Final answer:
Yellow Fever, transmitted by mosquitoes, was the disease that resulted in many deaths among French workers on the Panama Canal project, significantly hindering the construction until advancements in vector control and understanding of the disease's transmission.
Step-by-step explanation:
Yellow Fever and the Panama Canal
The tropical disease that killed many French workers during the construction of the Panama Canal was Yellow Fever. This viral disease, carried by mosquitoes, coupled with malaria, posed severe challenges to the French efforts to build the canal in the early 1880s. Ultimately, their project was abandoned due to these overwhelming health obstacles. Yellow fever was responsible for hospitalizing over 80% of the American workers in Panama during the early years of the US taking over the canal project from the French in 1904. It wasn't until vector control and medical advancements, such as the recognition of the mosquito transmission route by Carlos Finlay, that the disease was managed effectively during the canal construction.