The History of the Panama Canal The Panama Canal has been called the big ditch, the bridge between two continents, and the greatest shortcut in the world. When it was finally finished in 1914, the 51-mile waterway cut off over 7,900 miles of the distance between New York and San Francisco, and changed the face of the industrialized world ("Panama Canal"). This Canal is not the longest, the widest, the deepest, or the oldest canal in the …showed first 75 words of 1257 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1257 total…bend the isthmus between North and South America until it broke and a new path between the seas was created. Killer diseases, high costs, and seemingly impossible excavations all faced the engineers at the Canal Zone. But one by one they overcame until the Panama Canal alone stood out from among the trash and dirt and invited people of the world to come and cruise her waters - a new pathway for the ever-expanding world.