18 April: Panama Canal Day

Today is Panama Canal Day, probably because it was on this date in 1978 that US Congress gave its approval for the treaty which would give control of the waterway back to Panama in 1999. 10 things you might not know about the Panama Canal:

1. It's 82 km/51 miles long and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It takes about 8 hours for a ship to pass through, but that's nothing compared to the 22 days it would take if you went the long way, down and around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and back up the other side, a distance of nearly 12,500 miles/20,000 km. Not only is rounding Cape Horn quite dangerous, but using the canal also reduces the carbon footprint for shipping companies.
2. A canal across the narrow isthmus of Panama was a pipe dream for explorers and mariners as early as the 15th century when a Spanish explorer called Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered just how thin the land bridge was. First of all, explorers set out to find out if there was a natural waterway the could use. After about 30 years searching, they didn't find one, so Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, ordered a survey to see if it was possible to build one. Back then, they concluded it simply wasn't possible.
3. It remained a dream for three centuries. A few other nations looked into the possibility but all came to the same conclusion as Charles V. By the Victorian era engineering had advanced quite a bit, so in 1881 a French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a former diplomat who'd developed Egypt’s Suez Canal, actually started digging. Gustave Eiffel was hired to create locks for the canal. However, the company had bitten off more than it could chew. The project was beset by problem after problem, not least the tropical diseases which killed thousands of workers. The company went bankrupt in 1889, having spent the equivalent of $260 million and excavated more than 70 million cubic yards of earth. This caused a massive scandal in France which resulted in De Lesseps, his son and Eiffel being sentenced to prison and fined. Although the prison sentence was overturned, De Lesseps and Eiffel had lost the will for such projects. Eiffel retired from business and devoted himself to scientific research; Ferdinand de Lesseps died in 1894.
4. Meanwhile, the USA had been investigating building their own waterway in Nicaragua. However, Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, a French engineer who'd been involved in the French project, and presumably didn't want to see all his work go to waste, convinced America that Panama was a much better option due to dangerous volcanoes in Nicaragua. In 1902, America bought the French company's assets.
5. The canal is the reason Panama even exists as a country. At the time, Panama was part of Colombia. Colombia wanted nothing to do with the Americans building a canal through their land and refused to ratify an agreement allowing the canal to be built. The people of Panama wanted it, however, and so they revolted against Colombia and declared independence.
6. About 20,000 French workers died during the construction due to accidents and disease. By the time the Americans took over, there was a better understanding of tropical diseases and how to prevent them, but even so accident and disease cost the lives of about 5,600 workers.
7. The first ship to go through was the SS Ancon, an American flag cargo and passenger ship owned by Boston Steam Ship Company. She was used to ferry workers and construction material from New York to Panama during the building. The first boat to pay the toll was the Lasata, a pleasure boat owned by Morgan Adams of Los Angeles. His boat passed through on August 14, 1914. The toll is calculated according to the size and weight of the vessel. The smallest toll ever paid was 36 cents, by Richard Halliburton, who swam through.
8. The millionth vessel passed through in 2010. $1.8 billion in tolls are collected annually. It's an important part of the economy of Panama since they took control of it from America in 1999.
9. There are several sets of locks and an artificial lake called Lake Gatun. The lake is there to ensure there is always enough water for the canal and the locks prevent the lake from draining away into the oceans. It's a complicated process to navigate the canal and so ship's captains aren't allowed to do it themselves. Instead they take on board an official Panama Canal pilot to navigate it for them.
10. As ships got bigger, it became necessary to make the canal bigger to accommodate them. The original canal locks are 110 feet/33 meters wide and ten times as long. The term 'Panamax' ships was used to describe ships built to fit through the canal. In 2007, work began on a multi-billion dollar expansion of the Canal which was completed in 2016 so that now, ships three times as large as the Panamax ships can go through. Even so, there are some container ships, the ones which can carry 18,000 shipping containers, which still can't pass through the Panama Canal.

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