Finding a Way: The Panama Canal Construction Brothers

We start out today with some swag talk and a chat about some recent opportunities to meet listeners.

(Note: Of course historicity is a word. Dictionary.com’s definition is “historical authenticity.”)

03:50 - The Panama Canal
There’s so much to discuss on this massive construction project. First, though, we insist on a deep dive on our Keurig machine.

Then we get to some specs: 
Parcel of land: 10 miles wide and 50 miles long85 feet elevation change from sea level to highest pointAvg. ship transit time: 8-10 hrs300,000,000 cubic yards of earth moved in project52 million gallons of water displaced for each transit (That’s about 742,857 bathtubfuls–roughly the amount of water that passes through Hoover Dam every 14 minutes)Cut the ocean-going distance from NY to LA from 13,000 miles to 5,200 milesSome calculations put the total construction fatalities at 500 lives for each mile of canal. (Total of around 25,600).  We discuss the history of Panamanian isthmus exploration by those who were interested in sea navigation. In 1513, Spanish explorer Balboa became the first European to realize that this area was a narrow isthmus b/t Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This eventually led to exploration for a navigable passage. Then in 1534, Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, ordered a survey to determine if a route could be built. It is considered impossible. 

By 1881, France decided that indeed it was possible, so they began construction. That attempt led to more than 20,000 deaths–mostly from Caribbean islands such as Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica.

13:06 - Lock History and the Labor Force
Eddie runs us through the history of locks, which started in China and included some input from Leonardo DaVinci. 

Approximately 60,000 people were involved in the American construction project. White workers got the best jobs and the best lodging. Workers died at the incomprehensible rate of 500 for every mile of construction. Many of these deaths were due to disease, but many were also due to mudslides and a range of other predictable types of accidents.

19:09 - New Tools and Chief Engineers

We discuss a couple of innovations that made this project possible:

The track-shifter (Watch a video clip): huge crane-like machine could hoist a whole section of track–rails and ties–and swing it in either direction, to relocate it as much as 3 m at a time. It took less than a dozen men operating one day to move 1.6 km of track, a task requiring not less than 600 men.

The dirt-spreader (See a pic): A car operated by compressed air, the dirt-spreader had steel "wings" on each side that could be raised and lowered to level off material left along the track by the unloader. Did the work of approximately 6000 men working by hand.

Eddie lists the men who worked in the chief engineer role and the big money that they earned–more than any other public employee other than the president. The one who finally stuck around to finish the project was George Washington Goethals, who had no choice because he was assigned to this role as an Army general.  

27:30 - Economic Impact and Other Takeaways
We explore the economic impact of the canal. Shipping costs for goods that would have needed to pass south of South America immediately dropped by 31%. This leads to a discussion of the drought that has caused complications in the canal since last year. We touch on the huge impact caused when shipping lanes are shut down, including the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore.br...