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Panama Canal Tours

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Canal History

Canal History

 

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Linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

 

The Panama Canal History. On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened for business with the passage of the American steamship SS Ancon, which had been acquired by the Panama Railroad Company to haul freight. The canal sliced nearly 8,000 miles off the Cape Horn route through much safer waters, and it was an immediate hit with the world’s shippers at the dawn of the First World War. The most impressive shortcut in the world!

 

Panama Canal Definition US History

 

Following the failure of a French construction team in the 1880s, the United States commenced building a canal across a 50-mile stretch of the Panama isthmus in 1904. The project was helped by the elimination of disease-carrying mosquitoes. While chief engineer John Stevens devised innovative techniques and spurred the crucial redesign from a sea-level to a lock canal. His successor, Lt. Col. George Washington Goethals, stepped up excavation efforts of a stubborn mountain range and oversaw the building of the dams and locks. Opened in 1914, oversight of the world-famous Panama Canal was transferred from the U.S. to Panama in 1999.

The Panama Canal History. The idea of creating a water passage across the isthmus of Panama to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans dates back to at least the 1500s, when King Charles I of Spain tapped his regional governor to survey a route along the Chagres River. The realization of such a route across the mountainous, jungle terrain was deemed impossible at the time, although the idea remained tantalizing as a potential shortcut from Europe to eastern Asia.

France was ultimately the first country to attempt the task. Led by Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the construction team broke ground on a planned sea-level canal in 1880. The French soon comprehended the monumental challenge ahead of them: Along with the incessant rains that caused heavy landslides, there was no effective means for combating the spread of yellow fever and malaria. De Lesseps belatedly realized that a sea-level canal was too difficult and reorganized efforts toward a lock canal, but funding was pulled from the project in 1888.

 

Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal

 

Following the deliberations of the U.S. Isthmian Canal Commission and a push from President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. purchased the French assets in the canal zone for $40 million in 1902. When a proposed treaty over rights to build in what was then a Colombian territory was rejected, the U.S. threw its military weight behind a Panamanian independence movement, eventually negotiating a deal with the new government.

On November 6, 1903, the United States recognized the Republic of Panama, and on November 18 the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed with Panama, granting the U.S. exclusive and permanent possession of the Panama Canal Zone. In exchange, Panama received $10 million and an annuity of $250,000 beginning nine years later. The treaty, negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and French engineer Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, was condemned by many Panamanians as an infringement on their country’s new national sovereignty.

 

The Us Project

 

Seemingly not grasping the lessons from the French effort, the Americans devised plans for a sea-level canal along the roughly 50-mile stretch from Colón to Panama City. The project officially commenced with a dedication ceremony on May 4, 1904. But chief engineer John Wallace encountered immediate problems. Much of the French equipment was in need of repair, while the spread of yellow fever and malaria was frightening off the workforce. Under pressure to keep construction moving forward, Wallace instead resigned after a year.

A railroad specialist named John Stevens took over as chief engineer in July 1905 and immediately addressed the workforce issues by recruiting West Indian laborers. Stevens ordered new equipment and devised efficient methods to speed up work. Such as the use of a swinging boom to lift chunks of railroad track, and adjust the train route for carting away excavated material. He also quickly recognized the difficulties posed by landslides and convinced Roosevelt that a lock canal was best for the terrain.

The project was helped immensely by chief sanitary officer Dr. William Gorgas. Who believed that mosquitoes carried the deadly diseases indigenous to the area. Gorgas embarked on a mission to wipe out the carriers, his team painstakingly fumigating homes and cleansing pools of water. The last reported case of yellow fever on the isthmus came in November 1905. While malaria cases dropped precipitously over the following decade.

Although construction was on track when President Roosevelt visited the area in November 1906, the project suffered a setback when Stevens suddenly resigned a few months later. Incensed, Roosevelt named Army Corps engineer Lt. Col. George Washington Goethals the new chief engineer, granting him authority over virtually all administrative matters in the building zone. Goethals proved a no-nonsense commander by squashing a work strike after taking charge, but he also oversaw the addition of facilities to improve the quality of life for workers and their families.

 

Panama Canal Dangers 

 

Goethals focused efforts on Culebra Cut, the clearing of the mountain range between Gamboa and Pedro Miguel. Excavation of the nearly 9-mile stretch became an around-the-clock operation. With up to 6,000 men contributing at any one time. Despite the attention paid to this phase of the project, Culebra Cut was a notorious danger zone. As casualties mounted from unpredictable landslides and dynamite explosions.

