The Panama Canal

8 Pages 2112 Words

or morgues. The rocky ground of the formerly volcanic area was proven to be too much

or the French steam shovels, and progress was made only when a plan for using dynamite on
underwater rocks and then dredging up the pieces was proposed by Philippe Bunau-Varilla. Lesseps'
insisted on a sea-level canal, like the one he had built at Suez, as opposed to a lock canal. The idea
for a sea-level was of no use since the lock canal proved to be cost-effective and more practicable. In
1885, due to the problems encountered in trying to excavate a sea-level canal, the plan was changed
to include a single, temporary lock and other such adjustments in order to speed up the availability
of the canal for public traffic. Still, it was of no use. In 1889, Lesseps' company was liquidated in
order to pay back loans the company had borrowed from investors and banks. The appraisal of the
company's belongings, including equipment, maps, and the value of the land already excavated, was
very high, and in 1894, a new company, the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, was created
in France to attempt to finish the canal. Thinking this was an impossible feat for the French, feelings
of selling the land, possibly to the United States, grew strong. France then determined that it could
not possibly complete the canal. With a lease on the land in Colombia until 1903, the hunt was on to
find a buyer. Eventually, France found one in the United States of America.
In 1899, the second Canal Commission suggested building a canal in Nicaragua. President
McKinley most likely would have signed a bill introduced by Senator J. T. Morgan securing funds
for the Nicaraguan canal, had he not been assassinated on September 6, 1901. The succeeding
inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency was to become a time of strained relations
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