Panama Canal: the mountain and the mosquito

This National Geographic documentary uses rare archival footage together with re-enactments to tell the story of the construction of the Panama Canal. Driven by both military and economic imperatives, U.S President Theodore Roosevelt pushed this project which would link the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He appointed railroad and civil engineer John Stevens to lead the massive engineering endeavour. Appalled by the poor health and low morale under which earlier crews had laboured in the project, Stevens improved conditions and accommodation for the 24,000 construction workers. He was assisted by physician William Crawford Gorgas, who brought under control the tropical diseases of malaria and yellow fever. After 7 years of evacuation and construction, a lock system was established across the isthmus which opened in 1914.