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American Experience: Panama Canal
Inhouse product
Reviews & Ratings
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Laurie Ide
09-08-2025We are fans of PBS so we may be a bit prejudiced. The film covered the major points of the Canal Project. With only 90 minutes to cover a 14-year project they did a good job on the history and some of the human cost. We are cruising the Canal this year, so this was a good start at learning how it was built. We are also reading David McCullough's book and Ms Greene's take on the human side of the project. We would recommend both books and the DVD to anyone interested in the Canal.
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JHague
09-08-2025We bought this video after we took a cruise through the Panama Canal. Our only regret was that we didn't see it BEFORE we traversed the canal. This documentary brings to life an amazing period in US history, and it highlights a fantastic accomplishment. Thousands of people lost their lives trying to build the canal, and others lost their wealth and their sanity. The building of the Panama Canal was a monumental feat, and one could rightly argue that it was foolhardy in the extreme and far, far too costly in terms of human life. Never-the-less, the account of its building makes for high drama. This documentary captures the tension, the heroics, the brashness, and the triumph of a singular AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
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Camber
09-08-2025This an excellent documentary on the Panama Canal, covering the associated politics, planning, design, construction, and living conditions.Being an engineer myself, I would have liked more technical information on the design and construction, but what is provided is fine for a general audience.I would have also liked more information on the vessels the canal carries, how the vessel capacity was determined during the canal planning, and the positive and negative impacts that resulted from the completion of the canal.But overall, this documentary is still very much worth watching, given how amazing an achievement this project was.
Learn all about this modern marvel of politics and engineering. Perhaps the most amazing achievement of the 20th century, the Panama Canal offered the world the opportunity to safely speed shipping through the new world. 2011/color/90 min/NR/fullscreen.
