Essential Guide to the Panama Canal: History, An Army's Enterprise, Story of Fort Clayton, Panama Takeover, Security Issues, Current Expansion Program Effects on U.S. Ports and Economy

Discover the fascinating stories and amazing history of the Panama Canal, from its construction through today's massive expansion program. This unique and comprehensive compilation of official information provides a stunning, richly detailed overview of this incredible waterway. This compilation includes a professionally-formatted version of the important history book, Panama Canal, An Army's Enterprise.

In 1907, after so many other would-be builders, foreign and domestic, had failed, Army leaders undertook what seemed to be an impossible mission—uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through a series of gigantic canals, locks, and waterways in a primitive land whose climate and geography created instant hardships. This pamphlet describes the critical role of those Army officers who defied the odds and saw this immense project through to completion. They included Col. William C. Gorgas, who supervised the medical effort that saved countless lives and made it possible for the labor force to do its job; Col. George W. Goethals, who oversaw the final design of the canal and its construction and, equally important, motivated his workers to complete the herculean task ahead of schedule; and many other officers who headed up the project's subordinate construction commands and rebuilt the Panama railroad, a key component of the venture. In the surprisingly short period of seven years, these soldiers, thousands of fellow Americans, and tens of thousands of workers from around the world turned the dream of an isthmian canal into reality. Their success immediately ranked among the greatest peacetime feats of the Army and the nation, and it remains so to this day. This document marks the first attempt to focus on the U.S. Army's role and to carry the narrative forward to cover the defense of the canal in the following decades. By the time the work was done and the first ship had transited the canal in 1914, the project had not only become the most expensive public work ever built, it had also set the bar for a new epoch in the advance of technology and medical discovery that was just beginning. Even more, completion of the canal put the world on notice that it now had to reckon with the United States as a global power.

Contents: Part 1: Overview

Part 2: Panama Canal - An Army's Enterprise

Part 3: Guarding the Gates, The Story of Fort Clayton - Its Setting, Its Architecture, and Its Role in the History of the Panama Canal

Part 4: The Panama Canal - A Vital United States Interest?

Part 5: Some History and Hydrology of the Panama Canal

Part 6: The Panama Canal: Writings of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Officers Who Conceived and Built It

Part 7: Panama Canal Expansion Study

Part 8: Impact of Panama Canal Expansion on the U.S. Intermodal System

Part 9: The Implications of Panama Canal Expansion to U.S. Ports and Coastal Navigation Economic Analysis