A French company under the builder of a much longer sea-level canal abandoned it in 1889 after tens of thousands of deaths (1889)
Ferdinand de Lesseps; yellow fever and malaria destroyed the Compagnie Universelle
Geography · Landmarks & wonders
The Panama Canal
opened 15 August 1914
Lock canal across the Isthmus of Panama — Atlantic to Pacific in about 82 km
A lock canal about 82 kilometres long cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, lifting ships some 26 metres to the artificial Gatun Lake and down again to the other ocean. A French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps abandoned the attempt in 1889 after disease and bankruptcy; the United States completed it in 1914 and handed it to Panama at noon on 31 December 1999.
How to spot them
- ▸A lock canal across an isthmus, opened 1914, run by the United States until the last day of 1999
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Gatun', 'Culebra Cut', 'Miraflores', 'Panamax', 'Torrijos–Carter', 'Goethals'
- ▸Its locks lift ships over the continental divide, unlike the sea-level canal at the other end of the Mediterranean
- ▸A geographical trick: a ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through it travels roughly south-east
Key facts
It opened to traffic on 15 August 1914, weeks after the outbreak of the First World War (1914)
The first official transit was by the cargo ship SS Ancon
Its American chief engineer from 1907 saw the work through; a sanitation officer's mosquito campaign made it possible
George Washington Goethals and Dr William Gorgas
Treaties signed in 1977 transferred it to local control at noon on 31 December 1999 (1977)
The Torrijos–Carter Treaties; the handover completed 85 years of US administration
An artificial lake 26 metres above the sea, once the largest in the world, forms most of its route
Gatun Lake, created by damming the Chagres River
Its hardest stretch was an eight-mile excavation through the continental divide, renamed for the chief engineer
The Culebra Cut, also called the Gaillard Cut
A 2016 expansion added a third set of locks and a new class of ship measured by their dimensions (2016)
The Neopanamax locks opened on 26 June 2016
Drought in 2023 and 2024 cut daily transits sharply, because every ship that passes needs fresh lake water (2023)
Each transit uses roughly 200 million litres of water
Quick-fire facts
- •Length about 82 km; transit takes 8 to 10 hours
- •Three original lock complexes: Gatun on the Atlantic side, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores on the Pacific
- •Gatun Lake, formed by damming the Chagres, sits about 26 m above sea level
- •The French attempt under Ferdinand de Lesseps ran from 1881 to 1889 and cost around 22,000 lives
- •The United States began work in 1904 after backing Panama's secession from Colombia in 1903
- •Opened 15 August 1914; the first official transit was the SS Ancon
- •The Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 1977 led to full Panamanian control on 31 December 1999
- •The expanded Neopanamax locks opened in June 2016
- •Because of the isthmus's shape, the Pacific entrance lies south-east of the Atlantic entrance
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Panama Canal Authority (ACP) — The Panama Canal
- David McCullough — The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914