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PBS News Hour

How ‘bittersweet’ politics built the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal, opened 100 years ago,, is lauded as an achievement for the U.S. But with the opportunity to unlock America’s economic power, came soaring costs, engineering problems and a steep death toll. Gwen Ifill talks to Orlando Pérez, author of "Political Culture in Panama" and Noel Maurer of Harvard University about the political will driving the canal, plus the Panamanian perspective.