Really interesting episode of the Cautionary Tales podcast about the French attempt to build the Panama canal. Essentially de Lessep was an excellent sales person and because he had managed to build Suez, obviously building another would be no problem.
Turns out cutting a canal through mountainous, jungle covered, malaria infested Panama is a lot harder than cutting one through very flat, barren desert.
Really interesting episode of the Cautionary Tales podcast about the French attempt to build the Panama canal. Essentially de Lessep was an excellent sales person and because he had managed to build Suez, obviously building another would be no problem.
Turns out cutting a canal through mountainous, jungle covered, malaria infested Panama is a lot harder than cutting one through very flat, barren desert.