In 1914, the Panama Canal was officially opened by an American ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The United States fomented a rebellion to get the land for this canal...encouraging Panamanians to break away from Colombia. Before the Panama Canal was built, sea trade had to gone all the way around South America's sometimes stormy Cape Horn. The Panama Canal crosses a small mountain range with a series of huge locks. Path Between The Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, by David McCullough. - book suggestion.