Panama Canal Company

The new Panama Canal Company was run by the same people who had managed the disastrous French canal project that could kill 20,000 people. Congressmen serving on a committee to inspect the sites where the canal might be built were invited to talk with officials in France for five weeks. Then their French hosts brought the congressman to Panama, where canal company officials showed them only what the company wanted them to see. As luck would have it, a volcano in Nicaragua erupted in 1902 for the first time in 68 years. Not surprisingly, Congress selected the Panama route.