200
Modern Business Geography
1g. 142. Looking south over Miraflores Locks. in the Panama Canal.
men. The greatest achievement of the canal builders was the em-
ployment, for the first time, of modern knowledge of sanitation in
connection with a great enterprise in the tropics. This made it
possible for a large body of engineers and workmen to avoid the
tropical diseases that usually attack the inhabitants of that region.
and thus to live in good health.
Where the ships at Panama come from. Four chief routes traverse
the canal and connect the following regions :
(1) The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States.
(2) Europe and the Pacific coast of North America.
(8) The west coast of South America and the Atlantic coast of the
United States and Europe.
The Atlantic coast of the United States and the Far East, in-
cluding Japan, China. the Philippines, Australia, and New
ealand.
How the canal saves time, money, and distance. On all these routes
the canal saves greatly in both time and money. Take, for instance,
an example from the first route. As soon as the canal was open, the
liner Arizonan began to ply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
of the United States. The canal route saves this ship 26.8 days on
rach voyage as compared with the route around South America.