Have
you ever heard the phrase, “I had to go around my elbow to get to my
mouth?” Many people use this
phrase to describe having to go out of the way to get somewhere. Instead of a straight shot to where
they wanted to go, they had many detours before they finally made it to where
they wanted to go. For many years,
whenever a boat needed to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, the
sailors would have to go “around their elbow to get to their mouth.” There was not an easy way or a short
cut. The sailors would have to
navigate their boat around the Cape Horn, the area between the southern tip of
South America and Antarctica.
Why
was this a problem? For one
reason, it was a long journey. Going
around the horn would add close to 1,000 miles to each trip a sailor would make
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. While that is an inconvenience, the problem was the type of
weather a sailor would have to encounter when coming into the cape. Winds gusting at a range from 50-80 mph
would meet a ship as they tried to steer through the cape. With these winds came waves that might
reach up to 90 feet high. A crew
would only have a window of about 100 days a year where they would not encounter
these conditions.
As
explorers studied maps, they were convinced there had to be another way to get
from one ocean to the other.
Everyone came back to one place on the map – the Isthmus of Panama. This isthmus joins Central America to
South America. To the east, the Caribbean Sea would eventually meet the
Atlantic Ocean while the Gulf of Panama would merge into the Pacific Ocean on
the west side. The isthmus at one
place was only 30 miles wide! How
close the two oceans were while being so far away. Would there be a way to cut right through Panama?
There
were many problems that kept the canal from being built. France had begun building a canal, but
due to diseases, flooding and, eventual bankruptcy, they had to stop. They wanted America to pick up where
they had left off, but other problems stood in the way. Panama had to win its independence from
Colombia, and eventually did in 1903.
Since America had helped them gain their freedom, the following year, a
treaty was made between the USA and Panama to allow the USA to finish building
the canal.
When finally finished in October 1913, the canal
came in at 48 miles long and 200 feet wide. The Panama Canal helped launch the United States into
a world trading empire as well as allowed other countries to expand their
trading. The US Navy was able to
protect America during times of war thanks to the Panama Canal. Ultimately, the east could finally get
to the west without “having to go around their elbow to get to their
mouth.”
After reading the text and examining the map, answering the following question:
Why do we need the Panama Canal?
