Globalization at its finest!

We visited the Panama Canal yesterday, which unto itself is pretty cool as a world masterpiece in engineering projects. We saw a large ship go through the process of being lifted through the 3 Miraflores Locks on the Pacific Ocean side of the Canal. The ships each go through a series of lock systems and lakes in between the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The canal which was constructed between 1904-1914 by the US govt was finally relinquished to Panama control in 1999. The construction displaced hundreds of small communities along its path known as the Corte Culebra or Snake's Cut, and of the some 75,000 men working on the construction roughly 25,000 died of yellow fever and malaria which were unknown illnesses at the time. Much of this was a result of lack of proper sanitation, clinics, and poor living conditions for the workers. To raise morale among the workers, President Roosevelt visited the Canal construction in 1910 and in doing so became the first president to leave the United States during a term of office. He offered US citizens who completed 2 years of continuous service on the canal a special medal of recognition which became known as the Roosevelt Medallion. In all, crossing the Panama Canal is a 10 hour journey which can cost up to $80,000 per ship depending on the weight. The cheapest crossing of the canal was by a man in 1927 who swam through the canal and was charged 36 cents. He was weighed just as any other vessel passing through the system. On average, there are 20-25 boats that pass through the Canal every 24 hours and the daily earnings range from $3-5 million. It was a really fascinating day...