Construction of the locks began with the pouring of concrete at Gatún in August 1909. Built in pairs, with each chamber measuring 110 feet wide by 1,000 feet long. The locks were embedded with culverts that leveraged gravity to raise and lower water levels. Ultimately, the three locks along the canal route lifted ships 85 feet above sea level, to man-made Gatún Lake in the middle. Hollow, buoyant lock gates were also built, varying in height from 47 to 82 feet. The entire enterprise was powered by electricity and run through a control board.

Panama Canal Completed

 

The French began work on the canal in 1881, but failed due to disease and construction difficulties. In 1904, the United States began to work on the canal. It took 10 years of hard work, but the canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914.

The grand project began drawing to a close in 1913. Two steam shovels working from opposite directions met in the center of Culebra Cut in May. And a few weeks later, the last spillway at Gatún Dam was closed to allow the lake to swell to its full height. In October, President Woodrow Wilson operated a telegraph at the White House that triggered the explosion of Gamboa dike, flooding the final stretch of dry passageway at Culebra Cut.

The Panama Canal officially opened on August 15, 1914. Although the planned grand ceremony was downgraded due to the outbreak of WWI. Completed at a cost of more than $350 million. It was the most expensive construction project in U.S. history to that point. Altogether, some 3.4 million cubic meters of concrete went into building the locks. And nearly 240 million cubic yards of rock and dirt were excavated during the American construction phase. Many people died building the Panama Canal: Of the 56,000 workers employed between 1904 and 1913, roughly 5,600 were reportedly killed.

 

Impact of the Panama Canal

 

Bolstered by the addition of Madden Dam in 1935, the Panama Canal proved a vital component to expanding global trade routes in the 20th century. The transition to local oversight began with a 1977 treaty signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panama leader Omar Torrijos, with the Panama Canal Authority assuming full control on December 31, 1999. Recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world in 1994. Since its inauguration in 1914 to November 2021, more than one million one hundred and fifty-four thousand ships have crossed the Canal. (1,154,000). 

 

Back to the future

 

As successful as the canal has been it is unable to handle modern mega-ships.

Work began in 2007 to expand the canal system in order to accommodate NeoPanamax vessels. NeoPanamax are those ships which exceed the dimensions of the canal. Previously, ships were typically designed to fit the locks of the canal. Which are 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long. But as shipping has grown, the need for larger ships, to carry more cargo, has also grown. The new works were completed in June 2016.

Once completed, the newly expanded canal was able to handle larger cargo vessels carrying 14,000 20-foot containers. This is nearly three times larger than the current capacity and doubled the Canal’s capacity.

This expansion program consisted of new larger locks and widening and deepening of existing channels. The expansion has allowed many modern ships to use the canal, although some super-sized cargo vessels, such as Maersk’s Triple E Class Ships will still be excluded.

The history of the Panama Canal is a very long, and interesting one. Its construction has inspired revolutions, cost many lives, and is, today, one of the most important waterways in the world. Never again will you look at the canal in the same way. .

 

NeoPanamax Vessels

 

The Panama Canal welcomed the 10,000th Neopanamax vessel through the Expanded Canal on August 11 2020. Marking a new milestone for the nearly 106-year waterway and its growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) segment.

The milestone transit was completed by LNG vessel SK Resolute travelling southbound from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Constructed in 2018, the vessel has a cargo capacity of 180,000 m3 and measures 292 meters in length and 47.8 meters in beam. Monday marked the vessel’s thirteenth transit through the waterway. It often travels between the east coast of the United States and South Korea and Japan, as well as from Chile to the east coast of North America.

On August 11, 2020, “The two historic milestones this week – our 10,000th Neopanamax transit and 106th anniversary – are symbolic. Together, they reiterate that the Panama Canal is not only a trusted and reliable service, but also one committed to continued competitiveness and growth,” said Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez. “We are proud of our team’s achievements and the exceptional service they maintain today.”

LNG began transiting the waterway for the first time following the inauguration of the Expanded Canal in 2016. With significant reductions in voyage time, it has since offered a highly competitive route for U.S. gas deliveries to major Asian importers.

As a result, the LNG segment now represents 12 percent of transits at the Expanded Canal, surpassed only by container ships with 46 percent and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with 25 percent. This had led the Neopanamax Locks to see 27 percent of transits and half of total tonnage at the Canal today. 

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