Public Media from Michigan State University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific

Season 23 | 1m 56s

On December 10, 1913, after a final push of excavation, the unbroken waterway finally connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The project had taken ten years and more than $350 million. To that date, it was the largest single federal expenditure in history. More than 5,000 workers lost their lives, but the successful completion defined the US as a superpower of the 20th century.

Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Extras
Bombshell explores how the US manipulated the narrative about the toll of the WWII atomic bombings.
The life of the brilliant foreign policy powerbroker who shaped the world in which we live.
Hear what it was like working for Henry Kissinger from former staffers.
Kissinger and Nixon authorized the secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969.
Watch a preview of Part One of Kissinger.
Kissinger escaped Nazi Germany and emigrated to the U.S., where he was drafted in the U.S. Army.
Watch a preview of Hard Hat Riot.
Watch a preview of Hard Hat Riot.
At the dawn of the 1970s, blue-collar workers were re-shaping New York City's skyline. But they were
In December 1969, the United States Selective Service conducted its first draft lottery since World