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History of the Panama Canal

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history

   The History of the Panama Canal goes back almost to the earliest
   explorers of the Americas. The narrow land bridge between North and
   South America offers a unique opportunity to create a water passage
   between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This potential was recognised
   by the earliest colonists of Central America, and schemes for such a
   canal were floated several times in the subsequent years.

   By the late 1800's, technological advances and commercial pressure
   advanced to the point where construction started in earnest. An initial
   attempt by France to build a sea-level canal failed, but only after a
   great amount of excavation was carried out. This was of use to the
   effort by the United States which finally resulted in the present
   Panama Canal in 1914. Along the way, the nation of Panama was created
   by division from Colombia.

   Today, the canal continues to be not only a viable commercial venture,
   but also a vital link in world shipping.

Before the Canal

   The strategic location of the Isthmus of Panama, and the short distance
   between the oceans there, have prompted many attempts over the
   centuries to forge a trading route between the oceans. Although all of
   the early schemes involved a land route linking ports on either coast,
   speculation on a possible canal goes back to the earliest days of
   European exploration of Panama.

The Spanish Era

   In 1514, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to see the eastern
   Pacific, built a crude road which he used to haul his ships from Santa
   María la Antigua del Darién on the Atlantic coast of Panama to the Bay
   of San Miguel and the Mar del Sur ( Pacific). This road was about 30 -
   40 miles long, but was soon abandoned.

   In November of 1515, Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán discovered a trail
   crossing the isthmus from the Gulf of Panama to Porto Bello, past the
   site of the abandoned town of Nombre de Diós. This trail had been used
   by the natives for centuries, and was well laid out. It was improved
   and paved by the Spaniards, and became El Camino Real. This road was
   used to haul looted gold to the warehouse at Porto Bello for
   transportation to Spain, and was the first major cargo crossing of the
   Isthmus of Panama. ^

   In 1524 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, suggested that
   by cutting out a piece of land somewhere in Panama, the trips from
   Ecuador and Peru would be made shorter and allow for a quicker and less
   risky trip back and forth to Spain for ships carrying goods, especially
   gold. A survey of the isthmus and a working plan for a canal were drawn
   up in 1529. The European political situation and level of technology at
   the time made this impossible.

   The road from Porto Bello to the Pacific had its problems, and in 1533,
   Licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa recommended to the king that a new road
   be built. His plan was to build a road from the town of Panamá, which
   was the Pacific terminus of El Camino Real, to the town of Cruces, on
   the banks of the Chagres River and about 20 miles from Panamá. Once on
   the Chagres River, boats would carry cargo to the Caribbean. This road
   was built, and was known as El Camino a Cruces, the Las Cruces Trail.
   At the mouth of the Chagres, the small town of Chagres was fortified,
   and the fortress of San Lorenzo was built on a bluff, overlooking the
   area. From Chagres, treasures and goods were transported to the king's
   warehouse in Porto Bello, to be stored until the treasure fleet left
   for Spain.

   This road lasted many years, and was even used in the 1840s by gold
   prospectors heading for the California Gold Rush.

The Scottish Attempt

   The Darien Scheme was another early attempt to establish an overland
   route for trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In July, 1698,
   five ships left Leith, in Scotland, in an attempt to establish a colony
   in the Darién, as a basis for a sea and land trading route to China and
   Japan. The colonists arrived on the coast of Darién in November, and
   claimed it as the Colony of Caledonia. However, the expedition was
   ill-prepared for the hostile conditions, badly led, and ravaged by
   disease; the colonists finally abandoned New Edinburgh, leaving four
   hundred graves behind.

   Unfortunately, a relief expedition had already left Scotland, and
   arrived at the colony in November, 1699, but faced the same problems,
   as well as attack and then blockade by the Spaniards. Finally, on April
   12, 1700, Caledonia was abandoned for the last time, ending this
   disastrous venture. ^

The Panama Railway

   While the Camino Real, and later the Las Cruces trail, served
   communication across the isthmus for over three centuries, by the 19th
   century it was becoming clear that a cheaper and faster alternative was
   required. Given the difficulty of constructing a canal with the
   available technology, a railway seemed the ideal solution.

   Studies were carried out to this end as early as 1827; several schemes
   were proposed, and foundered for want of capital. However, by the
   middle of the century, several factors turned in favour of a link: the
   acquisition of Upper California in 1848, and the increasing movement of
   settlers to the west coast, created a demand for a fast route between
   the oceans, which was fuelled even farther by the discovery of gold in
   California.

