Paris Geographical Society and Construction of the Panama Canal

Commissioned in 1821 inside the Paris Hotel de Ville, the Geographical Society was established by 217 founders. These individuals were considered some of the greatest scientific names of their era. Many had accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during his Egyptian expedition. The organization would become the first designated geographical society in the world.
During 1876, two engineers from the French Navy explored several routes within the narrow Isthmus of Panama to construct a passage including tunnels and locks. A second exploratory visit followed the next year narrowing down the options to a pair of routes. The first option was the San Blas channel and the second a routing originating from Limon Bay to Panama City.
The international Congress for the Studies of the Interoceanic Canal met at the Geographical Society building on May 15, 1879. Four days later, 136 delegates representing 25 countries voted by majority to authorize construction of the Panama Canal. The routing from Limon Bay to Panama City was selected.
The project would become a fiasco as the acquisition team had only visited the site during the dry months. Once the excavation process began, torrential rains, flooding, venomous animals, yellow fever and malaria doomed the work. Over 200 men died each month. Financial fraud doomed the project.
The United States would eventually complete the canal taking the land from Columbia. The construction team purchased the French equipment and already intact railroad. The first ship, the SS Arcon, would pass through the completed canal in August 1914. The construction was finished two years ahead of schedule. On December 31, 1999, the United States returned the land back to Panama and command to the Panama Canal Authority.