|
|
"It had taken 10 years 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. But the successful completion of the Panama Canal had defined the United States to the world, and announced the arrival of a new power for the new century."
~Panama Canal - PBS Documentary |
Jackson Lears, Historian: "It was a symbol to Americans. This is what American power, technological know-how, determination, managerial organization, all of those things that Americans prided themselves on and still do to a certain extent, this is what it can do for the whole world."
Ovidio Diaz Espino, Writer: "After 500 years of people dreaming, now it was done. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans were forever united. The United States was now firmly established as the most powerful nation on Earth." ~Panama Canal - PBS Documentary |