France Failed First

France tried first, in 1881, under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who built the Suez Canal. He assumed Panama would be similar. It was not. Tropical disease, landslides, and relentless rain killed an estimated 22,000 workers in eight years. The project went bankrupt in 1889, becoming France's biggest financial disaster.

The fatal flaw was geology. Suez cut through flat desert at sea level; Panama meant carving through a mountain range and taming a river that flooded violently each rainy season. De Lesseps refused to abandon his sea-level plan until it was far too late, and 800,000 French investors lost their savings in the collapse.