Who Built the Panama Canal? (Spoiler: There Was No “Second” Builder)

The Panama Canal was built once, by the United States (1904–1914), after a failed French attempt (1881–1894). There is no “second builder.” The U.S. effort, led by the Isthmian Canal Commission and Chief Engineer George Washington Goethals, succeeded where France had succumbed to disease, engineering miscalculations, and bankruptcy.