THE PANAMA CANAL AND LA AQUEDUCTS

By Jessica Gavin

PANAMA CANAL A passage way through

panama was first suggested by Charles V the king of Spain

He wanted to ease his ships passage to Peru cutting off 8,000 miles

I was not until 1887 that a plan for a canal for Panama was actually put into action

Construction of the canal began in 1893 by the French

The construction of the canal ran into many problems such as yellow fever, malaria, 10,000 death, and funding problems

After ten years of construction, the French decided to discontinue construction due to funding

UNITED STATES CONSTRUCTION

IN 1903, the US decided to take over the Panama Canal project

They started out with precautions to make sure the same thing that happened to the French would not happen to them

Precautions included cleaning of bragades, getting rid of malaria mosquito, running water, paved sidewalks, and houses fumigated.

This attracted better workers

•One set back the United States ran into was the more they dug the more it caved in•After finding a solution to this problem, the construction went smoothly•As of 1912, the workers totaled 50,000•On August 15th, 1914 the canal was officially finished •The first boat to cross was the Steamer Enron•5,600 died during contruction•The Canal was completed ahead of schedule and under budget 352 million dollars•The 50 miles takes 9 hours to cross

HOW IT WORKS The canal consists of three

different lock systems and several artificial lakes

As the ships travel through each lock they move up

After traveling through the three locks, ships have gone up 85 feet

LOS ANGELUS AQUEDUCTS

•As California population grew so did their need for water•Being in the desert the water supply was not sufficient•In 1903, LA water supply dried up•People had to cut back and find other sources of water•Then the idea of a water aqueduct surfaced

HISTORY Little did everyone know, a

young man from Ireland was memorizing California’s water system and coming up with a solution

The construction for the aqueduct began with a budget of 24.5 million dollars and 5,000 workers

The aqueduct was finished in 1913

It started at Owens river located between the Sierra Nevada’s and the white mountain range and traveled all the way to Los Angeles

Aqueduct did not need electricity it flowed naturally

A SECOND AQUEDUCT Owens river was owned by

several different farmers so the land was secretly bought from them

The farmers thought it was for a small irrigation project

After the aqueduct was the built, it supplied Los Angeles with four times as much water than it needed.

After several years, Owens river dryed up so Los Angeles built a second Aqueduct starting at Haiwee resevoir

This aqueduct carried water 137 miles to Los Angeles

It costs 89 million dollars

WILLIAM MUHOLLAND This young immigrant from

Ireland never finished grade school

He grew up working odd jobs to get by until a man he was working for died and he was able to take over his job working with the Los Angeles Water system

After building the first Aqueduct and basically saving LA, he was given an honorary degree from a university

He was also offered the position of major but turned it down.