The Panamá Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is a 48-mile (77 km) ship canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 metres (85 ft) above sea level. The current locks are 33.5 metres (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks is currently under construction and is due to open in April 2016.
Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, the latter measuring a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal; the largest ships that can transit the canal today are called Panamax. It takes 6 to 8 hours to pass through the Panama Canal. The American Society of Civil Engineers has named the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
The sun is coming up and we have arrived at the Panama Canal about 7:20 a.m. we are going to go through Gatun Locks. There are three locks we have to go through.
Going up the canal we haven't reached the locks yet.
You can see the passengers up front taking pictures etc. as we begin our way up the Panama Canal.
There are tugboats escorting us through, it will be a tight fit.
Up ahead you can see the lock.
Looks like a freighter is in the lock and some other smaller boats.
The 48 mile-long (77 km) international waterway known as thePanama Canal allows ships to pass between the Atlantic Oceanand Pacific Ocean, saving about 8000 miles (12,875 km) from a journey around the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn.
From 1819, Panama was part of the federation and country of Colombia but when Colombia rejected United States plans to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the U.S. supported a revolution that led to the independence of Panama in 1903.
The new Panamanian government authorized French businessman Philippe Bunau-Varilla, to negotiate a treaty with the United States. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty allowed the U.S. to build the Panama Canal and provided for perpetual control of a zone five-miles wide on either side of the canal.
Although the French had attempted construction of a canal in the 1880s, the Panama Canal was successfully built from 1904 to 1914. Once the canal was complete the U.S. held a swath of land running the approximately 50 miles across the isthmus of Panama.
This little row boat is coming out to attach a rope to us to guide us in.
Here you can actually see the gates that close and add or take away water as we need it.
It takes approximately fifteen hours to traverse the canal through its three sets of locks (about half the time is spent waiting due to traffic). Ships passing through the canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean actually move from the northwest to the southeast, due to the east-west orientation of the Isthmus of Panama.
The gray vehicles you see here are called mules, these guide the boats through the canal they are on a railroad track.
Here is a large freighter, you can see a van below there is a road that goes across they have to close off it is one way so they take turns going from one way to another. They say sometimes you may have to wait up to 45 mins. to an hour once they close off the road to wait for your turn to cross.
It takes 52 million gallons of water they take out of the lake for one ship to go through thank goodness this place is a wet rainy area.
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Here we are in the Canal it is so tight you cannot even see the water on the side of it. You can see the liftboats from the Zuiderdam cruise ship.
We are almost through the canal at this point.
The large freighter is through the Panama Canal.
Ending my day with a cute little dog towel. Love it.
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