   The Panama Railway was built across the isthmus from 1850 to 1855,
   running 47 miles from Colón, on the Atlantic Coast, to Panama City on
   the Pacific. The project was an engineering marvel of its age, carried
   out in brutally difficult conditions; it is estimated that more than
   12,000 people died in its construction, many of them from cholera and
   malaria.

   Until the opening of the Panama Canal, the railway carried the heaviest
   volume of freight per unit length of any railroad in the world. The
   existence of the railway was key in the selection of Panama as the site
   of the canal.

The French Project

   1888 German map of the Panama Canal (includes alternate Nicaragua
   route)
   Enlarge
   1888 German map of the Panama Canal (includes alternate Nicaragua
   route)

   The idea of building a canal across Central America was suggested again
   by German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, which led to a revival of
   interest in the early 19th century. In 1819 the Spanish government
   authorized the construction of a canal and the creation of a company to
   build it.

   The project stalled for some time, but a number of surveys were carried
   out between 1850 and 1875. The conclusion was that the two most
   favorable routes were those across Panama (then a part of Colombia) and
   across Nicaragua, with a route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in
   Mexico as a third option. The Nicaragua route was seriously considered
   and surveyed.

Conception

   After the successful completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the French
   were inspired to tackle the apparently similar project to connect the
   Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and were confident that this could be
   carried out with little difficulty. In 1876 an international company,
   La Societe International du Canal Interoceanique, was created to
   undertake the work; two years later it obtained a concession from the
   Colombian government, which then controlled the land, to dig a canal
   across the isthmus.

   Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was in charge of the construction of the Suez
   Canal, was the figurehead of the scheme. His enthusiastic leadership,
   coupled with his reputation as the man who had brough the Suez project
   to a successful conclusion, persuaded speculators and ordinary citizens
   to invest in the scheme, ultimately to the tune of almost $400 million.

   However, de Lesseps, despite his previous success, was not an engineer.
   The construction of the Suez Canal, essentially a ditch dug through a
   flat, sandy desert, presented few challenges; but Panama was to be a
   very different story. The mountainous spine of Central America comes to
   a low point at Panama, but still rises to a height of 110 metres (360
   feet) above sea level at the lowest crossing point. A sea-level canal,
   as proposed by de Lesseps, would require a prodigious excavation, and
   through varied hardnesses of rock rather than the easy sand of Suez.

   A less obvious barrier was presented by the rivers crossing the canal,
   particularly the Chagres River, which flows very strongly in the rainy
   season. This water could not simply be dumped into the canal, as it
   would present an extreme hazard to shipping; and so a sea-level canal
   would require the river, which cuts right across the canal route, to be
   diverted.

   The most serious problem of all, however, was tropical disease,
   particularly malaria and yellow fever. Since it was not known at the
   time how these diseases were contracted, any precautions against them
   were doomed to failure. For example, the legs of the hospital beds were
   placed in tins of water to keep insects from crawling up; but these
   pans of stagnant water made ideal breeding places for mosquitoes, the
   carriers of these two diseases, and so worsened the problem.

   From the beginning, the project was plagued by a lack of engineering
   expertise. In May 1879, an international engineering congress was
   convened in Paris, with Ferdinand De Lesseps at its head; of the 136
   delegates, however, only 42 were engineers, the others being made up of
   speculators, politicians, and personal friends of de Lesseps.

   De Lesseps was convinced that a sea-level canal, dug through the
   mountainous, rocky spine of Central America, could be completed as
   easily as, or even more easily than, the Suez Canal. The engineering
   congress estimated the cost of the project at $214,000,000; on February
   14, 1880, an engineering commission revised this estimate to
   $168,600,000. De Lesseps twice reduced this estimate, with no apparent
   justification; on February 20 to $131,600,000, and again on March 1 to
   $120,000,000. The engineering congress estimated seven or eight years
   as the time required to complete the work; De Lesseps reduced the time
   to six years, as compared to the ten years required for the Suez Canal.

   The proposed sea level canal was to have uniform depth of 9 metres
   (29.5 feet), a bottom width of 22 metres (72 feet), and a width at
   water level of about 27.5 metres (90 feet), and involved excavation
   estimated at 120,000,000 m³ (157,000,000 cubic yards). It was proposed
   that a dam be built at Gamboa to control the flooding of the Chagres
   river, along with channels to carry water away from the canal. However,
   the Gamboa dam was later found to be impracticable, and the Chagres
   River problem was left unresolved.

