Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"France's attempt to build a canal had stalled, and in 1902 US President Roosevelt began negotiations with Columbia, which controlled Panama, to purchase the concession. In November 1903, the Panamanians declared independence from Columbia and then sold control over the canal zone to the United States for $10 million. . . . but the first ship to traverse it, the cargo ship Ancon, on August 15, 1914, marked the effective opening of the canal to traffic. On the last day of 1999, the United States returned control of the canal to Panama." [Furtado: 1001 Days]"The Isthmus of Panama once again became what it had been in Spanish colonial times, the major point of trans-shipment, at least until the building of an isthmian canal . . . The United States government fostered a mail service across the isthmus of Panama, thus making possible the establishment of a regular monthly steamer service from New York to the Caribbean side and from Panama to San Francisco and Oregon. The scheme, essentially started in 1848 for political and imperial purposes, became commercially more than viable with the gold-rush. Panama became what it has remained, a Yankee-owned boom town." [Hobsbawm: Capital, p. 64]