I grew up in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The name of our town described what made us unique: we had locks on the Connecticut River. Ever since I was a child, I understood how locks worked, and I always wanted to see the locks that changed the world.
I recently had that opportunity while transiting the Panama Canal. It was exciting to see the locks functioning as they have for over 110 years. The nearly 50 mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean was an experience I will never forget.
The construction of the Canal was the largest and most expensive project ever undertaken in human history. Nothing so grand, extensive, or systematic had ever been attempted before. The financial costs, combined with the human toll of more than 25,000 lives lost, were comparable to those of war.
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Such a monumental achievement could never have happened without determination, perseverance, perseverance and perseverance. The result changed the world and the global economy forever. The Channel reduced the distance from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by 8,000 miles, resulting in three weeks less travel time.
Nowadays, ships carrying as many as 11,000 containers sail through the Channel. Automobiles, appliances and a host of other goods make their way around the world thanks to the more than 13,000 to 14,000 ships that use the Panama Canal annually.
But the journey to a canal in the middle of the continent was a long one, full of crushed dreams, financial ruin, enormous setbacks – and ultimate triumph. The French were the first to attempt to build the canal. Ferdinand de Lesseps had built the Suez Canal and was confident he could also build the Panama Canal. The French have set up a private company for this purpose. They sold shares in multiple investment rounds. Huge sums of money were raised and spent.
After almost ten years of work, they quit and accepted defeat. Ferdinand de Lesseps insisted on a sea-level canal rather than a canal with locks, even though the two oceans have different sea levels, with tides rising six meters on the Pacific side but only one meter on the Atlantic side. That decision was the biggest factor in the project’s failure.
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More than 20,000 workers died, most of them from yellow fever and malaria. He would later admit that Panama was ten times more difficult than Suez. Most unhappy were the more than 800,000 French men and women who had invested in the project. The savings of entire families had run out. People lost everything. It was the largest and most significant financial collapse ever – a historic failure.
The floodgates of the Panama Canal open. (Danuta Hamlin)
Ten years later, America chose to build the Panama Canal. President Theodore Roosevelt asked the United States Senate to choose Panama or Nicaragua for the canal. Although a Nicaragua canal would be 130 miles longer, require more locks and be more expensive to operate, it was favored. But after fourteen days of debate, Panama won by just eight votes.
America would pursue the seemingly impossible task of building the Panama Canal. It would mean cutting through a jungle teeming with ferocious animals, snakes and tarantulas – and through the sheer cliffs of the Continental Divide.
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Roosevelt tapped John Wallace as chief engineer. He lasted only a year, overwhelmed by the monumental task, a brutal climate and the fear of yellow fever and malaria. John Stevens took over and proposed a lake-and-lock plan.
The Panama Canal is not an easy passage. It uses three locks to raise ships to travel through the man-made Gatun Lake, and then three more locks to lower them back down to another canal. Stevens also ordered Chief Army Physician William Gorgas to successfully eradicate yellow fever. But Stevens resigned three years later without explanation.
A cargo ship transits the Agua Clara locks of the Panama Canal in Colon, Panama, September 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
Colonel George Goethals took over and completed the job. He brought a military mentality to the work, but the demanding conditions remained. The rainy season lasts eight months in Panama, with 300 centimeters of precipitation annually, resulting in floods and mudslides.
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Heat and humidity were oppressive. At the bottom of Culebra Cut, afternoon temperatures were rarely less than 100 degrees – often reaching 120 to 130 degrees. On a normal day, more than 300 rock drills were in use, along with steam shovels and dynamite explosions. The sound was deafening and could be heard for miles.
Although yellow fever and malaria had been eradicated, death was ubiquitous. Men were hit by flying rocks, crushed by machines or blown to pieces by dynamite. More than 5,000 people died during American construction. It was an incredible test of human endurance.
But on August 15, 1914, the Channel was opened – miraculously on budget and six months ahead of schedule. It was the culmination of a dream and more than twenty years of phenomenal effort and perseverance.
This New Year, you can see the impossible become possible in your own life – if you exercise the same perseverance and determination. As English preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Through perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
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This could be the year you stick with it – you don’t have to give up or give up anymore. No more excuses why it is not possible or is simply too difficult. The Channel went from a dream to reality through determination and determination, through consistent progress in an extraordinary direction.
Locks of the Panama Canal. (Danuta Hamlin)
You may be disappointed with the pace of your progress or the speed at which you are performing. Maybe you wish you were further along than you are now. It takes time for the work in our lives to get done. It often takes longer than we expect. We can become frustrated with the slow pace of growth and long for more.
But if you have perseverance and endurance, you can see your dream become a reality. You may lack money, skill, or resources, but a million dollars of determination will make it happen.
This year there may be setbacks. Illness strikes. Loss hits. Relationships end. Time and again during the construction of the Canal there were setbacks that required restructuring. You too need to regroup and continue your journey. Despite the failures, you must choose to persevere despite disappointment and pain.
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You can keep it up much longer than you think. You may think you can’t do it anymore. It’s hard. It’s challenging. But so did the building of the Canal – and they conquered. You too. Sometimes the most difficult moment comes just before the breakthrough.
Christian missionary Hudson Taylor said it best: “First it’s impossible, then it’s hard, then it’s done.”
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