Panama Canal
In 1882, the French wanted to build a sea level canal that would run through Panama, unfortunately, the french failed due to the fact that that sort of technology was not around back then. When the U.S. started looking into this a couple of years later, the failed attempt became the start of one of the best engineering wonders of the world. The Panama Canal took 10 years to make. During the ten years, the massive work force made the Panama Canal 51 miles long and roughly 25 feet deep. After the U.S. spent 38 million dollars, the Panama Canal was finished in 1935. From the 1920's to the 1970's, the United States and Panama had many dissagreements concerning U.S. control over the Panama Canal Zone. The Panamanians regarded the zone as part of their country. They believed the 1903 treaty, which established the zone, was unfairly favorable to the United States. President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty in 1978 that would allow Panama to have control of the Panama Canal in 1999. Now the Panama Canal is one of the most used trade routes in the world, and has 13,000 ships go through the canal anually (36 boats per day)