Born in Versailles in 1805, Ferdinand de Lesseps came from a family that was well known for its distinguished service to respective French governments. It was, therefore, only natural for the young man to venture into a similar career. De Lesseps chose the Foreign Service and was sent to Lisbon in 1825 where he served as a vice consul. This was followed by terms in Tunis and Alexandria. While he was living in the latter he became interested in the prospective building of the Suez Canal after studying a survey written by [G 11 / Napoleon's] chief engineer, Jean Le Pere.
He developed a close bond with the then viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and his son, Said Pasha. Later in his life, these friendships would prove invaluable. About 10 years after de Lesseps left Cairo in 1837, he became embroiled in a bitter debate between the [G 13 / papacy] and the French Republic in Rome. The disagreement forced de Lesseps to resign from the diplomatic service and he had to return home in disgrace. It would not be the only time such an occurrence would happen in the life of this quirky, but brilliant character.
In 1854, de Lesseps was asked by Said Pasha to undertake the building of the Suez Canal. It was an outstanding success and restored de Lesseps honor and standing in France once again. He became a national figure, loved and respected by everybody not only for his brilliance, but also for his kindliness and social grace.
It was on the precedent set by his success with the Suez project that de Lesseps became involved in the Panama Canal. He had no problem raising the finances for the project, such was his reputation, and he took it on with his characteristic zest. But he was 74 years old and had his heart set on building a canal similar to that of Suez, which was not a lock system, but rather the sea level design. He was unaware of the enormous difficulties he would face, not only in the building of the canal, but also with the dreadful conditions that would have to be endured for the duration of the construction. Some 20,000 laborers died while working for de Lesseps and very little was achieved in the 10 years between 1879 and 1889. He eventually returned home a broken man after his company went bankrupt amid accusations of corruption and bribery. He and his son, Charles de Lesseps, were sentenced to five years in prison, but only the latter had to serve his sentence (which was eventually overturned after the appeals court reversed its decision).
Despite the extreme fluctuations of fortune in de Lesseps' life, his countrymen's respect and admiration remained constant. He died in La Chenaie, France in December, 1894 after receiving the honors of the grand cross of the [G 08 / Legion of Honor], the [G 17 / Star of India] and the [G 05 / Freedom of the City of London].
PHILIPPE-JEAN BUNAU-VARILLA:
Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla was born in Paris on July 26, 1859. After graduating as an engineer in France, he joined Ferdinand de Lesseps on his Panama project at the age of 26. He was incapacitated by fever not long after and had to return to Paris where he then became involved with building railroads in the Belgian Congo. This was followed by a contract building flood controls in Rumania.
His career then took a tangent when he became editor of [G 09 / Le Matin] in Paris. He was a brilliant, albeit self-possessed, man who was forceful and convincing in his opinions. It was while he was in Paris that he became a major player in the beginnings of the New Panama Canal Company (NPCC) following the failure of de Lesseps' company. He was also instrumental in setting up the buyout of the NPCC by the Americans; not before trying to persuade the Russians in the mid-1890s to step in first, however. He had a fear of Anglo-Saxons (both Britons and Americans) monopolizing the world's commerce through controlling both the Suez and Panama Canals.
When he realized that it was a fruitless mission, he jumped onto the US bandwagon. Together with Secretary of State Hay and President Roosevelt, he precipitated a revolution in Panama in order to remove Colombia (who at that time governed Panama) from the negotiations. As [G 10 / Minister Plenipotentiary] of the newly-formed independent Panamanian government, Bunau-Varilla also managed to secure a one-sided treaty totally in favor of US control over the building, administration and fortification of the Canal Zone. In the long term this deal was almost entirely responsible for the animosity between Panama and the US that continued throughout the 20th century.
Bunau-Varilla returned to France some time later, after amassing a considerable personal fortune, and died in Paris in May 1940.
JOHN FRANK STEVENS:
Stevens was a wholehearted advocate for the canal to be designed as a series of locks where vessels would be raised and lowered (unlike the Frenchman, de Lesseps, who tried constructing a sea level canal similar to the one he had built at Suez).
He arrived in Panama only to realize he had been placed in charge of a disorganized and very depressing operation. Materials, equipment and engineers had been arriving for a year without any sort of direction or organization. In order to salvage the situation - some $128 million had already been spent on the project with very little to show for it - Stevens halted all construction and formulated plans to reorganize the project. It took another two-and-a-half years before the actual building began.
