The Snapshots in Time Collection

Ruins of French Dredging Machinery, Panama Canal Zone

Ruins of French Dredging Machinery, Panama Canal Zone

The rusting hulks of French dredging machinery lie abandoned in a Panama jungle waterway, remnants of the ill-fated French attempt to build a Panama canal in the 1880s. Left behind after the project's financial and medical collapse, these derelict dredges stood as haunting reminders of the engineering challenge later completed by the United States. Project: 218476