 right for sure, in a little like bay station of 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.240 water that's flooded and then drained. Right. Actually, that's how 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.080 lock works. So the French organized this thing called the 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:20.320 Company Universal d Canal Enter thank you and uh, led 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.280 by a guy named Ferdinand Lesseps who had created a 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.360 sea level canal through the Suez connected the Mediterranean and 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.400 the Red Seas. It was a big deal. So they 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.440 brought him in and he's like, sure, we'll do another 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.800 sea level canal. I'm feeling good about this. He's like, 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.800 I did the c S Canal with my eyes closed, 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.040 Like I can do this with one arm tie behind 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.040 my back. Well, he didn't realize is that digging through 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.640 a bunch of sand is not like digging through two 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.240 tectonic plates and a bunch of jungle and malaria. Uh. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.520 And like I said, twenty thousand people died as a 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:53.960 result of this like this guy was like, no, we 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.640 can do it. We can do it. We're gonna do 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.600 a sea level canal. We can do it. And then 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.480 finally it was like, I don't think we can do this. 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.920 It was too late. A lot a lot, a lot 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.280 of people were dead from yellow fever, in malaria, from accidents. Um, 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.840 it's privately financed, so a lot of people lost a 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.600 lot of money too exactly, and this company goes under. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.840 Well he tried to salvage it though. First he tried 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.840 to hire Gustav Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower fame right, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.400 and said, hey, I think we need those locks after all, um, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.360 and you're good at building big steel things, so can 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.880 you help. Then he was like, of course I can. 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:30.800 And then it was too late though that the business 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.760 was done and they had done a little bit well, 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.920 they had done a lot, Like they made eleven miles 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.240 of canal up to that point. Not bad. It's about 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.160 a quarter of the way there, right, But this was 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.880 the when did they start chuck the eighteen so chuck 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.320 as we understand that they started in the eighteen twenties 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.600 and this thing went bust by nineteen o two. I 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.200 believe well, that's when Congress. I mean, they were busts 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.400 before that, but that's when the US stepped in and said, hey, 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:04.960 we'll by your junk. Oh I'm sorry. So in like sixties, 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:09.360 about sixty years they they had managed to dig eleven 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.920 miles of canal, build a bunch of buildings, They had 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.120 a lot of equipment and supplies there, um, and yeah, 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.960 the US said, we smell a really, really great opportunity. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.719 And Congress said, let's spend some cash. We're feeling good 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:28.360 about things these days, where we annexed Hawaii recently, Puerto Rico, Philippines. 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.439 What else, How why not take over this very AMBUSHSS project. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.360 Why it's the American century by now, and we can 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.480 stick it to the French at the same time exactly. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.080 So they did this in nineteen o two, um, with 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.440 the one stipulation that said, you know what, you guys 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.720 have to Columbia controls Panama right now, and you guys 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.040 have to work out a deal with them. And we 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.000 tried and that failed. So he said, you know what, 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.000 I'm just gonna overthrow Columbia then and give the control 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.920 to the Panamanians. Yeah, they we supported this Panamanian independ 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.880 its movement and yeah, throw off the shackles of Colombia. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.200 And Colombia's like, what did you just do? Because we 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.840 gained control of that. We we followed that congressional mandate 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.640 and gained control of this Panama canal zone. Basically, the 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:21.840 swath uh that went through Panama was considered American soil 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.840 thanks to a treaty UM from my believe nineteen o two, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.559 the hey Bunal Varia Treaty UM, where Panama signed over 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.040 the canal zone. There was no Spanish translation of this treaty, 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.079 so basically the U S went in over through Colombian 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:42.079 control of Panama, supported Panamanian independence and then rob Panama 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.200 of its canal in one fell sw in like a year, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:47.680 and Columbia is like, well, just I guess we'll just 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.280 start exporting cocaine and mass exactly. We'll get you back 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.480 one day. So um. In the end, they paid about 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.679 forty million bucks in nineteen o four for the assets 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.000 of this French company, just a lot of money back then, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:05.199 and about ten million dollars UM as this very cheeky article. 