On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the
world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as
a global superpower. American ingenuity and innovation had
succeeded, but the U.S. paid a price for victory: more than a
decade of ceaseless, grinding toil, an outlay of more than $350
million — the largest single federal expenditure in history to
that time — and the loss of more than 5,000 lives. Along the
way, Central America witnessed the brazen overthrow of a
sovereign government, a revolutionary public health campaign,
the backbreaking removal of hundreds of millions of tons of
earth and construction on an unprecedented scale. The story of
the canal features a cast of colorful characters ranging from an
indomitable president to visionary engineers to tens of
thousands of workers from around the world, rigidly segregated
by race. Using an extraordinary archive of photographs and
footage, some remarkable interviews with canal workers and
firsthand accounts of life in the canal zone, d