The Creation of the Panama Canal with Blaine Davies

The Panama Canal has been in the news a lot, but do you know how it was created? In one of the most ambitious engineering projects in history, in the early 1900s the United States constructed an aquatic path connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans across the newly created nation of Panama. The Americans completed what the French started. To do it, they had to conquer disease, move massive amounts of earth, build an ingenious system of locks, and even create a massive lake. Professor Blaine Davies, who recently visited the Panama Canal, explains how in spite of disease, politics, and daunting civil engineering obstacles, the canal was conceived, engineered, and opened for ocean-to-ocean transit over a century ago. Blaine Davies has an MA in history and taught US history at Boise State University for 14 years.

This San Diego Oasis event is free to attend thanks to the generous support of the Friends of the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox Branch Library.