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Canal du Midi

(Encyclopedia)Canal du Midi känälˈ dü mēdēˈ [key], canal, c.150 mi (240 km) long, linking Sète and Toulouse, S France. It was built to carry oceangoing ships between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean...

Welland Ship Canal

(Encyclopedia)Welland Ship Canal, 27.6 mi (44.4 km) long, SE Ont., Canada, connecting Lake Ontario with Lake Erie and bypassing Niagara Falls. Built between 1914 and 1932 by Canada to replace a canal opened in 1829...

Lesseps, Ferdinand Marie, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Lesseps, Ferdinand Marie, vicomte de fĕrdēnäNˈ märēˈ vēkôNtˈ də lĕsĕpsˈ [key], 1805–94, French diplomat and engineer. He entered the consular service in 1825 and was minister to Spain ...

Hay-Pauncefote Treaties

(Encyclopedia)Hay-Pauncefote Treaties hā-pônsˈfo͝ot [key], negotiated in 1899 and 1901 by Secretary of State John Hay, for the United States, and Lord Pauncefote of Preston, British ambassador to the United Sta...

isthmus

(Encyclopedia)isthmus ĭsˈməs [key], narrow neck of land connecting two larger land areas. Since it commands the only land route between two large areas and is on two seas, an isthmus has great strategical and co...

Gatún Lake

(Encyclopedia)Gatún Lake gäto͞onˈ [key], artificial lake, 163 sq mi (422 sq km), Colón Prov., Panama, formed by the impounding of the Chagres River. Gatún Dam (completed 1912), 11⁄2 mi (2.4 km) long and 115...

Buenaventura

(Encyclopedia)Buenaventura bwāˌnävānto͞oˈrä [key], city (2020 est. pop. 451,000), W Colombia, a port on the Pacific ...

Carnot, Sadi

(Encyclopedia)Carnot, Sadi kärnōˈ [key], 1837–94, French statesman, president of the Third Republic (1887–94); son of Hippolyte Carnot. As minister of public works (1880–85) and of finance (1886), he rema...

John Birch Society

(Encyclopedia)John Birch Society, ultraconservative, anti-Communist organization in the United States. It was founded in Dec., 1958, by manufacturer Robert Welch, headquartered in Belmont, Mass., and named after Jo...

Delaware and Hudson Canal

(Encyclopedia)Delaware and Hudson Canal dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], former waterway, 108 mi (174 km) long, between Honesdale, Pa., and Eddyville, N.Y. (now in Kingston), linking the Delaware and Hudson rivers; bui...