It is an artificial waterway of more than 80 kilometers (12 locks) built between 1904 and 1914 and opened in 1920. The Panama Canal connects the waters of the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) with the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The construction of the canal was the largest and most expensive private enterprise in modern world history. The venture claimed many lives. The number of casualties (about 25.000 workers), and diseases such as malaria and yellow fever caused it to be nicknamed “the white man’s graveyard,” although people of many races and all nationalities died there.
Paul Gauguin also worked on the digging of the Panama Canal. He came to Panama with his painter friend Charles Laval. Although Gauguin endured the conditions there for only two weeks, he earned a sum of money allowing him to open a well near Isla Taboga (Taboga Island).
