The Panama Canal is a man-made waterway built across the Isthmus of Panama that significantly reduces the time it takes for a ship to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In the 1880s and 1890s, the country of France — which had been involved in the creation of the Suez Canal several decades earlier — attempted, but ultimately failed, to construct a canal across Panama.
In 1904, the United States took over construction of the canal. Newspapers in the U.S. regularly reported on the progress of the project, particularly as it got closer to completion.
Finally, in mid-1914, the Panama Canal — which had come to symbolize “U.S. technological prowess and economic power” — opened to commercial traffic.
And by then it also had at least one human namesake: Panama Canal Caldwell, a baby girl born in Iredell County, North Carolina, in August of 1912.
I don’t know why her parents gave her the name “Panama Canal,” but I do know that she chose to go by the nickname “Pam” during her life.
(Pam was the youngest of six children. Her older siblings were named Ruby, Sumter, Tascal, Elizabeth, and Wadsworth.)
Sources: Panama Canal – Wikipedia, Building the Panama Canal – Office of the Historian, FamilySearch.org, Panama Canal Caldwell – Find a Grave
Image: Clipping from The Day Book (19 Jun. 1914)
[Latest update: Apr. 2024]
