Agriculture on the great plains
From the Mississippi valley to the mountains agriculture and commerce developed with great strides. Enormous elevators were built to handle the vast quantities of grain. Great packing plants were established, where immense numbers of cattle and sheep could be slaughtered and the meat shipped to all parts of the world.
GEORGE WASHINGTON GOETHALS, CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE PANAMA CANAL
GEORGE W. GOETHALS
196. The Panama Canal. In the great rush of gold seekers to the Pacific coast, many of the thousands who started out never reached California, for the crossing of the Panama isthmus and the long journey around Cape Horn were both full of danger.
It was this which first made Americans realize the value to their country of a canal across the Isthmus. As time passed, the great development of the Pacific coast region brought demands for fast and easy communication with the East. Railroads were built across the mountains, but transportation was still very expensive. The remedy lay in a short route by water between the east and the west coasts. Then came the Spanish-American War and the wonderful trip of the Oregon. People now saw that a canal across the Isthmus of Panama must be built at whatever cost.
The French attempt to build a canal
Work begun by the United States