The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal, one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century, dominates pretty much everything in this country. The canal generates one third of the whole country's economy and has been the source of conflicts, wars, political struggles and is in fact the reason Panama is an independent country at all.

A visit to the Canal Area is therefore well worthwhile and the more one learns about the canal, the more intriguing it gets.

Here is a short summary of the canal's history:

The ideas of a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans was broached by the Spanish in 1524. The best location for a canal would be through Nicaragua or through Panama. Any serious attempt on building a canal was however not seen until 1881, when the French started building a canal after having obtained the rights from Colombia (Panama was then a part of Colombia), much to USA's chagrin, who was seeking sole rights to a canal. However, after eight years of engineering problems and 22000 workers dead in malaria and yellow fever, the company finally went bankrupt. The French considered the project impossible and sold it to USA, who later also gained the rights for a canal in Nicaragua. It is said that the final decision for actually building it in Panama was due to an old church in Panama City. The fact that it still stood there meant that the area was not sensitive for earthquakes, which was a problem in Nicaragua.

Colombia, however, was not keen on letting USA into their territory and refused to accept the transfer of the canal treaty. As a result, USA set up a revolutionary junta and backed it with money and weapons. When it claimed independence from Colombia. US warships prevented Colombian forces from even reaching land (there is no road, remember?) and Panama became a nation heavily dominated by the USA.

The canal was successfully built between 1904-1914 and the following 60 years were filled with conflicts related to the domination of the canal zone, which was considered US territory and became an American colony with homes, businesses and english language schools. Senator John McCain (still remember him?) was actually born in the canal zone in Panama.

Panama finally gained complete ownership of the canal on 31st December 1999.

The Panama Canal has three sets of locks. Here is the Miraflores locks where some huge vessels are crossing the canal. Ships pay a fee relative to their weight. The lowest fee of $0.36 was paid by Richard Halliburton who swam through in 1928 and the highest fee was paid by a massive Norwegian cruise ship, which crossed earlier this year.