The Panama Canal is an engineering marvel that’s held up as one of the most incredible feats of human ingenuity. It took over ten years to build, and thousands of workers died during construction. This marvel of engineering was made possible by an international force, who realized the centuries-old dream of linking the two great oceans. But there is more than just joy behind this massive project. We will share with you, 4 creepy facts about the Panama Canal that will give you goosebumps and are incredibly interesting.
1st Creepy fact about the Panama Canal: So many lives for the construction
The official number of workers that participated in the construction of the canal is 56,307. Most of them came from the Antilles, Europe and North America. During excavation, some 270,000 cubic yards of earth were extracted, material that was used to build the Amador military fort, the town of Balboa, and the breakwater at Naos Island.
The workers had to work in a snake-infested jungle with average temperatures of 80F and 105 inches of rainfall a year. What’s interesting is that if you come visit us, you can still feel those 80F and feel the heavy humidity and rainfall. But we do have bug spray and air conditioning.
What most people don’t know is that almost 20.000 workers died during the construction of the canal, but some says that this number is too conservative. They died not just due to accidents, but mainly to local iliness to which they weren’t used to.
One of the first challenges faced by the workers was yellow fever, which hit 6.000 workers. But they kept going despite the sickness because they were well paid and could send money home to their families. The next obstacle was landslides caused by heavy rainfall in the area. The workers had to use dynamite and explosives to blast through solid rock formations in order for ships to pass through safely. This was one of the most dangerous work, some times the dinamite won’t explode and then suddenly explode later on and harm some workers. It was a dangerous work and it was sometimes paid with your life
2nd Creepy fact about the Panama Canal: Just a few escaped the deadly mosquitos
This tropical country is beautiful and has such a proliferation of wildlife that any entomologist will die for. Well, the workers died for it too! The workers lived in very harsh conditions, with poor hygiene conditions and in overcrowded spaces. Those facts combined with the heat and humidity was the perfect breeding ground for many local and foreign illness.
Some of the popular illness were: Smallpox, pneumonia, typhoid, dysentery, hookworm, cutaneous infections, and even the bubonic plague infected workers, but yellow fever was the most treacherous one. However, the creepiest part is that the most deadly: Malaria, infected almost everyone. It is said that in 1906 alone 80% of the total workforce was hospitalized for malaria, according to Sanitary Inspector Joseph Le Prince.
Of the total of fatalities:
2% died from yellow fever
4% died from landslides or cave-ins (which were also common) due to unstable land conditions and lack of knowledge about how to deal with them.
15% succumbed to malaria, which was spread by mosquitoes native to Panama’s climate
3rd creepy facts of the panama canal: Discrimination and racism was normalized
t was the beginning of the XX Century, racism and discrimination were common everywhere and the construction of the canal was not an exception. The apartheid system governed every aspect of a worker’s life. The first distinction was between “skilled” and “unskilled” workers. Skilled employees went on the Gold Roll and were paid in gold coins. They also had paid sick and vacations and were housed in better conditions than their counterparts. The unskilled workers were on the Silver Roll, and were paid in balboas, or local Panamanian silver. West Indian workers, plentiful in numbers and eager to work, could be paid half of the salary of a European or white U.S. worker. Over time, the Gold Roll became exclusive of white U.S. citizens, while the workers on the Silver Roll, the majority of the workforce, were largely non-white.
4th creepy facts of the panama canal: A lake over a tragic collective suicide
The lake Gatun (one of the lakes built to feed the canal) was built over a town called Matachin where 415 Chinese workers of the railways comited a collective suicide in the 1850s.
The Gatun Lake is a massive artificial lake (Spanish: Lago Gatún) at approximately 26 m (85 ft) above sea level, and it forms a major part of the Panama Canal. It was created in 1913 by damming the Chagres River, and providing the millions of litres of water necessary to operate its locks each time a ship passes through.
A dam was built across the course of the Chagres River and completed in 1912, to later on fill the artificial lake who then covered the towns of Gatun and Matachin with more than 80 feet of rock and earth below the dam.
But what most people don’t know is that Matachin is the home of horrific scenes that will give you goose bumps. In the 1850s lots of Chinese workers were brought to Panama to work on the Panama Railroad Company. Their life conditions, the illness and the nostalgia from home, combined with the opium consumption charge a heavy toll on the community and decided to end their lives massively. 415 Chinese workers of the railways committed a collective suicide in horrendous ways.
The Chief Engineer, George M. Totten, gives a horrible description of the suicide: “… I shall never forget the scene which my eyes met that morning. More than a hundred Chinese were hanging from the trees, their baggy pants swaying in the blow of a fiery breeze. Some had hanged themselves with pieces of rope and thick lianas. Most, however, used their own hair, twirling their long braids, and tying their ends to a tree branch.”
Alonso Roy, a historian, describes: “Other forms of immolation included cutting open their veins until they bled to death, using their own machetes, paying some Orientals (Malays) to cut off their heads, sitting on the seashore and letting the tide drown them, others tied stones to their bodies and threw themselves into the river.
So if you happen to pass along the beautiful Gatun Lake, have a though on those Chinese workers and dedicate them a prayer on their memory.
After all the time, effort, and money that went into building the Panama Canal it’s easy to see why so many people were excited about its opening. There’s so much to learn from the Panama Canal construction, so many secrets that can surprise you for sure. These 4 creepy facts about the Panama Canal are just the tip of the iceberg, on your visit, one of our tour guides can surely surprise you with more interesting facts.
So remember, when you are ready to visit the city, with a certified bilingual tour guide, who can really show you the beauties of this marvelous city of Panama, just click here and and Tour Now will send you a guide right away.
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