Panama Canal: Funnel for Trade

  

Theodore Roosevelt, who became president of the United States in 1901, believed that a U.S.-controlled canal across Central America was a vital strategic interest to the U.S.


The American Society of Civil Engineers has named the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

U.S. construction, 1904–1914

 

 President Roosevelt famously stated that "I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me."