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:10.760 By the way, did you notice UM they offered they 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.040 she referred to it as UM alimony of sorts to 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.720 Panama ten million bucks to get gain the rights to 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.960 this canal zone. And basically, hey, we're gonna run the show. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.040 We're gonna finish your canal from the eleven mile mark 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.600 to the you know, to the ocean where it belongs. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.559 And like you said, I think there was a certain 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.160 amount of snub to it, right, probably so um, But 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:34.920 they said, you know what we gotta do first though, 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.680 is we have to decide on if we can go 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.760 sea level? Um, Like, was it just the French were 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.000 incompetent or is it really impossible to do sea level? Yeah, 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.440 like we need to do our own due diligence basically, 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.439 And they did that, and Theodore Roosevelt chose chief engineer 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:53.800 John Frank Stevens, and he was like, it's all about 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.400 the locks, dudes. If you want to canal here, you're 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.319 gonna have to go over these mountains, not through them. Right. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.720 So here's the thing. And this is just brilliant because 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.520 there was another problem with this isthmus And there's this 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.920 thing called the Chagres River and it is very temperamental, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:16.040 was prone to flooding. All sorts of crazy stuff associated 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:17.640 with this river. So not only did you have the 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.000 continental divide in the jungle and the malaria to deal with. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.240 Once you completed it, what were you going to do 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.160 with this river? Stevens came up with this great idea 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.120 that you go over the mountains, and you go over 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.280 the mountains. You killed two birds with one stone by 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.120 damming the river, and you create a lake that will 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.280 carry you over the mountains. Like, yeah, I'm sure that's 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.480 not pronounce correct. Think about that. That is one of 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.760 the most brilliant feats of engineering I've ever heard of, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.840 the Panama Canal. Yeah, but that specific aspect of it, 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:49.720 the river to create a lake so you can go 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.719 over the mountains. That's just incredibly beautiful the whole thing too. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:55.640 And at the time, dude in the early nineteen hundreds 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.080 is just like, it's amazing that they could put us off. Yeah, 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.679 because they're all wearing like knickers and stuf. Yeah, it's 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.080 very There's some awesome documentaries out there, by the way, 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.520 you should watch. In fact, there's one. There's one cool. 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.000 Just go to the YouTube's and uh put in time 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.960 lapse Panama Canal and it takes you the full route 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.280 in like a minute and a half. Nice, he said, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:17.880 eight to ten hours, and it's kind of neat. You know. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.760 The boat goes in and sinks, and then not sinks 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.280 but lowers and then raises, and then it tools along 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.280 in the lake for a little while and then sinks 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.640 and lowers and raises and yeah, because it's like an 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:33.360 eight to ten hour transit right from from deep water 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:35.719 to deep water eight to ten hours. Yeah, depending on 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.719 your boat. I guess once you finally get clearance to 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.040 go through, that's right. So he's damned up the river 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.959 created cat tuned lake. UM ships going towards the Pacific 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.200 kind of enter it uh Lehman Bay in the Caribbean, 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.120 go through a couple of locks upward and just it's 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.959 like walking up steps basically, except it's a big boat 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.640 and it's done with water. And then they navigate through 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:00.400 that lake for a little while and then and go 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.600 towards Panama City through another series of locks and down, down, 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.200 down over the mountains and boom, you are connected to 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.680 the rest of the world. Right. So when they when 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.280 they um agreed on the lock method, they had one 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.640 other thing to handle. And that's why the Scott is 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.680 maybe they were getting confused with locks meaning lakes. Right, 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:26.720 They're like, where all the locks. They're like, they're right there. 