In the 1890s, the United States began pursuing plans to build a canal in PANAMA.
Before the United States planned to build the canal in Panama (a water passage across the isthmus of Panama to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), France had tried to do the same but its attempts failed.
In the 1890s, the U.S. goverment started to develop forms to eliminate the disease-carrying mosquitoes that the French couldn't combat, innovative techniques and a new design from a sea-level to a lock canal. In 1902, the U.S. purchased the French assets in the canal zone for $40 million and the following year, it negotiated with the Panamanian government so they could have rights over the zone.
In 1904, the United States finally started to build the canal, across a 50-mile stretch of the Panama isthmus. It opened ten years later. In 1999, the United States transferred it to Panama.