Construction Begins

   Construction of the canal began on January 1, 1880, though digging at
   Culebra did not begin until January 22, 1882 ^. A huge labour force was
   assembled; in 1888 this numbered about 20,000 men, nine-tenths of these
   being afro-Caribbean workers from the West Indies. Although extravagant
   rewards were given to French engineers who joined the canal effort, the
   huge death toll from disease made it difficult to retain them — they
   either left after short service, or died. The total death toll between
   1881 and 1889 was estimated at over 22,000.

   Even as early as 1885, it had become clear to many that a sea-level
   canal was impractical, and that an elevated canal with locks was the
   best answer; however, de Lesseps was stubborn, and it was not until
   October, 1887 that the lock canal plan was adopted.

   By this time, however, the mounting financial, engineering and
   mortality problems, coupled with frequent floods and mudslides, were
   making it clear that the project was in serious trouble. Work was
   pushed forward under the new plan until May, 1889, when the company
   became bankrupt, and work was finally suspended on May 15, 1889. After
   eight years, the work was about two-fifths completed, and some
   $234,795,000 had been spent.

   The collapse of the company was a major scandal in France, and the role
   of two Jewish speculators in the affair enabled Edouard Drumont, an
   anti-semite, to exploit the matter. 104 legislators were found to have
   been involved in the corruption and Jean Jaurès was commissioned by the
   French parliament to conduct an enquiry into the matter, completed in
   1893 ^.

New French Canal Company

   It soon became clear that the only way to salvage anything for the
   stockholders was to continue the project. A new concession was obtained
   from Colombia, and in 1894 the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama
   was created to finish the construction. In order to comply with the
   terms of the concession, work started immediately on the Culebra
   excavation — which would be required under any possible plans — while a
   team of competent engineers began a comprehensive study of the project.
   The plan eventually settled on was for a two-level, lock-based canal.

   The new effort never really gathered momentum; the main reason for this
   was the speculation by the United States over a canal built through
   Nicaragua, which would render a Panama canal useless. The largest
   number of men employed on the new project was 3,600, in 1896; this
   minimal workforce was employed primarily to comply with the terms of
   the concession and to maintain the existing excavation and equipment in
   salable condition — the company had already started looking for a
   buyer, with a price tag of $100,000,000.

   Meanwhile, in the USA, the Isthmian Canal Commission was established in
   1899 to examine the possibilities of a Central American canal and to
   recommend a route. In November, 1901 the commission reported that a
   U.S. canal should be built through Nicaragua unless the French were
   willing to sell out at $40,000,000. This recommendation became a law on
   June 28, 1902, and the New Panama Canal Company was practically forced
   to sell for that amount or get nothing. ^

The French Achievement

   Although the French effort was to a large extent doomed to failure from
   the beginning — due to the unsolved disease issue, and insufficient
   appreciation of the engineering difficulties — its work was,
   nevertheless, not entirely wasted. Between the old and new companies,
   the French in total excavated 59,747,638 m³ (78,146,960 cubic yards) of
   material, of which 14,255,890 m³ (18,646,000 cubic yards) were taken
   from the Culebra Cut. The old company dredged a channel from Panama Bay
   to the port at Balboa; and the channel dredged on the Atlantic side,
   known as the French canal, was found to be useful for bringing in sand
   and stone for the locks and spillway concrete at Gatún.

   The detailed surveys and studies, particularly those carried out by the
   new canal company, where of great help to the later American effort;
   and considerable machinery, including railroad equipment and vehicles,
   were of great help in the early years of the American project.

   In all, it was estimated that 22,713,396 m³ (29,708,000 cubic yards) of
   excavation were of direct use to the Americans, valued at $25,389,240,
   along with equipment and surveys valued at $17,410,586.

Nicaragua

   The discovery of gold in California in 1848 and the rush of would-be
   miners stimulated the USA's interest in creating a canal between the
   oceans. In 1887 a U.S. regiment went to survey canal possibilities in
   Nicaragua. In 1889, the Maritime Canal Company was asked to begin
   creating a canal in the area, and it chose Nicaragua. The company lost
   its funding in 1893 as a result of a stock panic, and canal work ceased
   in Nicaragua. In both 1897 and 1899, Congress charged a Canal
   Commission to look into possible construction, and Nicaragua was chosen
   as the location both times.

   The Nicaraguan Canal proposal was finally made redundant by the
   American takeover of the French Panama Canal project. However, the
   increase in modern shipping, and the increasing sizes of ships, have
   revived interest in the project; there are fresh proposals for either a
   modern-day canal across Nicaragua capable of carrying post- Panamax
   ships, or a rail link carrying containers between ports on either
   coast.

