California: A HistoryBy Susan HinerHistory 141Fall 2011

Gold Rush The discovery of gold in 1848

in Northern California brought thousands of men from other parts of the U.S. and other countries

A constitution was proposed for admission to the Union but banning slavery

The South didn’t want California as a free state and that gold mine work was perfectly suited to slaves

South believed it would change the number of free states, slave state power would be upset and other states would follow suit

Aviation In 1883 John Montgomery flew his

gull-winged glider. Thirty years later, the Lockheed

brothers designed a passenger-carrying seaplane and the team of Donald Douglas and Glenn Martin started an aviation company near LAX.

In the early 1920’s T. Claude Ryan was producing mail and passenger planes from San Diego. Then in 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927 as one of Ryan’s pilots.

Later, Douglas designed the DC passenger carrier planes. During WW II many DC-3’s were assembled. In the late 40’s Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with his flight over the California desert leading us into space.

Panama Canal

In the 1880’s the Panama Canal was the engineering phenomenon of the period. It was built to transport people and goods by ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in weeks instead of taking several months by travelling around Cape Horn.

Ferdinand de Lesseps, a Frenchman, raised support to build the Panama Canal. He started in 1886, however the technology of the era was limited and 20,000 workers died in 20 years due to landslides, accident or disease, especially yellow fever. The program went bankrupt and he sold the rights of the project to the United States.

In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt wanted the U.S. to control the canal. Therefore, he signed the treaty with Panama to build the canal.

John Stevens, Chief Engineer, was a successful railroad engineer. He and his team of engineers were able to build the canal with the science and technology of the time.

Dr. William Gorgas eradicated the mosquitos that were carrying yellow fever. After Stevens quit, President Roosevelt hired Col. George Washington Goethais who worked with the Army engineers and a workforce of 50,000 men to complete the project on August 15, 1914