2-952-869 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Panama Canal, 1913. Men at work. The Panama Canal project was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. The canal was cut across the Isthmus of Panama, enabling ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, thousands of workers died from yellow fever, malaria, and other tropical diseases - by 1884 the death rate was over 200 per month. In addition, African American men working in the Canal Zone were subject to a separatist/racist employment system that affected every phase of life there.