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:31.200 They're like, no, but where the locks. So there was 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.080 one other big problem that had leveled the French effort, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.680 which was um yellow fever, which you can be immune 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.960 to if you're exposed to it in childhood, but if 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.400 you're from New York you're not. So you go down 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.840 to Panama and you are stung by a mosquito and 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.840 you die. Um. The thing is, nobody knew that it 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.960 was mosquitoes until a guy named Ronald bross Uh in 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:01.360 seven studied mosquitoes in India and found malaria present in 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.240 their stomachs and that it was transmittable through their saliva. Yeah, 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:06.760 they didn't know what it was. They were all sorts 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.960 of different theories. Yeah, they thought it was maybe from 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:15.080 like unclean living whatever. When they found out that it 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.840 was the mosquitoes, they that changed everything. So they institute 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:24.760 this really rigid um anti mosquito uh program. They cleaned 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.040 up the country basically and basically eradicated came close to 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.040 eradicating yellow fever in the area, which paid the way 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.640 for this lock system to be built. Yeah, and you 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.360 can thank Colonel William Gorgas for heading up that sanitation squad, 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.800 and um, yeah, I mean it worked, and that was 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.200 the key, because you can't have your workers dropping dead 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.840 of yellow fever every day. You have to they have 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.960 to drop dead of landslides. Yeah, even though a lot 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.040 of these workers were you know, poor black people. I 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.480 think eighty five percent of the people that died were black, 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.400 and a lot of people still died, but it wasn't 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.880 like the dropping dead from yellow fever, you know, but 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.040 it's still a very dangerous project. Slides, all sorts of 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.440 drownings and things like that. Um. So we've got the 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.520 the we've got the yellow fever licked. We've settled on 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:17.120 the lock system, and um John Frank Stevens is replaced 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.840 by a guy named Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Gothals and 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.800 he was a lock expert, and he looked at the 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:25.480 plan and he said, you know what, We're gonna divide 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:29.360 this up into three sections. That makes perfect sense. It does. 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:31.360 You've got the Pacific section that's going to be working 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.200 from Limon Bay, which by the way, means lime in Spanish. 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.280 Did you know that I did not. Uh, So they're 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.200 working from Limon Bay to the newly created Lake Gatun. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.160 That was the Atlantic Division. Yeah, okay, you're right. So 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.560 the Atlantic Division is synonymous with the Caribbean UM. And 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.680 then so you've got the Atlantic Division working from Ghatun 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.480 to um or Lemon to get tune. You have the 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.600 Central Division. This is the hardest part. They're working in 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.840 Lake glad Tune to basically create a channel through this 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.720 Continental divide. Yeah, you don't have to cut sea level, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:09.360 but you you don't need to make sure these ships 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.000 aren't gonna like run aground in the mountain. Um. And 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.680 then you have the Pacific Division, which is working from 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.240 uh the end of the Continental divide pass which is 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:24.680 Pedro Miguel locks down to the Pacific, right, that's right. 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.080 And like we said, the railway, the Panamanium Railroad is there, 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.800 and um, we had like awesome gear at the time. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.879 It was no longer you know, men with chisels and 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.760 sledgehammers and stuff. It was steam shovels, rock drills, dynamite 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:46.119 and uh they moved ninety six million cubic yards of 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.320 earth and rock, right, which is seventy three million cubic meters, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.000 that's right. And uh, it was really hot though, and 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.679 it was a pretty bad scene and they called that 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.159 Hell's Gorge and it was dangerous and that's where I 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.800 think most of the lives were lost on this second pass. Yeah, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.280 and that was definitely the hardest work. But they made 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:09.160 it through, um and by a crane that was used 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.480 in the construction of the Panama Canal. Was the first 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.439 thing to ever make it through all the way. And 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.520 they were like sweet, Yeah, And eight months later it 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.960 was open for business as far as I understand, Yeah, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.800 big business. Um, should we should we walk people through 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:30.200 or I guess swim people through? Yeah, I think we should. Okay, Uh, 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.480 you approach from the Atlantic, you go through the Gattoon locks. 