the panama canal and la aqueducts
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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.