The United States and the canal

   Theodore Roosevelt, who became president of the United States in 1901,
   believed that a U.S.-controlled canal across Central America was a
   vital strategic interest to the U.S. This idea gained wide impetus
   following the destruction of the battleship USS Maine, in Cuba, on
   February 15, 1898. The USS Oregon, a battleship stationed in San
   Francisco, was dispatched to take her place, but the voyage — around
   Cape Horn — took 67 days. Although she was in time to join in the
   Battle of Santiago Bay, the voyage would have taken just three weeks
   via Panama.

   Roosevelt was able to reverse a previous decision by the Walker
   Commission in favour of a Nicaragua Canal, and pushed through the
   acquisition of the French Panama Canal effort. Panama was then part of
   Colombia, so Roosevelt opened negotiations with the Colombians to
   obtain the necessary permission. In early 1903 the Hay-Herran Treaty
   was signed by both nations, but the Colombian Senate failed to ratify
   the treaty.

   In a controversial move, Roosevelt implied to Panamanian rebels that if
   they revolted, the U.S. Navy would assist their cause for independence.
   Panama proceeded to proclaim its independence on November 3, 1903, and
   the USS Nashville in local waters impeded any interference from
   Colombia (see gunboat diplomacy).

   The victorious Panamanians returned the favour to Roosevelt by allowing
   the United States control of the Panama Canal Zone on February 23,
   1904, for US$10 million (as provided in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty,
   signed on November 18, 1903).

The takeover

   The United States formally took control of the French property relating
   to the canal on 4 May 1904, when Lieutenant Mark Brooke of the United
   States Army was presented with the keys; there was little ceremony.

   The newly-created Panama Canal Zone Control came under the control of
   the Isthmian Canal Commission during canal construction.

Making sense of the task

   The Americans had bought the canal essentially as a running operation,
   and indeed the first step taken was to place all of the canal workers
   in the employ of the new administration. However, this was not as
   helpful to the project as it may have seemed, as the operation was at
   that point being maintained at essentially minimum strength, in order
   to comply with the canal's concession and keep the plant in working
   order.

   The Americans therefore inherited a small workforce, but also a great
   jumble of buildings, infrastructure and equipment, much of which had
   been the victim of fifteen years of neglect in the harsh, humid jungle
   environment. There were virtually no facilities in place for a large
   workforce, and the infrastructure was crumbling. The early years of the
   American work therefore produced little in terms of real progress, but
   were in many ways the most crucial and most difficult of the project.

   The task of cataloguing the assets was a huge one; it took many weeks
   simply to card-index the available equipment. 2,148 buildings had been
   acquired, many of which were completely uninhabitable after years of
   neglect, and housing was at first a significant problem. The Panama
   Railway was in a severe state of decay. Still, there was a great deal
   that was of significant use; many locomotives, dredges and other pieces
   of floating equipment were put to good use by the Americans throughout
   their construction effort.

   John Findley Wallace was elected chief engineer of the canal on 6 May
   1904, and immediately came under pressure to "make the dirt fly".
   However, the initial over-beurocratic oversight from Washington stifled
   his efforts to get large forces of heavy equipment in place rapidly,
   and caused a great deal of friction between Wallace and the commission.
   Both Wallace and Gorgas, determined to make great strides as rapidly as
   possible, found themselves frustrated by delay and red tape at every
   turn; finally, in 1905, Wallace resigned.

Setting the course

   This elevation map of the Panama Canal, prepared in 1923, shows the
   topology of the region through which the canal was cut.
   Enlarge
   This elevation map of the Panama Canal, prepared in 1923, shows the
   topology of the region through which the canal was cut.

   Wallace was replaced as chief engineer by John Frank Stevens, who
   arrived on the isthmus on July 26, 1905. Stevens rapidly realised that
   a serious investment in infrastructure was necessary, and set to
   upgrading the railway, improving sanitation in the cities of Panamá and
   Colón, remodelling all of the old French buildings, and building
   hundreds of new ones to provide housing. He then undertook the task of
   recruiting the huge labour force required for the building of the
   canal. Given the unsavoury reputation of Panama by this time, this was
   a difficult task, but recruiting agents were dispatched to the West
   Indies, to Italy, and to Spain, and a supply of workers was soon
   arriving at the isthmus.

   Like Wallace before him, Stevens found the red tape vexing; but his
   approach was to press ahead anyway, and get approval later. He improved
   the drilling and dirt removal equipment at the Culebra Cut, with a
   great improvement in efficiency. He also revised the inadequate
   provisions for the disposal of the vast quantities of spoil that were
   to be excavated.

