Interesting facts about the Panama Canal

Panama is one of the fastest growing destinations in Central America, and the Panama Canal is the country's main draw. While it is on many lists of places to visit in the world, the canal plays a more important role as a global shipping route.

Whether you're sailing the Panama Canal on your next cruise or watching the action on it from land, here's what you need to know about this wonder of the modern world.

The Panama Canal is a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Panama Canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama, creating a narrow land bridge between North and South America. Previously, ships had to go around the tip of South America; if a ship had to go down and around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and then return to the other side, it would have to travel nearly 12,500 miles (20,000 km). The creation of the Panama Canal has saved significant time, up to several days. In essence, it takes only about 8 hours for a ship to cross the 50 miles (77 km) of the canal.

 

The Panama Canal is over 100 years old.

2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal . Columbia, France, and then the United States controlled the land surrounding the canal. In 1881, the French began construction of the canal, but progress was halted due to engineering problems and high worker mortality rates. The United States took over construction in 1904 and completed the project using newly available technology ten years later, at a cost of $400 million. In 1999, control was returned to Panama.

The cost of building the Panama Canal amounted to more than 25,000 lives.

At times, more than 43,000 people worked on the Panama Canal at any one time. Workers faced heat, jungles, swamps – and all the creatures in them, including plague-carrying rats. Plus mosquito-borne diseases like yellow fever and malaria. More than 20,000 workers died during the French construction.

After discovering the scientific link between insects and disease, the Americans launched intensive and successful anti-mosquito initiatives. Despite this, more than 5,000 other workers died during the construction phase of the US.

The Panama Canal is considered one of the man-made wonders of the world.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has also named the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. It is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken.

 

A system of locks at each end of the canal raises ships 85 feet (26 meters) above sea level to an artificial lake. Ships pass through the artificial lake, as well as a series of improved artificial channels, and are then lowered again at several more locks to sea level on the other side.

The locks were 110 feet (33 meters) wide and 1,000 feet (300 meters) long. Approximately 30 MILLION pounds (1,400,000 kg) of explosives were used to clear the land for the canal.

More than 1 million ships have passed through the Panama Canal since it opened.

In 1914, the year the canal opened, about 1,000 ships used the canal. Today, nearly 15,000 ships pass through the Isthmus of Panama through the canal every year. The millionth ship passed through the canal in 2010, 96 years after it opened.

In 1934, it was estimated that the canal's maximum traffic volume would be around 80 million tons of cargo a year, but by 2015, traffic through the canal had exceeded 340 million tons of cargo - more than four times the original maximum estimate.