Imagine that you are a young and motivated US Navy lieutenant in the mid-1850s. Your task is to lead an expedition to find a route across the isthmus of Panama before rival British and French surveyors do – and they are just days behind your party. This proved to be no easy job for Lt. Isaac Strain, as his team spent 97 grueling days trekking through hellish jungle, facing starvation, disease, and flesh-embedding parasites. Despite the dangers Strain and his men faced, they paved the way – literally and metaphorically – for the construction of the Panama Canal.