   Even at this date, no decision had been taken regarding whether the
   canal should be a lock canal or a sea-level canal — the excavation that
   was under way would be useful in either case. Towards the end of 1905,
   President Roosevelt sent a team of engineers to Panama to investigate
   the relative merits of both schemes, as regards their costs and time
   requirements. The engineers decided in favour of a sea-level canal, by
   a vote of eight to five; but the Canal Commission, and Stevens himself,
   opposed this scheme, and Stevens' report to Roosevelt was instrumental
   in convincing the president of the merits of a lock-based scheme. The
   Senate and house of Representatives ratified the lock-based scheme, and
   work was free to formally continue under this plan.

   Another controversy from this time was whether the canal work should be
   carried out by contractors, or by the U.S. government itself. Opinions
   were strongly divided, but Stevens eventually came to favour the direct
   approach, and this was the one finally adopted by Roosevelt. However,
   Roosevelt also decided that army engineers should carry out the work,
   and appointed Major George Washington Goethals as chief engineer under
   the direction of Stevens in February, 1907.

   Stevens was already frustrated by the administrative situation, and the
   decision to involve the army at this level may have been the last
   straw; in any case, he resigned, and was replaced by Goethals.

Dealing with disease

   One of the greatest challenges facing the builders of the Panama Canal
   was dealing with the tropical diseases rife in the area, particularly
   yellow fever and malaria. The eventual success of the project is owed
   substantially to the sanitation program put in place by Dr William C.
   Gorgas, which included general health care, and the provision of an
   extensive health infrastructure.

   A significant part of this work was an intensive effort to eradicate
   mosquitos, the carriers of malaria and yellow fever, from the canal
   zone. This was accomplished by removing any possible sources of
   standing water, in which mosquitos breed, including draining and
   filling large areas of swamp, and by oiling remaining pools of standing
   water.

   These efforts were a great success, and contributed significantly to
   the overall success of the canal project. The hospitals maintained were
   reputed to be the best anywhere in the tropics; some 32,000 patients
   were treated per year. By 1906, yellow fever was virtually wiped out in
   the canal zone, and the number of deaths caused by the other top
   disease, malaria, was also reduced significantly.

Living conditions

   The canal zone originally had very minimal facilities for entertainment
   and relaxation for the canal workers, except the saloons; as a result,
   the men drank heavily largely because there was nothing else to do, and
   drunkenness was a great problem. The generally unfriendly conditions
   resulted in many American workers returning home each year.

   It was clear that conditions had to be improved if the project was to
   succeed; so a program of improvements was put in place. To begin with,
   number of club houses were built, managed by the YMCA, which contained
   billiard rooms, an assembly room, a reading room, bowling alleys, dark
   rooms for the camera clubs, gymnastic equipment, an ice cream parlor
   and soda fountain, and a circulating library. The members' dues were
   only ten dollars a year; the remaining deficit (of about $7,000, at the
   larger club houses) was paid by the Commission.

   Baseball grounds were built by the commission, and special trains were
   laid on to take people to matches; a very competitive league soon
   developed. Fortnightly Saturday night dances were held at the Hotel
   Tivoli, which had a spacious ballroom.

   These measures had a marked influence on life in the canal zone;
   drunkenness fell off sharply, and the saloon trade dropped by sixty per
   cent. Crucially, the number of workers leaving the project each year
   dropped significantly.

Construction in earnest

   The famous Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal, 1907.
   Enlarge
   The famous Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal, 1907.

   The work that had been done to this point was unimpressive in terms of
   actual construction, but in terms of preparation, absolutely essential.
   By the time Goethals took over, all of the infrastructure for the
   construction had been created, or at least greatly overhauled and
   expanded from the original French effort, which eased his task
   considerably; and he was soon able to start making real progress with
   the construction effort. He divided the project into three divisions:
   Atlantic, Central and Pacific.
     * The Atlantic division, under Major William L. Sibert, was
       responsible for construction of the massive breakwater at the
       entrance to Limon Bay, the Gatun locks and their 3.5-mile approach
       channel, and the immense Gatun Dam.

     * The Pacific Division, under Sydney B.Williamson (the only civilian
       member of this high-level team), was similarly responsible for the
       Pacific entrance to the canal, includng a 3-mile breakwater in
       Panama Bay, the approach channel, and the Miraflores and Pedro
       Mighel locks and their associated dams.