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.439 It's gonna lift your vessel up eighty five ft, pretty awesome, 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.240 and take you two Gatun Lake, very nice there. You're 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.720 gonna wind through that channel for about twenty three miles, 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:49.200 then enter the Gallard Cut about eight miles through there, 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.600 and you're gonna reach the Pedro Miguel locks and then 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.760 they're gonna lower your ship about thirty ft to the 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.120 mirror Flors Lake. You're gonna pass through this it's about 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.399 a mile long, and then the two steps mirror floors locks. 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.440 We're gonna return you finally back to sea level to 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.960 seven mile passage from there to the Pacific, and all told, 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.439 you've gone fifty miles in about eight to ten hours. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.000 And um, mind bogglingly, I saw that it takes fifty 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.399 two million gallons of fresh water to move a ship 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.960 from one end to the other two and they're getting 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.200 all that from Lake Gatun. Yeah, and it's just I 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.399 imagine it's just recycled back into the system. Right, what 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.639 is it? What happens to it? They lose it, most 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.160 of it. It's either pumped back in. It either goes 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.280 flows back into Lake Gatun or else it flows out 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.040 into the oceans, which is not necessarily good. They're worried 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.119 that La gat Tune may become brackish and like a 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.680 tune is now the freshwater supply of Panama and it 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:52.640 they're using a lot of it up. Yeah. Well, it's 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.639 always presented a bit of an environmental quagmire, especially with 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.199 their plans to expand, which we'll get to. But right 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.960 now they have two weight traffic UM. They're looking to 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:06.200 make that a three lane highway, which would actually adding 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:10.560 that third lane UM will double the amount of traffic, Yeah, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:12.879 which is crazy. You would think it would increase it 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.120 by a third. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's wider. 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:18.720 Oh maybe allows for two ships at a time. They 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:20.960 just jam like eight in there once. I don't know. 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.240 I do know that if you are a large enough ship, 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.560 they don't let you drive yourself because you know you've 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.639 got one drunk sea captain and all of a sudden 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.040 your locks are out of commissioned, so they use electric 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.320 towing locomotives to tow those big bad boys. Right, And 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.719 we should say, just briefly, with the locks, if you 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.280 want to move a ship upward, you flow into a lock. 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.119 The lock closes behind you and it fills up with 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.560 water so that you can float over the lip of 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.239 the next higher lock that the gate closes behind you 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.800 with that one, and it fills in with water, and 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.040 so on and so forth. Yeah, it's remarkably basic. Yeah. 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.720 And then the opposite takes place when you're stepping down. Yeah, 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.560 it's just basically going into a little square pool, raising 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.399 or lowering the water level so you can go up 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.479 or down. It's really neat. Yeah, And if you've got 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:07.920 a minute and a half to kill you can take 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.400 this voyage in high speed on the YouTube. So uh, like, 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.879 we said, the US used gunboat diplomacy to and I 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.960 guess good old fashioned, old timey nineteen o two swindling 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.399 to gain control of the Panama Canal zone. And it 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:30.280 had complete control until nineteen nine when Jimmy Carter um 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:37.280 malaise forever, right, Jerise that Simpsons, they unveil a statue 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:39.960 of Jimmy Carter and it says Malaise Forever on the 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:45.280 base and one of the townspeople go, he's history's greatest monster. Anyway, 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.680 Carter negotiated with the leader of Panama at the time, 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.280 UH General Omar Terrios Herrera, and said, hey, how would 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.040 you like this thing back? Give us you think they said, hey, 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.520 we'd like this back. I like to think of um 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.840 American magnanimous. Not sure, So we said, you know what, 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.359 we've had it for this long plus plus we're talking Carter, 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.160 it's entirely possible. He just started contacting people and said, 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.920 what's the US have that we can sell or give back. 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.600 It's a good point. Um. So yeah, he he sold 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.439 like one of the like the presidential yacht was sold 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.760