In that time Stevens reorganized the railway system, installed decent housing and built recreation facilities for his engineers. He also set up a cold storage plant for keeping food fresh and wholesome, as well as insisting on having the area cleared of all disease and decent medical facilities made available.
Despite the incredibly hard work Stevens put into the Panama Canal, he was often criticized by senators and the public alike, mainly because of the length of time he was taking to get the construction underway. Eventually, on the verge of collapse from sheer exhaustion and after writing a letter of complaint to the president about constant criticism from Washington, he resigned his position as chief engineer. Roosevelt, it has been said, was entirely unsympathetic and accepted his resignation without so much as a protest.
WILLIAM CRAWFORD GORGAS:
The building of the Panama Canal could not have been undertaken without the brilliant assistance of Major General William Crawford Gorgas. For two years prior to construction, Gorgas and his team worked to eradicate yellow fever, control malaria through introducing higher sanitation standards, and turn the disease-infested Canal Zone into a healthy and safe place for people to work in.
Gorgas was born in Mobile, Alabama on October 3, 1854. He began his career in the US Army as a medical officer after graduating from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City as a doctor in 1879. While working in Fort Brown, Texas, Gorgas witnessed his first yellow fever epidemic and the human devastation had a lasting effect on him (he caught the disease himself, but managed to recover).
During the [G 15 / Spanish - American War] in 1898, Gorgas was given the rank of major and transferred to Havana, Cuba as chief sanitation officer. Filled with wounded men surviving under drastic conditions, Havana was a disease-ridden abyss. He and his team cleaned up the city and managed to control diseases such as malaria and yellow fever after conducting a number of experiments on the transmission of the diseases through the mosquito.
President Roosevelt, under the recommendation of John G Walker (then chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission), promoted Gorgas to Colonel and sent him to Panama in 1904 to clean up the Canal Zone in a similar way. Not only was he credited for completely eradicating yellow fever from the area in just two years, he also turned the zone into one of the healthiest areas in South America through decent sanitation methods.
Following his posting in Panama he served in World War I as Surgeon General of the US Army with the rank of Major General. He died on July 3, 1920 in London.
GEORGE WASHINGTON GOETHALS:
Major General George Washington Goethals was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 29, 1858. Amongst friends and family he was known as a serious and hard working boy, preferring his studies to frivolity. His family was poor and following high school, he put himself through a three-year degree at the College of the City of New York, paying for it by working nights. After graduating, Goethals applied for a position in America's most respected military academy, West Point, and was accepted in 1876. Four years later he graduated as a second-lieutenant and moved into the Corps of Engineers.
It was in the Engineers that he gained his invaluable experience constructing waterways, dams and bridges throughout the United States. His field work was also interspersed with desk duties in Washington DC. Such was his reputation as a superb engineer and leader, that President Roosevelt promoted him to the rank of colonel and appointed him as chairman and engineer-in-chief of the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1907 (he replaced John Stevens who resigned mainly as a result of exhaustion).
Goethals' dogged determination and capacity for hard work was legendary. For the seven years of construction in Panama he drove himself and his men to what seemed unreachable limits, resulting in the canal being built a year ahead of schedule. He did not let nature, geography or personal problems get in the way of progress. His team dynamited rock, dug through mud and sand, drained swamps to build locks and railroads, lakes and dams in order to join the two oceans. If a wall collapsed following a flood, it was rebuilt - in spite of many months' work being destroyed in a few hours - and if an earthquake shook construction to a standstill, all would continue afterwards, regardless. For this reason, he was not so much loved by his workers, rather he was respected and admired (when they saw him approaching in his motor-driven vehicle set on rail tracks, the men used to refer to it as 'the brain on wheels').
Throughout the seven years of construction, Goethals had to oversee on average some 39,000 men per annum. He was a born leader and therefore did the job brilliantly. When disputes broke out or men were disgruntled, he held tribunals every Sunday morning to resolve problems. He was the first known employer to deal with labor this way; unions were at that time still non-existent.
Goethals remained in Panama for another two years after 1914, when the canal was completed. He was appointed governor of the Canal Zone and exercised his talents of leadership as expertly as when he coordinated the construction of the canal. When the US got involved in World War I, he served as Quartermaster General, after which he resigned his commission. Until his death in January 1928, Goethals worked as a consulting engineer on major governmental projects such as the Port of New York.
