Four Centuries in the Making
Europeans dreamed of a canal across Panama since Balboa first saw the Pacific in 1513. It took a failed French fortune, an American-backed revolution, and a decade-long war on mosquitoes before a single lock gate closed.
The Panama Canal is often remembered as a single American triumph completed in 1914. In reality it was the product of a private railroad built for gold prospectors, a catastrophic French bankruptcy, a revolution the United States helped engineer, and a decade of disease control before American engineers ever moved the bulk of the earth.
What follows is every major milestone in order, sourced to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, the Library of Congress, the Panama Canal Authority, and peer-reviewed historical research.
Every Milestone, Start to Today
Sources & Further Reading
- End of the Construction, Panama Canal Authority
- Panama Canal: History, Impact & Canal Zone, HISTORY
- Death, Disease, and Discrimination During the Construction of the Panama Canal (1904 to 1914), Hektoen International
- How the Panama Canal Took a Huge Toll on the Contract Workers Who Built It, Smithsonian Magazine
- Gorgas Develops Effective Methods of Mosquito Control, EBSCO Research Starters
- The Panama Riots of 1964: The Beginning of the End for the Canal, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
- The Panama Canal and the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- Panama Canal Turned Over to Panama, HISTORY
- Panama Canal Expansion Wraps Up, Engineering News-Record
- Gatun Lake's Lower Water Levels Imperil the Panama Canal in 2024, Peterson Institute for International Economics
- What to Know About Trump's Day-One Promise to Take Back the Panama Canal, Atlantic Council
- Trump Says China Controls the Panama Canal, But Here's How It Really Works, NBC News