1914. The Panama Canal is completed. The Atlantic and the Pacific are joined. The most ambitious construction project since the great pyramids of Egypt. The work has spanned nearly half a century, and claimed the lives of 25 thousand men and women. Now it is finished and the world is suddenly smaller. But behind this epic tale, there is another story of two unsung heroes. One is an engineer from the Rockies with the vision to move mountains. The other, a soft-spoken Alabama physician whose enemies are ignorance, disease and death. Together, they take on a wilderness that had defeated the best engineers in the world. Without either one, the Panama Canal could not be built. And yet, one of these visionaries will suddenly and mysteriously walk away before the canal is finished. And take the secret of his departure to his grave. The Republic of Panama, Central America. A barricade between two oceans. With a blanket of jungle. And a spine of mountains. Today, 14,000 ships sail through these peaks and forests each year. Their miracle highway is the Panama Canal. 50 miles long. One of the wonders of the modern world. A miracle that, on a rain-soaked day in July, 1905, no one in Panama would have believed possible.