     * The Central division, under Major David du Bose Gaillard, was
       responsible for everything in between; in particular, it had
       arguably the greatest challenge of the whole project — the
       excavation of the Gaillard Cut, one of the greatest engineering
       tasks of its time, which involved cutting 8 miles through the
       continental divide down to a level 12 metres (40 feet) above sea
       level.

   By August of 1907, a million cubic yards (765,000 m³) per month was
   being excavated, which was a record for the difficult rainy season; not
   long after, this was doubled, and then increased again; at the peak of
   productivity, three million cubic yards (2,300,000 m³) were being
   excavated per month. (In terms of pure excavation, this is equivalent
   to digging a Channel Tunnel every 3½ months!) Never in the history of
   construction work had so much material been removed so quickly.

The Gaillard Cut

   One of the greatest barriers to a canal was the continental divide,
   which originally rose to 110 metres (360 feet) above sea level at its
   highest point; the effort to create a cut through this barrier of rock
   was clearly one of the greatest challenges faced by the project, and
   indeed gave rise to one of the greatest engineering feats of its time.

   When Goethals arrived at the canal he had brought with him Major David
   du Bose Gaillard, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gaillard was
   placed in charge of the central district of the canal, which stretched
   from Pedro Miguel Locks to the Gatun Dam, and dedicated himself to the
   job of getting the Culebra Cut, as it was then known, excavated.
   This diagram prepared in 1923 illustrates the elevations through which
   the canal cuts across the isthmus.
   Enlarge
   This diagram prepared in 1923 illustrates the elevations through which
   the canal cuts across the isthmus.

   The scale of the work was massive: six thousand men worked in the cut,
   drilling holes in which were placed a total of 27 thousand tonnes (60
   milion pounds) of dynamite to break up the rock, which was then taken
   away by as many as 160 trains in a day. Landslides were a frequent and
   major problem, due to the oxidation and weakening of the underlying
   iron strata in the rock. The scale of the job, and the frequent
   unpredictable slides, tended towards chaos; but Gaillard overcame the
   difficulties with quiet, clear-sighted leadership.

   On May 20, 1913, steam shovels made a passage through the Culebra Cut
   at the level of the canal bottom. The French effort had reduced the
   summit to 59 metres (193 feet), but over a relatively narrow width; the
   Americans had lowered this to 12 metres (40 feet) above sea level, over
   a much greater width, and had excavated over 76 million m³ (100 million
   cubic yards) of material. Some 23,000,000 m³ (30,000,000 cubic yards)
   of this material was additonal to the planned excavation, having been
   brought into the cut by the landslides.

   Dry excavation ended on September 10, 1913; a slide in January had
   brought 1,500,000 m³ (2,000,000 cubic yards) of earth into the cut, but
   it was decided that this loose material would be removed by dredging
   once the cut was flooded.

The dams

   Two artificial lakes form key parts of the canal; Lake Gatun and
   Miraflores Lake. Four dams were constructed to create these lakes:
     * two small dams at Miraflores impound Miraflores Lake;

     * a dam at Pedro Miguel encloses the south end of the Gaillard Cut,
       which is essentially an arm of Lake Gatun;

     * the Gatun Dam is the main dam blocking the original course of the
       Chagres River and creating Lake Gatun.

   The two dams at Miraflores are an earth dam, 825 metres (2,700 feet)
   long, connecting with Miraflores Locks from the west, and a concrete
   spillway dam 150 metres (500 feet) long to the east of the locks. The
   concrete east dam has eight regulating gates similar to those on the
   Gatun Spillway.

   The dam at Pedro Miguel is of earth, and is 430 metres (1,400 feet)
   long, extending from a hill on the west to the lock. The face of the
   dam is protected by rock riprap at the water level.

   By far the largest of the dams, and by far the most demanding, was the
   Gatun Dam, which created and impounds Lake Gatun. This huge earthen
   dam, which is 640 metres (2,100 ft) thick at the base and 2,300 metres
   (7,500 ft) long along the top, was the largest of its kind in the world
   when the canal opened.

The locks

   Pedro Miguel Locks under construction, early 1910s, showing center wall
   and intakes, looking north.
   Enlarge
   Pedro Miguel Locks under construction, early 1910s, showing centre wall
   and intakes, looking north.

   The project of building the locks began with the first concrete laid at
   Gatun, on August 24, 1909.

   The locks at Gatun are built into a cutting made in a hill bordering
   the lake, which required the excavation of 3,800,000 m³ (5,000,000
   cubic yards) of material, mostly rock. The locks themselves were made
   of 1,564,400 m³ (2,046,100 cubic yards) of concrete; an extensive
   system of electric railways and overhead cableways were used to
   transport concrete into the lock construction sites.

