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NameDateIntellectual Devotional American History Reading: Panama Canal. Please use this reading on the Panama Canal, one of the largest civil engineering projects in history, to answer the reading comprehension questions on the worksheet that accompanies it.The Panama Canal, a fifty-one-mile waterway across the Isthmus of Panama that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, opened to shipping in 1914 after a decade of construction. Although it was not build on United States soil, the Panama Canal was mostly an American project, and its completion remains one of the most dazzling feats of engineering ever undertaken. The United States retained control over the canal until 1999, when it was returned to Panama.Prior to the opening of the canal, ships sailing from San Francisco to New York had to travel around the southern tip of South America, a long and dangerous voyage. Plans to dig across Panama had been discussed for centuries, and French engineers had attempted to construct a canal as recently as the 1880s. However, the dense Panamanian jungle, deadly diseases such as malaria and yellow fever, and the massive amounts of equipment and personnel required eventually doomed the French project.For US President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), completing the canal was a major commercial and military goal. With technological improvements, he felt the Americans could succeed where France had failed. However, the government of Colombia, which controlled Panama at the time, was hesitant to allow American involvement. In a controversial move, the United States then launched a scheme to support Panamanian independence in exchange for permission to dig the canal.The ploy worked. Panama, which had attempted a number of unsuccessful uprisings against Colombia since the 1830s, revolted once more, this time with US support, and became independent in 1903. Within a month, the United States received permission from the new government in Panama to complete the canal. Roosevelt’s meddling in Panama launched a period of far more aggressive American intervention in Latin American affairs. This interventionist policy, known as the “Roosevelt corollary,” would eventually prove extremely unpopular with many Central Americans.With the political obstacles cleared, all that remained was to construct the canal itself. The remains of the French canal—basically, a giant ditch—formed the starting point for the Americans. Engineers would eventually spend $352 million over ten years to complete the project; more than 5,000 workers died of disease or accident. When it was completed, the canal drastically slashed travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, strengthened US naval power, and signaled the grand scale of American ambitions in the twentieth century.Additional Facts The first ship to traverse the canal, on August 15, 1914, was SS Ancon, a passenger vessel.Until 1999, the United States exercised control over the canal and surrounding areas. Americans in the area were referred to as Zonians.Builders used 102 steam shovels on the canal project, one of which has been preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.Adapted from: Kidder, David S., and Noah Oppenheim. The Intellectual Devotional: American History: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Converse Confidently about Our Nation's Past. New York: Modern Times, 2007. ................
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