Smithsonian Libraries: Make the Dirt Fly
(www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Make-the-Dirt-Fly/index.html)
Grades 6-12, with parental supervision
The Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914, creating a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This digital exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries explains the history and process of undertaken to build the canal.
To enter the exhibition, click the home page image then read through the next few frames, using the red arrow on the right-hand side of the screen to move through the slides. After the first few slides, there will also be a map on the pages that can be used to move to different sections of the presentation.
Topics covered include:
- Why Build a Canal?
- Choosing a Route
- Making the Dirt Fly
- Waging War on Mosquitoes
- Life in the Canal Zone
- Civil Engineering
- An Engineering Icon
- Did you know?
- Suggested Reading
Each topic includes informational text, relevant images that can be enlarged by clicking on them, quotes from people of the time, and additional facts relevant to the subject.
This site makes a nice resource for your history studies of the building of the Panama Canal.