   The Pacific-side locks were finished first; the single flight at Pedro
   Miguel in 1911 and Miraflores in May, 1913. The seagoing tug Gatun, an
   Atlantic entrance working tug used for hauling barges, had the honour
   on September 26, 1913, of making the first trial lockage of Gatun
   Locks. The lockage went perfectly, although all valves were controlled
   manually since the central control board was still not ready.

Opening

   The Miraflores Locks in 2004
   Enlarge
   The Miraflores Locks in 2004

   The canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914, with the transit of
   the cargo ship Ancon.

   On October 10, 1913, the dike at Gamboa, which had kept the Culebra Cut
   isolated from Gatun Lake, was demolished; the initial detonation was
   set off telegraphically by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington. On
   January 7, 1914, the Alexandre La Valley, an old French crane boat,
   became the first ship to make a complete transit of the Panama Canal
   under its own steam.

   As construction tailed off, the canal team began to disperse. Thousands
   of workers were laid off; entire towns were either disassembled or
   demolished. Gorgas left to help fight pneumonia in the South African
   gold mines, and went on to become surgeon general of the Army. On April
   1, 1914, the Isthmian Canal Commission ceased to exist and the zone
   came under a new Canal Zone Governor; the first holder of this office
   was Colonel Goethals.

   A grand celebration was originally planned for the official opening of
   the canal, as befits so great an effort which had aroused strong
   feelings in the United States for many years. However, the great
   opening never occurred. The outbreak of World War I forced cancellation
   of the main festivities, and the grand opening became a modest local
   affair. The Canal cement boat Ancon, piloted by Captain John A.
   Constantine, the Canal's first pilot, made the first official transit
   of the canal on August 15, 1914. There were no international
   dignitaries in attendance; Goethals followed the Ancon's progress from
   shore, by railroad.

Taking stock of the project

   This image taken from the International Space Station shows, from right
   to left, the Miraflores locks, Miraflores Lake, Pedro Miguel locks, and
   the Centennial Bridge.
   Enlarge
   This image taken from the International Space Station shows, from right
   to left, the Miraflores locks, Miraflores Lake, Pedro Miguel locks, and
   the Centennial Bridge.

   When the canal opened, it was a technological marvel. The canal was an
   important strategic and economic asset to the U.S., and revolutionized
   world shipping patterns; the opening of the canal removed the need for
   ships to travel the long and dangerous route via the Drake Passage and
   Cape Horn (at the southernmost tip of South America). The canal saves a
   total of about 7,800 miles (12,500 km) on a trip from New York to San
   Francisco by sea.

   The anticipated military significance of the canal was proven in World
   War II, when the United States used the canal to help revitalize their
   devastated Pacific Fleet ^. Some of the largest ships the United States
   had to send through the canal were aircraft carriers, in particular the
   Essex class. These were so large that, although the locks could hold
   them, the lamp-posts that lined the canal had to be removed.

   The Panama Canal cost the United States around $375,000,000, including
   the $10,000,000 paid to Panama and the $40,000,000 paid to the French
   company. It was the single most expensive construction project in
   United States history to that time; remarkably, however, it was
   actually some $23,000,000 below the 1907 estimate, in spite of
   landslides and a design change to a wider canal. An additional
   $12,000,000 was spent on fortifications.

   More than 75,000 men and women worked on the project in total; at the
   height of construction, there were 40,000 workers working on it.
   According to hospital records, 5,609 workers died from disease and
   accidents during the American construction era.

   A total of 182,610,550 m³ (238,845,587 cubic yards) of material were
   excavated in the American effort, including the approach channels at
   both ends of the canal. Adding the work inherited from the French, the
   total excavation required by the canal was around 204,900,000 m³
   (268,000,000 cubic yards). This is equivalent to over 25 times the
   excavation done in the Channel Tunnel project.

   Of the three presidents whose periods in office span the construction
   period, the name of President Roosevelt is often the one most
   associated with the canal, and Woodrow Wilson was the president who
   presided over its opening. However, it may have been Howard Taft who
   gave the greatest personal impetus to the canal over the longest
   period. Taft visited Panama five times as Roosevelt's Secretary of War,
   and twice as President. He also hired John Stevens, and later
   recommended Goethals as his replacement. Taft became president in 1909,
   when canal construction was only at the halfway mark, and remained in
   office for most of the remainder of the work. However, Goethals later
   wrote "The real builder of the Panama Canal was Theodore Roosevelt".

