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American Experience

The Decision to Build a Lock Canal

Clip: Season 23 | 2m 22s

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Stevens realized that building a sea level canal would doom the project to failure. His answer was to build a lock canal -- a highly mechanized and engineered waterway that would raise ships up over the continent through a series of lock chambers, ultimately solving the environmental challenges they were facing.

Aired: 01/24/11 | Rating: NR

Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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The Chinese Six Companies

On May 28, 1900, San Francisco policemen formed a perimeter around Chinatown as officials diagnosed bubonic plague in the neighborhood and wanted to quarantine the nearly 20,000 residents. As tensions flared, an influential group of merchants known as the Chinese Six Companies sprang into action.

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