On August 15, 1914, a dream, centuries old, came true when the United States opened the Panama Canal. A voyage that had meant 7,000 miles around the Cape was now only 50 miles across the Isthmus of Panama, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Canal divided the land, but it united the world. From the time of Marco Polo and Columbus to Gorgas and Goethals, man's quest for a westward passage to fabled Cathay led to one of the greatest engineering feats in history.

In the sixteenth century the Spanish built a trail across the Isthmus and lost their lives defending it against English buccaneers, men like Francis Drake and Henry Morgan. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, enterprising Yankees formed a corporation to build a Panama railroad to make it possible for the forty-niners to reach the California gold fields. As the trans-continental railroad across the United States became more convenient, the Panama railroad was abandoned—the jungle grew back, the tracks rusted.

But the dream persisted and now the world talked about a canal, as the only possible solution. The French, eager to span the Isthmus, sent Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, but he met with failure because of the density of the jungles, the bottomless swamp, mosquitoes, raging fever and mismanagement.

The United States entered the picture in 1904, aware of the enormity of the task but determined to meet the challenge. Dr. William Gorgas wiped out the dread disease of the tropics—yellow fever. Major Gorgas dammed the rivers, dug through the eversliding clay, built locks of a size and ingenuity never before seen by man. Finally, after ten years of incredible effort, a ship flying the American flag sailed proudly through the Canal—the dream of centuries had come true!

The story of the Panama Canal is not only a story of adventure and adventurers, of greed, lust and battle, it is also the story of man's victory over nature, of dedication, loyalty and unbelievable heroism.

From the book

"The history of the Canal and the entire area always fascinated me," Mr. Rink says, "and I spent many months in the National Archives of  the Republic of Panama studying original documents relating to colonial days. The geography and history and the people of the Isthmus of Panama are very real to me, ery much part of my life."From the book