Panama Canal: Difference between revisions
Waterway in Central America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
| Panama Canal Canal de Panamá |
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A schematic of the Panama Canal, illustrating the sequence of locks and passages |
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| Length | 82 km (51 miles) |
| Maximum boat length | 366 m (1,200 ft 9 in) |
| Maximum boat beam | 49 m (160 ft 9 in) (originally 28.5 m or 93 ft 6 in) |
| Maximum boat draft | 15.2 m (50 ft) |
| Maximum boat air draft | 57.91 m (190.0 ft) |
| Locks | 3 locks up, 3 down per transit; all three lanes (3 lanes of locks) |
| Status | Open, expansion opened June 26, 2016 |
| Navigation authority | Panama Canal Authority |
| Original owner | Société internationale du Canal |
| Principal engineer | John Findley Wallace (1904–1905), John Frank Stevens (1905–1907), George Washington Goethals (1907–1914) |
| Construction began | May 4, 1904 |
| Date completed | August 15, 1914 |
| Date extended | June 26, 2016 |
| Start point | Atlantic Ocean |
| End point | Pacific Ocean |
| Connects to | Pacific Ocean from Atlantic Ocean and vice versa |
The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors’ confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904, and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority.
Canal locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 33.5 meters (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, New Panamax ships.[1]
Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal.[2] In 2017 it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal’s two locks.[3] The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.[4]
History[edit]
Early proposals in Panama[edit]
The earliest record regarding a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was in 1534, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through the Americas in order to ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru. The Spanish were seeking to gain a military advantage over the Portuguese.[5]
In 1668, the English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne speculated in his encyclopedic work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, that “some Isthmus have been eaten through by the Sea, and others cut by the spade: And if the policy would permit, that of Panama in America were most worthy the attempt: it being but few miles over, and would open a shorter cut unto the East Indies and China”.[6]
Given the strategic location of Panama, and the potential of its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other trade links in the area were attempted over the years. One early example of this was ill-fated Darien scheme, launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up an overland trade route. Generally inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort, and it was abandoned in April 1700.[7] In 1788, Americans suggested that the Spanish should build the canal, since they controlled the colonies where it would be built. He[who?] said that this would be a less treacherous route for ships than going around the southern tip of South America, and that tropical ocean currents would naturally widen the canal after…
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