The Panama Canal

You try to be nonchalant about the Panama Canal—just another canal, locks, been there, done that elsewhere—but you can’t. It’s a truly amazing construction that would be a huge job in 2012. But it was completed in 1914—pretty clever those Americans.

Christopher Columbus landed in Panama on his 4^th trip to the New World. The Natives told him about the “big water” to the west. He asked if there was gold and silver; they said no; he left. Balboa finally discovered the Pacific going across Panama in 1513. Ever since then, people have understood the importance of crossing that narrow stretch of land. First the Spaniards would load Incan gold and silver on a ship in the Pacific, send it north, traverse the isthmus via mule and load it on a ship in the Atlantic. The reverse would happen in the 1850s, when gold miners flocked to California. The French made the first attempt at a canal in the 1880s, under the lead of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal. Unfortunately, they lacked the techniques and were plagued by malaria and yellow fever.  After 20,000 deaths they abandoned the plan.

Building a Canal was Teddy Roosevelt’s top priority and he negotiated with Columbia (there was no country of Panama at that time) to give America the right to build and control forever. Columbia said no. So, while not well-documented, it appears that TR talked some revolutionary sorts into breaking away from Columbia and forming a new country of Panama (with or without American help, who knows?), which occurred in 1903. Construction began shortly thereafter and, after a few personnel changes, was completed by the Army Corp of Engineers, headed by George Washington Goethals, in 1914. The canal was returned to Panama in 1999.

The first decision was what type of canal to build. The Suez Canal was a sea-level canal—digging and blasting enough earth to allow ships to sail end-to-end without locks. But the Suez Canal, between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, worked at sea level because there were small similar tides at both ends. The tides in the Atlantic are larger and the ones in the Pacific are even larger. So it was decided that it couldn’t be built at sea level and would require 3 locks at either end, to raise or lower a ship 85 feet.

To supply the locks with a constant supply of gravity-fed water, the Chagres River was dammed in 2 places to create a large reservoir (the world’s largest) between the locks. The canal crosses an unbelievably dense jungle, where over 200 inches of rain fall a year, creating a good supply of water. The humidity is amazing—makes NC look like a “dry heat”!

The current locks are 110 feet wide and 1000 feet long. Ships up to 106 feet wide may traverse the canal—pretty tight fit! Our smaller ship had about 8 feet of clearance on either side. Each ship is attached to a series of “mules”—electrically-powered train-like devices that actually do the driving through the locks. There’s a pilot that boards the boat and directs the “mules”. Between the sections of locks are Lake Gatun and some narrowly-carved cuts through the mountains.

We entered the first lock on the Atlantic side at about 7:30 AM. Picture 1 shows the two ships ahead of us. (Ships can go in both directions, but for today, at least, ships entered from both oceans in the morning, passed in Lake Gatun and exited in the afternoon.) Picture 2 shows the “mules” pulling us—we had 3 on each side, 2 in front and 1 in back. Picture 3 shows us entering the 1^st lock, while the ships in front of us are in the 2^nd lock. Note the gates and road across the canal opening for us.  Picture 4 shows that there’s not much clearance.

We ate lunch while crossing Lake Gatun and now, in pouring rain, we’re in the final lock at about 4:00 PM. We should be docked in Panama City at about 7:00PM. Picture 5 shows us exiting the first set of 3 locks and entering Lake Gatun. You can see the ships that have preceded us and those waiting to head to the Atlantic.  Picture 6 shows the Culebra Cut—the most difficult area to blast. The mountain that was cut off is the continental divide in this part of Panama. Finally, picture 7 shows the ship next to us in lock number 5. You can see that we’ve already lowered, while she is being positioned by the mules.

In today’s world, there are many ships that are too large to transit the canal. The project to expand the canal is underway and scheduled to be completed in 2014. 6 new parallel locks are being constructed that will be 1400 feet long and 180 feet wide. Water-reutilization basins are also being constructed, along with massive  pumps, that will allow up to 60% of the water to be reused. Some of the narrow cuts along the current canal are also being widened to be at least 500 feet wide.

About 14,000 ships traverse the canal each year. The average cost for each ship is $54,000. The most expensive ship was one of the Disney cruise ships, which cost about $250,000. The least expensive sum ever paid was 36 cents, charged to Richard Halliburton in 1928, when he swam from one end to the other.