Earl picked up the photos from our recent vacation yesterday, and we spent a pleasant hour over cocktails reliving the highlights as they exist in 4 by 6 frames. Overall, I was struck with how few people shots we had and how many Panama Canal shots we had. But then that was the intended highlight of the entire trip.
It did not disappoint.
The idea of building a canal across the relatively narrow Isthmus of Panama in Central America began with the French in 1880. Such a success would lop off seven thousand miles for any ship voyaging from Atlantic to Pacific ports by eliminating the arduous trip around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America.
The French government awarded the contract for the canal’s development to Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had directed the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. In 1880, de Lesseps was 74 years old and still basking in the glory of his previous accomplishment.
He believed the Panama Canal could be a replica of the Suez, which was built somewhat like a long ditch bridging two oceans. However, he had never been to Panama and did not know that the isthmus where the canal was to be built traversed a mountain range. Digging a mere ditch would have meant leveling mountains to below sea level. Given the times and the current state of knowledge, it was impossible. But de Lesseps did not know this; consequently, the French effort failed. In time, the United States took up the project. By fast forwarding the story, the last chapter is that the Panama Canal opened in 1914.
Unless you’ve been there, Earl’s photos don’t do the Panama Canal justice. It’s not because he isn’t a good photographer. It’s because one needs the back-story to appreciate fully what was overcome before a ship like the one we were on could navigate the locks. There was malaria, lack of technology, and mudslides. There were also clever men who determined that the big ditch approach would never work; instead they created a lock and dam system that is as brilliant today as it was at the turn of the last century.
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