Draws on letters, memoirs, and government documents to trace the history of the Panama Canal, discussing its constructions, the experiences of workers, and political issues, and including photographs.
When his father takes a job as a doctor with the Panama Canal project in 1911, William, who is fascinated with the canal, gets to learn about it firsthand, while he also learns about life from a Jamaican girl who has become his best friend.
After moving from a small town in Ohio to Panama while her father takes part in building the Panama Canal, a fifteen-year-old girl yearning for new experiences meets Frederico, a Spanish aristocrat who is working as a canal digger, and they begin a romance.
