CD The Panama Canal - A masterpiece in the jungle

It was a bold plan that Emperor Charles V came up with in 1532: an artificial waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, it was to take almost 400 years before the mammoth project could be realised. The wild stretch of land, overgrown with dense rainforest, took a heavy toll. Thousands of people lost their lives before the first ships were able to pass through the canal on 15 August 1914. Robert Steudtner tells the story of the discovery of the Pacific by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the spectacular failure of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps and Gustave Eiffel to build the canal and the grand official inauguration by US President Woodrow Wilson in 1920. Exciting adventure feature with original interviews, music and sounds.