Hello, Yesterday, while watching TV, I heard someone discussing the cemetery in Panama (?) where the men who died while building the "Panama Canal" were buried ! (Some 30,000 of them died - both residents of the U.S. and France !) This morning someone on the Mariners List mentioned the country of Panama, and that reminded me that I wanted to look up the history of the Canal and remind myself of what went on - and when ! I was also curious whether there was a List for the "Panama Canal." I went to the Mailing List INDEX and found it under the country of "Panama," and discovered it was just begun this year, and it is a very under-used List. If construction was begun in 1880 and it didn't officially open until 1914, that means a great many men .. traveled down to Panama ! And, I wondered whether anyone on this List has an ancestor or an ancestor's relative who did go down to work on the Canal. http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/PAN/PANAMA-CANAL.html I also did a Google search for "Panama Canal, history," (using quotes) and found many web sites discussing what went on down there. One thing I hadn't remembered is that the "Panama Railway" was built and started before the Canal was built ! That meant more workers were down there ! I also noted that the Panama Canal was officially opened in 1914, and isn't that the year when World War I began ? By browsing at a few of the web sites offering a history of the Panama Canal, I also noted the comments that the Canal was built to hold the ships built in the 1910 era. And, now that we have much larger ships, built in the 1990 era, the Canal has become too small for them to pass through ! I didn't spend enough time at the web sites to find out if there is any "official," workable plan to either rebuild the Canal or build a new Canal nearby ! Hope this helps someone ! Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA) The old expression, "If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute," seems to be appropriate this week ! Today: 60 degrees, Sunny ! Tomorrow: 40 degrees, Snowy ! :o)