The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (1977) is a book by the American historian David McCullough, published by Simon & Schuster.

[6] The book details people, places, and events involved in building the Panama Canal.

The title refers to the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the opening of the canal created.

Making extensive use of letters and interviews with participants and their surviving relatives, the author presents the personal side of the difficulties of the original French effort, and the massive financial losses caused by the failure of that effort; the American negotiations with Colombia, and the machinations that brought about the independence of Panama; and the personalities and conflicts of the principal players in the American effort.

This personal aspect is set against the backdrop of the gigantic scale of the construction and the enormous technical difficulties that were surmounted to reach the eventual goal, the prospective benefit of which had long been recognized.