The Panama Canal

• Greatest Shortcut on Earth!

Why Build a Canal?• A trip from

San Francisco to New York is 7,872 miles

shorter using the

canal instead of

going around South

America.

What the Heck’s an Isthmus?

Isn’t the Atlantic in the East and Pacific in the West??

• By noon the temperature is around 100 degrees.

• The average yearly rainfall is

about 105 inches.

Flooding makes the ground like pudding, and

you can sink up to your knees in

mud.

• It’s so humid that after it rains steam rises from the ground

• Your clothes are nearly always soaking wet.

• The Jungle grows at an amazing rate! (Panamanian Railroad est. in 1855/56)

• The terrain is NOT level!

• Tropical diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria are spread easily by

mosquitoes.

1880s

• In 1881, the French were given permission to build a

canal across Panama.

• They do not know how to contend with the diseases found in

Panama.

• After eight years and over 20,000

French construction

worker deaths, the French abandon

the project.

• The company building the canal goes bankrupt.

• The United States begins work on the canal in 1904.

• It is a project of the U.S. government so unlike the French, they did not run out of money.

• William Gorgas discovered (1898 – after the Sp.Am War) that mosquitoes cause the diseases - defeat

them and you end disease!

• In 1903, Panama was a province of Columbia (kind of like Delaware is part

of the United States)

• The United States offers to buy rights to build the canal from

Columbia for $10 million dollars and

$250,000 per year.

• Columbia refuses – holding out for more money…

• On November 3, 1903 Panamanians, led by officials of the Panama Railroad and others

hoping to gain from the construction of a canal, launched a revolution.

• The United States sends warships to protect Panama and prevent Colombia from

retaking it’s own territory.

• The rebels are quickly victorious and on November 6, 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt officially recognizes the new nation of Panama who in turn signs the treaty previously refused by Colombia.

• Another major decision had to be made – should the canal be sea level – like the French had tried to build or should they follow the natural rise of

the land?

What are locks?A lock is a part of a canal with gates at each end where boats are raised or lowered to different water levels.

•Go to Canal.asf video to See How a Lock Works

Building the Lock Chambers

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt visits the canal zone.

Don’t you always wear white to a MUDDY construction site?

• Construction progresses using steam shovels and human muscle

• By 1914, the canal is completed – ahead of schedule and under budget!

• More than 922,000 vessels have used the

waterway since its opening on August 15,

1914.

• 1977 The United States

signed a treaty with

Panama that

agreed to give

Panama control of the canal in 1999

A vessel passing through the Panama Canal pays a toll proportionate to its size. The average toll is about

$45,000

• The lowest toll ever paid is 36 cents, paid by Richard Halliburton for swimming the Canal in 1928.

On May 30th, 2006, the Maersk Dellys established a new toll record by paying

$249,165.00!!

• On average, a vessel will take between 8 to 10 hours to transit.

• Although longer than 3 Statues of Liberty laid

end to end, the current locks are too small.

• Many ships, known as

“Pana-Max”, barely fit

through…

• Due to be completed between 2014 and

2015, Work is under way to modernize the canal and enable it to handle much larger

ships.

• At a cost of over $5 Billion, work includes

deepening and widening the canal along with adding newer and larger

locks.

• By 2005, 5% of all world trade passes through the Panama Canal