The city of Colon is at the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal. It is connected with the city of Panama at the Pacific end of the canal by the Panama Railway. It is a city of 15,000 people. The United States has built a long breakwater so that the harbor of Colon is now a safe one for ships. Locate Colon; Panama. The picture here shows the houses built for the French workmen when a French company was trying to dig the canal. They did not succeed. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the engineer who built the Suez Canal, was in charge of the French undertaking in Panama. In 1878 the nations of the world sent men to Paris to decide where to build the Panama Canal. In a general way the site of the present canal was decided on. But the French engineers thought it should be built on a level with the sea. [The present canal is not so built. Much of it is

above sea-level; hence the locks to raise and lower the ships.] French surveyors began work in 1881. Much digging and building were done in the eight years following. Then the company in charge failed. A new French company undertook it. and kept at the work till 1899. Then they offered to sell to the United States. They had taken out 80,000,000 cubic yards out of dirt and rock by that time. The United States bought out the French claims in 1903 for $40,000,000. Our engineers changed the direction of the Canal somewhat. So we could not use half the channel the French had dug. There are in the Canal Zone many houses and landmarks that remind us of the failure of the French. However, they made a beginning; and upon this the United States built its successful plans.