Have you ever been lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to take on a project from  a coworker or fellow student who single handedly ran the entire thing into the ground? Did this person do such a terrible job that it cost them their job? Moreover, when you started to clean up the project from this person you quickly asked yourself, "what in the actual @#^! happened here? 

If this has ever happened to you, then you would have a pretty good understanding of what the American engineers experienced when they took over the Panama Canal project from France in 1904 after they had run the whole operation asunder.  Admittedly, the French really did give it their best effort, but they were not prepared for the difficult working conditions in Panama in the 1890s and they were lacking much of the technology that America had at its disposal in 15 years. 

In this episode of The Day's Dumpster Fire, Ed and Kara take a stab at the Panama Canal and the 400 hundred year relationship Europe had with the region which was rocky to say the least. The concept was simple: the isthmus of Panama is only 50 miles wide. On the east side is the Atlantic Ocean, on the west side is the Pacific Ocean. If we can get goods and eventually ships through this little swath of land, then we can save THOUSANDS of miles and avoid sailing around South America. However, this little strip of land proved to be vexing and it all came to a head when France vowed to complete the project, especially after completing the Suez Canal just prior, and after 22,000 lives and millions of dollars lost to... well who knows, France eventually had to throw in the towel and let America try and finish it off. 

Take a listen and relish the fact that you never had to finish a project of this magnitude from a coworker! More importantly, learn from the mistakes the French made and learn how good old fashioned American ingenuity stepped up and completed one of the greatest engineering feats in human history.