Connecting the Seas - the Panama Canal Quiz

Answer: Spain

The Spanish were using mules trains to transport the Conquistadors' gold from Peru to the Atlantic Ocean, where it could be shipped to Spain. In 1534, Charles V ordered a study of the feasibility of a canal to connect the seas. Events in Europe intervened and the study was never carried out.

Answer: Ferdinand Lesseps

Ferdinand Lesseps had been responsible for the completion of the Suez Canal and was known as the "Hero of the Suez".

Answer: Pacific Ocean

A ship traveling from New York to San Francisco can save 7,872 miles using the Panama Canal instead of going around the tip of South America.

Answer: Colombia

Colombia or New Granada (a name used for the combined country of Panama and Colombia) gave the French a concession to build a canal across the isthmus.

Answer: Sea level canal

Lesseps had successfully built a sea level canal in Suez and felt he could also have one built in Panama.

Answer: False

In fact, both commissions recommended the Nicaraguan route, but strong lobbying by France's New Panama Canal Company saw Congress pass an amendment to a bill that would allow the President to acquire the French company's Panama property and concessions at a cost not to exceed $40,000,000 and to acquire from Colombia perpetual control of a canal zone. If the title and an agreement with Colombia could not be reached in a reasonable period of time, the President was authorized to proceed with a canal at Nicaragua.

Answer: Yellow fever and malaria

Yellow fever and malaria were responsible for many deaths in the Panama Canal area. Dr. Gorgas of the United States Army was responsible for eliminating the mosquito population from the Canal Zone. Dr Gorgas worked with the information gained several years earlier by Dr. Reed in Cuba, that mosquitoes have the ability to transmit certain diseases.

Answer: To support the new government

During negotiations for the canal, the Colombian government stalled and tried to force the United States to pay a very high price for use of the Canal Zone. President Roosevelt said, "We were dealing with a government of irresponsible bandits". When the chief engineer of the New Panama Canal Company organized a local revolt, Roosevelt immediately sent the battleship Nashville and a detachment of marines to Panama to support the new government.

The rebels gladly accepted Roosevelt's offer, and they gave the United States complete control of the Canal Zone.

Answer: 50 miles

The Canal is 50 miles in length from the deep water in the Atlantic Ocean to the deep water in the Pacific Ocean. It was cut through one of the narrowest and lowest sections of the long, mountainous Isthmus that joins North and South America. The average ship requires nine hours to transit the Canal.

The Panama Canal's principle physical features are the two terminal ports, short sections of the channel at either end at sea level, three sets of twin locks, Gatun and Miraflores Lakes and Gaillard or Culebra Cut. Culebra Cut, the part where the heaviest excavation was required, slices through the Continental Divide, it is about eight miles long and was carved through rock and shale.

The American (U.S.) construction occurred between 1904 and 1914.

Answer: Republic of Panama's -- Panama Canal Authority

On October 1, 1979, two new treaties between Panama and the United States went into effect concerning the management, operation and defense of the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Commission, a U.S. Government agency replaced the Panama Canal Company and Canal Zone Government.

The Commission ran the Canal for twenty years training and guiding the Government of Panama to take control. On December 31, 1999, the United States Government transferred the Canal to Panama to be controlled by the Panama Canal Authority.