PANAMA CANAL

The Panama Canal. Spanish Canal de Panam, canal of the lake-and-lock type connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama, where the Continental Divide dips to one of its lowest points. The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 40 miles (65 kilometres) and from deep water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific about 51 miles. The canal is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal. Since its opening in 1914, it has been effectively controlled by the United States, which built it. In 1979, however, control of the canal passed to the Panama Canal Commission, a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama, and Panama's participation in the commission gradually has been increasing; by treaty, complete control of the canal will pass to Panama on Jan. 1, 2000. Ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the United States, which otherwise would be obliged to round Cape Horn in South America, shorten their voyage by about 8,000 nautical miles by using the canal. Savings of up to 3,500 miles also are made on voyages between one coast of North America and ports on the other side of South America. Ships sailing between Europe and East Asia or Australia can save as much as 2,000 miles by using the canal. Spanish Canal De Panam, canal of the lake-and-lock type connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama in Central America. Its length from deep water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific is about 51 miles (82 km). It is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal; ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the United States, for example, can shorten their voyage by about 8,000 nautical miles by using the Panama Canal instead of rounding Cape Horn. Although it remains one of the great engineering feats of the world, construction of the Panama Canal presented problems from the beginning. In 1879 Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomat who had supervised excavation of the Suez Canal, formed the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocanique and began work in 1881 on cutting a sea-level channel through the isthmus. Poor planning, disease, and accusations of fraud led to the collapse of the enterprise in 1889, and in 1894 the French company was reorganized as the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama. In 1903 the HayBunau-Varilla Treaty between Panama and the United States granted the United States canal-building rights and the sole right to operate and control the Canal Zone (q.v.). The Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama sold its holdings to the United States in 1904. The principal decision facing American engineers was whether to build a sea-level or a high-level, lake-and-lock canal. In 1879 the French engineer Adolphe Godin de Lpinay had proposed damming the torrential Chagres River on the Atlantic side of the isthmus and the Ro Grande on the Pacific side, creating navigable lakes in their respective valleys that would be connected by a cut through the continental divide. Although rejected by the original French company and by early U.S. commissions that favoured a sea-level canal, Lpinay's proposal was the basis for the final plan drafted in 1906 by John F. Stevens, chief engineer of the U.S. Isthmian Canal Commission. Construction under U.S. supervision, which had begun in 1904, accelerated after the U.S. Congress adopted Stevens' plan, and the Panama Canal opened to traffic on Aug. 15, 1914. Following numerous disputes between the United States and Panama over the sovereignty of the waterway, the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 established that the Republic of Panama would take complete control of the canal in the year 2000. The Pedro Miguel Locks raise or lower ships on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. The canal runs due south from its Atlantic entrance, a 7-mile (11-kilometre) dredged channel in Limn Bay, for a distance of 11.5 miles (18.5 km) to the Gatun (Gatn) Locks, a series of three locks that raise ships 85 feet (26 m) to man-made Gatun Lake. It continues south and then southeast through a channel in Gatun Lake for about 23 miles (37 km) to Gamboa, where the Gaillard (Culebra) Cut begins. The channel through the Gaillard Cut is 8 miles (13 km) long and 500 feet (150 m) wide, winding through the continental divide to the locks at Pedro Miguel. At the Pedro Miguel Locks, a single lock lowers ships 31 feet (9.4 m) to a small lake, through which vessels pass one mile to the locks at Miraflores (see photograph). The Miraflores Locks constitute a 54-foot (16-metre), two-step drop down from the lake level to the sea-level dredged channel, 7 miles (11 km) long, leading to the Pacific terminus in the Bay of Panama. Except for small craft, no vessel can pass through the locks of the Panama Canal under its own power. Vessels are taken in tow by electric towing locomotives that operate on cog tracks on the lock walls; six locomotives are usually used for each vessel. The locks are duplicate, so that ships may pass in opposite directions simultaneously. With waiting time, ships require about 15 to 20 hours to negotiate passage. Crude oil and petroleum products, grains, and coal and coke are among the principal commodity groups transported through the canal. Additional reading A concise physical description of the Panama Canal is found in Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.), Panama: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1989). Paul J. Scheips (ed.), The Panama Canal: Readings on Its History (1979); and David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 18701914 (1977), detail the history of the canal's construction. The decision to build the canal in Panama as opposed to other locations is discussed in such historical works as Miles P. Duval, Jr., Cadiz to Cathay: The Story of the Long Diplomatic Struggle for the Panama Canal, 2nd ed. (1947, reissued 1968); and Gerstle Mack, The Land Divided: A History of the Panama Canal and Other Isthmian Canal Projects (1944, reprinted 1974). Norman J. Padelford, The Panama Canal in Peace and War (1942), focuses on the strategic significance of the waterway. Later works treat the canal mostly from the point of view of international law and foreign relations, including G.A. Mellander, The United States in Panamanian Politics (1971); Paul B. Ryan, The Panama Canal Controversy: U.S. Diplomacy and Defense Interests (1977); J. Michael Hogan, The Panama Canal in American Politics (1986); and Walter LaFeber, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective, updated ed. (1989). Burton L. Gordon