How many workers died during construction of the Panama Canal?

The construction of the Panama Canal was a project of immense human cost, with a total estimated loss of more than 25,000 lives across both the French and American efforts.1

During the initial French attempt to build the canal, an estimated 20,000 workers died, largely due to yellow fever and malaria.1

When the United States took over the project in 1904, they implemented medical advancements to control disease transmission, which significantly improved safety conditions. Despite these precautions, the American construction phase still resulted in 5,609 worker deaths, caused by both disease and workplace accidents, such as landslides and dynamite explosions during the excavation of the Culebra Cut.21