Today's American Minute — Panama Canal - cost over 100 American lives per mile of 50 mile wide Isthmus

Panama Canal built by America at the cost of 100 lives per mile of 50-mile-wide Isthmus - American Minute with Bill Federer

Panama Canal - cost over 100 American lives per mile of 50 mile wide Isthmus

Panama Canal built by America at the cost of 100 lives per mile of 50-mile-wide Isthmus - American Minute with Bill Federer

Mark Twain wrote August 17, 1868: "The Panama railroad was an American project ... We took the train at Panama, clattered for two or three hours through a tangled wilderness of tropical vegetation, and discharged ourselves in Aspinwall (Colón). It is only forty-five miles ... it was a hard road to build. The tropical fevers slaughtered the laborers by wholesale. It is a popular saying, that every railroad tie from Panama to Aspinwall rests upon a corpse."

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