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
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.
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
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
yellow fever - mosquitoes.
In 1901, scientists have discovered
that the Stegomyia mosquito carries
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.
impassable geography.
Somehow, he must find
Through the jagged jungles
to the sea.
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.
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>.
Discuss this script with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In