For years, attempts have been made to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
多年來就已經(jīng)開始嘗試建立一條連接大西洋和太平洋的運河了
Such a canal would cut East to West travel time in half saving ships over eight thousand miles per trip.
這樣一條運河能將東西半球的行駛時間 縮短一半 船舶每次可以少走八千多英里
But no one's had the power to make it happen, until now.
但是在此之前沒有誰有這么大的能量
J.P. Morgan acts as the middle man for the government and raises forty million dollars - OR seven billion dollars today-- to get the project started.
J·P·摩根充當(dāng)政府的中間人 籌集了四千萬美元 相當(dāng)于今天的七十億 項目得以開工
The Panama Canal is the most ambitious construction project the United States has ever undertaken.
巴拿馬運河是美國有史以來最雄心勃勃的建設(shè)項目
Over 75,000 workers labor in brutal heat, fighting off deadly diseases, digging a canal 51 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
超過七萬五千名工人冒著酷熱 以及致命疾病的危險 挖出一條貫穿大西洋與太平洋的51英里長的運河
To assemble the manpower, the material, and the finances; to cut a swath through the middle of Panama and join the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean--only an industrially sophisticated nation could do that.
要整合如此規(guī)模的人力物力財力 在巴拿馬中間切出一大塊 貫通大西洋與太平洋 只有一個成熟的工業(yè)國家才能做到這一點
The Panama Canal embodies everything that makes America the most powerful country on the planet.
巴拿馬運河體現(xiàn)了一切 美國得以成為地球上最強大國家的所有要素
Built on steel, powered by electricity and running on gasoline.
由鋼鐵打造 電力驅(qū)動靠汽油運行
And it's all made possible due to the financial might of one of the country's most powerful men.
而讓這一切成為可能的是美國最有權(quán)勢的人物之一的金融實力