Panama Canal, Panama
Today we spent our morning walking or cruising along the Barro Colorado Island right in the middle of the Gatun Lake. Our trips were enhanced by sightings of howling monkeys, spider monkeys, keel billed toucans, snail kites, ospreys, and even the rare treat of a Tamandua anteater. The third pilot to move us around the canal area joined the ship at around 1:00 p.m. and we began the final part of our Panama Canal transit, heading towards the Caribbean coast of the Isthmus.
In 1502 Christopher Columbus arrived on the Isthmus of Panama. In 1510 Spain began settlement of the area and by then the advantages of a route through Panama were evident. In 1534 the king of Spain ordered the first topographic survey for a proposed canal across the 50 mile wide piece of land. Obviously, such a task was beyond the technological possibilities of the times. A full three centuries later, in 1879, Ferdinand de Lesseps created the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, hoping to build a sea level canal in the isthmus of Panama. They began the construction in 1880, but neither the experience nor the skill of the French, gained with the building of the Suez Canal, were enough to overcome the climate, disease and mismanagement of the project. The enterprise went to financial ruin in 1889, but their efforts continued in the area until the early 1900’s. By 1904, the US bought the rights and the equipment from the French and thus began the US phase on the Canal construction.
Like the French, the new builders faced unprecedented problems: tropical disease, constant landslides, complex and massive volumes of excavations, enormous sized locks, and the necessity to establish new communities, import material, and organize labor work on an unmatched scale. It took ten years, the labor of more than 75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million, to complete the job.
The Panama Canal was inaugurated on August 15th, 1914; the SS Ancon made the first official inter oceanic (ocean-to-ocean) transit through the waterway, and since then thousands of vessels have done the same.
As established in the Torrijos – Carter Treaty, at noon on December 31st, 1999, the Republic of Panama assumed full responsibility for the administration of the Canal. For this purpose, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), and autonomous government legal entity was created. The ACP develops long-term programs that include continuous maintenance and improvements to the waterway, which include deepening, widening, and straightening of selected portions of the channel, amongst other things. The Panama Canal has united both oceans and many continents through its chambers, channel, and lakes, and will continue to do so, as it has done for the past 90 years, for many generations to come.
Today we spent our morning walking or cruising along the Barro Colorado Island right in the middle of the Gatun Lake. Our trips were enhanced by sightings of howling monkeys, spider monkeys, keel billed toucans, snail kites, ospreys, and even the rare treat of a Tamandua anteater. The third pilot to move us around the canal area joined the ship at around 1:00 p.m. and we began the final part of our Panama Canal transit, heading towards the Caribbean coast of the Isthmus.
In 1502 Christopher Columbus arrived on the Isthmus of Panama. In 1510 Spain began settlement of the area and by then the advantages of a route through Panama were evident. In 1534 the king of Spain ordered the first topographic survey for a proposed canal across the 50 mile wide piece of land. Obviously, such a task was beyond the technological possibilities of the times. A full three centuries later, in 1879, Ferdinand de Lesseps created the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, hoping to build a sea level canal in the isthmus of Panama. They began the construction in 1880, but neither the experience nor the skill of the French, gained with the building of the Suez Canal, were enough to overcome the climate, disease and mismanagement of the project. The enterprise went to financial ruin in 1889, but their efforts continued in the area until the early 1900’s. By 1904, the US bought the rights and the equipment from the French and thus began the US phase on the Canal construction.
Like the French, the new builders faced unprecedented problems: tropical disease, constant landslides, complex and massive volumes of excavations, enormous sized locks, and the necessity to establish new communities, import material, and organize labor work on an unmatched scale. It took ten years, the labor of more than 75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million, to complete the job.
The Panama Canal was inaugurated on August 15th, 1914; the SS Ancon made the first official inter oceanic (ocean-to-ocean) transit through the waterway, and since then thousands of vessels have done the same.
As established in the Torrijos – Carter Treaty, at noon on December 31st, 1999, the Republic of Panama assumed full responsibility for the administration of the Canal. For this purpose, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), and autonomous government legal entity was created. The ACP develops long-term programs that include continuous maintenance and improvements to the waterway, which include deepening, widening, and straightening of selected portions of the channel, amongst other things. The Panama Canal has united both oceans and many continents through its chambers, channel, and lakes, and will continue to do so, as it has done for the past 90 years, for many generations to come.
