VIDEO GUIDE

The Panama Canal

1. The Panama Canal was the most important engineering project of its time. Involving the largest earth dam ever built and the largest man made Lake ever created.

2. In 1534, _Spanish_ engineers surveyed the Isthmus and proposed a plan for a canal that would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

3. _75__% of all workers who entered the hospital for treatment of smallpox, typhoid, yellow fever, food poisoning, or snake bites died.

4. By _1889_, the Europeans had run out of money. They left behind the rusting hardware and the corpses of more than 20,000 men.

5. _Teddy_ _Roosevelt_ was the embodiment of the spirit of America’s emergence as a world power.

6. Teddy Roosevelt’s first order of business while president was the _Panama Canal_.

7. The Isthmus of Panama was the Northern Province of __Colombia_.

8. Roosevelt said to reporters, “_I_ _took_ _the_ ____Ithsmus____.” Those four words proved to be costly.

9. There were two men per room. Buildings were built for circulation of __air__.

10. Most workers were not Americans assigned to bachelor quarters but thousands of poor workers from impoverished _Caribbean_ islands that had more primitive living conditions and were paid less money.

11. All work was called off on the canal until the _streets_ got into a sanitary condition.

12. By Christmas of 1905, _yellow_ _fever_ had been eliminated in Panama.

13. 61 million pounds of _dynamite_ was the primary tool for moving dirt.

14. Teddy Roosevelt was pleased with progressive American effort that was digging in one day what the French took a _month_ to match.

15. The _lock’s_ job was to raise the world’s largest ships to the height of a seven story building.

16. On May 20, 1913, the digging was done and the __canal__ was prepared to be filled.

17. A _tug_ _boat__ was draped in flags and sent to make the first trip through the greatest engineering accomplishment of its time.

18. Canal operation officially opened August 15, 1914, just __10__ years after the work had begun.

19. With the basic canal construction finished, most of the workers were sent back home. American presence in Panama became a __military__ presence.

20. In 1964, the U.S. refused to allow the Panamanian flag to be raised alongside the U.S. flag in the Canal Zone. This brought about a violent __riot__.

21. Many in the U.S. thought the riot was a __communist__ plot.

22. Control of the zone was transferred to Panama in __2000___.