In the middle of the 1800’s, the California Gold Rush had thousands of settlers moving to America’s west coast. It became apparent soon after that finding the gold was easier than transporting it back to the east coast. It took a six month wagon journey to get back to the east coast. People could also travel by boat to the isthmus, disembark and get to the other side, and then boat back to where they came from. In 1855, a railroad was constructed across Panama, but unloading and reloading the ships cost time and money. Panama then had the idea to build a Canal, so the ships could just float through. In 1881, French Diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps who had recently supervised the construction of the Suez Canal in Egypt. He thought he could just do the same thing and dig through, but he was wrong. He faced many challenges, such as landslides. Because he had only briefly visited Panama, his crew faced illness and weather challenges. After losing 22,000 lives and spending $287 million, the French abandoned the project. Once Panama became an independent country, the US signed deals with Panama to build a canal. Instead of lowering the mountain, they would raise the sea over the mountain. They were going to build big steel chambers with different water levels, so when you removed one wall the water would rise over the mountain. The canal in total raised traveling ships 26 meters above sea level. Overall, it took 24,000 workers 9 years to blow up and shovel out the dirt for the canal passage. In 1913, the moment finally came. President Woodrow Wilson exploded a piece of land, bringing the Atlantic and Pacific together at last. The canal finally opened on August 15th, 1914, bringing lots of revenue and pride for Panama.