Panama Canal: The Eighth Wonder of the World1998

R.M. Koster:
The Spaniards thought that if they did dig a canal, God would punish them for it. And this argument got a lot of ridicule during the last century and the first part of this one, but it doesn't seem to me much different from the fears we're beginning to have nowadays about the dangers of messing with nature.

Narrator:
The Spaniards left no canal in Panama, but the Royal Road survived-wide enough for two mules to cross between the port cities. Then in 1848, there is borne a new, compelling reason to cross Panama as quickly as possible. On the California frontier, a prospector discovers something glittering in the stream bed at a place called Sutter's Mill. The Gold Rush is on. Americans leaving from the East Coast can cross the United States on horse or by foot. It is an arduous trek through hostile territory. A journey to be avoided at all cost. Many gold rushers choose to go by sea-a 13,000 mile journey around South America's infamous Cape Horn, but fortune hunters willing to risk the unknown go by way of Panama and shave 8000 miles off the trip. They anchor off the Atlantic coast and row up the Chagres River as far as Gamboa. They finish crossing to the Pacific side on foot, following the old Spanish trail into the jungle. But navigating the dense rain forest proves close to impossible. Most of them barely survive.

Gold miner:
[in a letter home] I have no time to give reasons, but in saying it, I utter the united sentiment of every passenger whom I have heard speak. It is this, and I say it in fear of God and the love of Man. "To one and all-for no consideration come this route".

Narrator:
They speak of broiling heat and blinding rain, and of unknown fevers that cause men to drop in their tracks. These are the first of many omens. Panama will not be tamed easily.