The Panama Canal is an artificial 48 mile waterway connecting Atlantic and Pacific Oceans! Since it opened in 1914 over a million vessels have passed through, cutting voyage times on key international Trade Routes.
The French began digging a Canal across Panama in 1881, but engineering problems and high worker mortality - over 22,000 men died - left their enterprise bankrupt in 1889 after spending $287,000,000!!
In 1904 the USA bought what was left of the French efforts for $40 million and spent 10 years and $500,000,000 completing the Panama Canal!
We got up early and headed to Miraflores Locks - one of three sets of Giant Locks on the Canal - to be there by 8:00am in time to see Ships heading North from Pacific to Atlantic.
One Way system on the Canal: North = a.m. / South = p.m.
What an amazing sight - Ships almost 1,000 feet long and over 100 feet wide raised up in locks like the UK's canal network - but with a lift/drop of 85 feet! As they approach the ships look small, but when they glide into the Locks we see that they are ocean going Oil Tankers and Container Ships dwarfing everything around them - except the Lock Gates which are 64 feet wide and 66 feet high! (Ships pass through two adjoining locks to achieve the overall 85 foot lift/drop).
Why the Locks? Surely two Oceans are the same height (Sea Level) - so what's the 85 foot height difference all about? The Americans decided that it was easier to flood the land across Panama than to dig deeper channels - so built the world's largest dam - and world's largest man made lake - to cut down on digging.
Truly one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The three sets of Locks remain as they were built one hundred and three years ago - an accolade to American engineering!
And something the Americans have fought to protect - in 1989 the US invaded Panama to depose General Noriega and fought a 42 day war on Panama soil with 28,000 ground troops - primarily because the Panama Canal was at threat.
On 31st December 1999 the US passed ownership of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian People and today the former US Military presence in Panama has fully withdrawn.
What a Grand Day Out!!