   The following words of Theodore Roosevelt are displayed in the Rotunda
   of the Administration Building:

          It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how
          the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have
          done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually
          in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
          who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again;
          who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends
          himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end
          the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he
          fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place
          shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither
          victory nor defeat.

   David du Bose Gaillard tragically died from a brain tumour in
   Baltimore, on December 5, 1913, aged 54, having been promoted to
   colonel only a month before, and so never saw the opening of the great
   man-made valley whose creation he directed. The Culebra Cut, as it was
   originally known, was renamed to the Gaillard Cut on April 27, 1915, in
   his honour. A plaque commemorating his work stood over the cut for many
   years; in 1998 it was moved to the Administration Building in Balboa,
   close to the Goethals Memorial.

The Third Locks Scheme

   As the situation in Europe deteriorated in the late 1930's, the USA
   began to be concerned once more about its ability to move warships
   between the oceans. The largest U.S. battleships were already so large
   as to have problems with the canal locks; and there were concerns about
   the locks being put out of action by enemy bombing ^^.

   These concerns led the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution authorising a
   study into improving the canal's defences against attack, and into
   expanding the capacity of the canal to handle large vessels. This
   resolution was passed on May 1, 1936, and a Special Engineering Section
   was created by the on July 1, 1937, to carry out the study.

   A report was made to Congress on February 24, 1939, recommending that
   work be carried out to protect the existing lock structures, and to
   construct a new set of locks capable of carrying larger vessels than
   the existing locks could accommodate. On August 11, 1939, Congress
   authorised work to begin.

   The plan was to build three new locks, at Gatún, Pedro Miguel, and
   Miraflores, in parallel with the existing locks, and served by new
   approach channels. The new locks would add a single traffic lane to the
   canal, with each chamber being 365.8 metres (1200 feet) long, 42.7
   metres (140 feet) wide, and 13.7 metres (45 feet) deep. The new locks
   would be 800 metres (½ mile) to the east of the existing Gatún locks,
   and 400 metres (¼ mile) to the west of the existing Pedro Miguel and
   Miraflores locks.

   The first excavations for the new approach channels at Miraflores began
   on July 1, 1940, following the passage by Congress of the Appropriation
   Act on June 24, 1940. The first dry excavation at Gatún began on
   February 19, 1941. A considerable amount of material was excavated
   before the project was finally abandoned; the new approach channels can
   still be seen in parallel to the original channels at Gatún and
   Miraflores.

Canal Handover

   After construction, the canal and the Canal Zone surrounding it were
   administered by the United States. On 7 September 1977, U.S. President
   Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaty, which set in motion the
   process of handing over the canal to Panamanian control. The treaty
   came into force on 31 December 1999, since then the canal has been run
   by the Panama Canal Authority.

   The treaty was highly controversial in the U.S., and its passage was
   difficult. The controversy was largely caused by contracts to manage
   two ports at either end of the canal, which were awarded by Panama to a
   Hong Kong-based conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa. Republicans contend
   that the company has close ties to the Chinese government and the
   Chinese military ^. However, the U.S. State Department says it has
   found no evidence of connections between Hutchison Whampoa and Beijing
   ^. Some Americans were also wary of placing this strategic waterway
   under the protection of the Panamanian security force ^.

   There was some concern in the U.S. and in the shipping industry for the
   Canal after the handover. But opponents of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties
   turned out to be wrong. On virtually all counts, Panama is doing
   extremely well^ :
     * The Panama Canal's income has soared from USD$769 million in 2000,
       the first year under Panamanian control, to USD$1.4 billion in
       2006, according to Panama Canal Authority figures.
     * Traffic through the canal went up from 230 million tons in 2000 to
       nearly 300 million tons in 2006;
     * The number of accidents has gone down from an average of 28 per
       year in the late '90s to 12 accidents in 2005;
     * The average transit time through the canal is averaging about 30
       hours, about the same as in the late '90s;
     * Canal expenses have increased much less than revenues over the past
       six years — from USD$427 million in 2000 to USD$497 million in
       2006.
     * On October 22, 2006, after many studies made by the agency,
       Panamanian citizens approved by a wide margin on a referendum a
       project to expand the Panama Canal.

   Former U.S. Ambassador to Panama Linda Watt, who served in Panama from
   2002 to 2005, said that the canal operation under Panamanian hands has
   been "outstanding." She added, "The international shipping community is
   quite pleased."^
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