Book 3, Afterword Summary and Analysis

Charles de Lesseps, Mahan, and Selfridge survive to read about the canal opening, all quietly retired. Banau-Varilla, who hails Goethals and the "genius of the French nation" at the opening, loses a leg in World War I, and dies in 1940, just weeks before the Nazis take Paris. Roosevelt never returns to Panama and never sees the canal. The Pacific fleet passes through months after his death. Nor does he live to see Wilson pay Columbia $25 million in indemnities in 1921, a proposal that infuriated him. Gorgas heads the Army medical service during the war and dies in London in 1920. Goethals remains Governor of the Panama Canal until 1916, serves as quartermaster general during the war, and finishes his career on Wall Street. He dies in 1928 and is buried at West Point. Stevens lives until 1943, helping reorganize the Trans-Siberian Railway at Wilson's...