Panama canal
Construction on the Panama Canal officially started in 1904, but it was mainly clearing brush and draining swamps.
Panama City and Colón were two tiny towns, with a railroad running in between the two when the U.S. showed up to start building. The railroad stretched alongside the French attempt at the canal, and the new workers were "haunted by the ghosts" of the 25,000 people that had died working on it. However, the U.S. workers could learn from the French mistakes and use what foundation was already there. A big problem, though, was getting rid of Panama's deadly mosquitoes that populated the area.
Roosevelt eventually put the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of the project, led by Colonel George Washington Goethals. Major diseases in America tripled in Panama. Not only faced with malaria and yellow fever, the new workers were now threatened with smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, and intestinal parasites. Because of this, Colonel William Crawford Gorgas was put in charge of sanitation.
Since the mosquitos were mainly found in urban areas, Gorgas concentrated on cities. His teams dug ditches to drain water and sprayed puddles with a layer of oil. They disinfected buildings, and even went into churches to clean the holy water. They put in a pure water supply and modernized the sewage system. Goethals had told Gorgas that every mosquito killed was $10 out of the United State's wallet. Gorgas's reply was merely this: "I know Colonel, but what if one of those $10 mosquitoes were to bite you?"
Because of Gorgas, at least 71,000 lives were saved. The cleaner and safer conditions also attracted more workers to come and help. By 1913, about 65,000 men were working on the canal. To fill jobs that had to do with administration and supervision, 5,000 american citizens took their place to provide men with comforts they were used to.
The actual task of digging the canal through mountains, building the dam to form an artificial lake, and building three double sets of locks proved to be the most difficult. The Gatun, Pedro Miguel, and Miraflores locks were to raise ships to the lake, almost 26 meters above sea level, and then lower them. The very first ship passed through the canal successfully on August 15, 1914. In that first year that it was open, more than 1,000 ships passed through.
I'm sort of surprised that it took them until the 20th century to come up with a solution like that. Granted, the inspired French man had attempted it 20 years earlier, but failed miserably. Still, if it would have been thought of and done earlier, would it have been considered one of the wonders of the world?
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Good!