National Geographic: Adventures - Panama Canal: The Mountain and the Mosquito Page #3

Year:
1999
396 Views


for further labor.

In Washington, the new President

waits anxiously for progress reports

from his new chief engineer.

But the news from Panama is stunning.

The project has been shut down!

"Regardless of the clamor

of criticism...

as long as I am in charge of

the work...

and I am confident that

if this policy is adhered to,

the future will

show its absolute wisdom."

Stevens understands that the canal's

fatal problem

is not the mountains, but the men.

Disease and fear sap their souls

before they raise a shovel.

Stevens turns to Dr. William Gorgas

for help.

Like the French before them,

the Americans live in morbid terror

of catching the disease

they call Yellow Eyes, Yellow Jack,

or The Great Scare.

A horrifying disease.

Delirium and death can follow within

eight hours of infection.

Yellow fever patients first complain

of crippling muscle pain.

As the aches intensify,

body temperature rises steeply.

The skin and eyes turn yellow,

thirst becomes unquenchable

and patients lose consciousness.

Spasms of black vomit

signal the final crisis.

Fewer than 50 percent of

patients survive.

Gorgas believes in a new theory

that explains the cause of

yellow fever - mosquitoes.

In 1901, scientists have discovered

that the Stegomyia mosquito carries

the yellow fever virus

from person to person.

In Panama, only Gorgas understands

the mosquito's deadly secret.

Dr. Gorgas finds that yellow fever

mosquitoes live in towns, not jungles.

To destroy them,

he will need to fumigate every puddle

and rain barrel on the Isthmus.

He envisions the largest, most costly

public sanitation campaign

the world has ever seen.

It is not a vision shared

by the canal bureaucracy.

For eighteen months,

officials scoff at the mosquito theory

and turn down all of Dr. Gorgas's

requests for funds and supplies.

But John Stevens listens.

Only a healthy work force can rescue

Teddy Roosevelt's dream.

He will withdraw his men

from the mountains,

and send them to war

against the mosquito.

But Stevens does not

ignore the other war he faces.

The battle against Panama's

impassable geography.

Somehow, he must find

a route beyond Culebra.

Through the jagged jungles

to the sea.

He studies the French plans

and realizes that

the millions of tons of dirt

and rock

must be not only excavated,

but removed entirely.

Simply piling the spoil

at the side of the cut

is an invitation to landslides

and disaster.

"Efficient transportation

is nearly always the key to success

in construction.

If dirt is to fly,

there must be a smooth and

uninterrupted movement of trains."

Stevens conceives a radical new plan

for disposing of the dirt.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Unknown

The writer of this script is unknown. more…

All Unknown scripts | Unknown Scripts

4 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "National Geographic: Adventures - Panama Canal: The Mountain and the Mosquito" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/national_geographic:_adventures_-_panama_canal:_the_mountain_and_the_mosquito_14509>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.