This was the destination drawing New Yorkers west in 1850.
What is the California Gold Rush?
This French engineer led the failed canal project.
Who is Ferdinand de Lesseps?
What is the Chagres River?
This river had to be controlled and later became essential to the canal.
This U.S. president pushed strongly for building the canal.
Who is Theodore Roosevelt?
Most workers came from this region.
What is the Caribbean?
One route to the west coast required sailing around this southern tip of South America.
What is Cape Horn?
His earlier success was building this canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
What is the Suez Canal?
Heavy rainfall caused this major problem, undoing excavation work.
What are mudslides?
Panama gained independence from this country with U.S. support.
What is Colombia?
Workers from this group were treated far worse under segregation policies.
Who are Black workers?
This dangerous shortcut involved crossing a jungle isthmus before boarding another ship.
What is Panama
De Lesseps insisted on this type of canal design.
What is a sea-level canal?
Engineers eventually used this system to raise and lower ships.
What are locks?
The U.S. demanded complete control over this region.
What is the Canal Zone?
This explosive replaced pickaxes for large-scale excavation.
What is dynamite?
This early infrastructure made the Panama crossing faster but still dangerous.
What is the Panama Railroad?
This disease, along with malaria, killed thousands of workers.
What is yellow fever?
This artificial lake was created to support the canal system.
What is Gatun Lake?
This debate considered building the canal in an alternative Central American country.
What is Nicaragua?
This system of racial separation existed during construction.
What is segregation?
This animal was commonly used for overland travel across the U.S.
What is a mule?
The French company collapsed financially in this year.
What is 1889?
This mountain range had to be cut through during construction.
What are the Culebra Mountains?
Critics argued U.S. actions in Panama were an example of this policy.
What is imperialism?
Black workers were how many times more likely to die than white workers?
What is four times?