Rare Large Photographs of Panama Canal Construction, 1912

[Panama Canal] [Early Photography] Two large albumen photographs of the construction of the Panama Canal, 1912. Photographs are pasted down to grey cardstock with captions and articles describing the imagery below. Photos measure 11" x 14". The building of the Panama Canal was not met with ease as the former French owned project was abandoned due to lack of investment and a high worker mortality rate, and the grappling of territory between Panama, Columbia, and the United States. In 1903, Panama gained it's independence and as the United States recognized this, Roosevelt used buying power to his advantage to funnel millions of dollars towards Panama and the funding of this project. These two photographs are early large scale displays of the massive amounts of land and infrastructure that went into this long awaited project. One photograph shows the Culebra Cut in June, 1912. The article pasted to the front states that "To remove the 105,000,000 cubicyards of earth from the backbone of the Americas required about 6,000,000 pounds of high-grade dynamite each year to break up the material...in which time some 19,000,000 pounds were exploded in Culebra Cut, only eight men were killed." The second photograph dated January, 1912, shows the Miraflores Upper Locks with a diagram of what the final construction would look like. The photograph shows a partially built sill, multiple tracks for hauling material, heavy duty cranes and other industrial equipment. Thousands of local men were hired for this dangerous and underpaying job over the course of a decade. These Caribbean workers endured poor working conditions, low wages, and unbearable temperatures for a government that was not theirs, over 5,000 becoming casualties. By it's opening ceremony in 1914, The Panama Canal was the most expensive project in US history estimated at $350,000,000. These early photographs show only a portion of what went into this costly construction. Minor wear to edges of board, upper right corner of one is chipped. Images are crisp and clear, overall very good condition.