The Panama Canal - from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean between the two Americas - Traveler's page. Panama Canal. History and facts

To visit Panama and not see the Panama Canal means not to have visited Panama. Today we talk about this attraction, and also share tips on how best to visit the Panama Canal on your own.

Panama Canal. Data.

For those who have never been particularly interested in the Panama Canal, it may seem like a small stream that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In fact, its length is about 80 km, which ships travel in 8-10 hours. Until recently, the width of the canal at the lock points was 34 meters. Thanks to the opening of a new branch in June 2016, the canal can now accommodate ships with a width of 55 meters and a depth below the waterline of more than 18 meters.
The canal consists of a system of locks (gates), which, if moving from the Caribbean Sea, first raises the water level by 26 meters above sea level in the Gatun area. After passing the main part, the water level is lowered using the Pedro Miguel lock (9.5 meters) and the Miraflores lock system (two chambers 16.5 meters).

The electrification of the site was carried out, among other things, with the help of two hydroelectric power plants with a capacity of 22.5 and 36 MW, located in Gatun and near Miraflores.

History of the construction of the Panama Canal.

The idea of ​​​​building a canal was first mentioned in the 16th century, and the history of its approval and construction was accompanied by political and economic confrontations in countries such as the USA, Spain, Great Britain, and France. Now they are going to dig a similar canal through Nicaragua: the project was adopted relatively recently - in 2014.
In 1879, the developer of the Suez Canal, French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, began a campaign to build the Panama Canal. As a result, the French arrived in Panama in 1881 and began excavation work in 1882. Thus, 1882 can be considered the beginning of the construction of the canal.

The original plan was to build a canal 22 meters wide and 9 meters deep. Interestingly, the project did not include a lock system: the canal was supposed to naturally connect two oceans to the same sea level, which meant cutting off the isthmus and deep excavations. In addition to engineering difficulties, construction was complicated by the yellow fever epidemic, the financial crisis, and a legal scandal in which many politicians, including Ferdinand, were accused of accepting bribes.
As a result, the project was bought by the Americans, who made the key decision to use a lock system to reduce excavation work. Over seven years, 153 million cubic meters of earth were excavated in dry mining. The work also included drilling and blasting rocks.
To increase the depth of the canal, various techniques were used, including ships. This vessel was specially built in Scotland and began work in 1912. A chain with 52 buckets made it possible to excavate more than 1,000 tons of material in less than 40 minutes.

On October 10, 1913, US President Wilson ordered by telegraph to blow up the remaining small part of the land that separated the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The first ship to pass through the canal while still in operation was the floating crane Alexandre Le Vallee. This happened in January 1914. In August of the same year, its path was repeated by the cargo and passenger ship Cristobal. The official opening of the canal is considered to be August 15, 1914 and the passage of the cargo ship Ancon.

How to visit the Panama Canal.

Few people know that the passage of ships through the Panama Canal can be seen in several places: in Colon (Gatun Gate) and near Panama City (Miraflores Gate). Gatun has the advantage of being cheap to visit and lacking crowds of tourists. On the other hand, these advantages are completely outweighed by the disadvantages. Colon is one of the most dangerous cities in Panama. We are often skeptical about horror stories from Lonely Planet, where it is also written that you should not go to Colon, so at first we planned to visit it. However, after talking with the locals, we abandoned this idea. Colon turned out to be really dangerous, and we were told that even at the station there was a possibility of robbery. “It depends,” summed up one of our random local fellow travelers.
If you have plenty of time in Panama, you can take a boat trip through the canal. There are commercial offers, but you can also become a volunteer on a yacht waiting in line. There are special sites where yacht owners look for a crew. According to Panamanian law, any ship must have four mooring crew, and their services are not cheap - from $50, so captains and owners are looking for adventure seekers. You can google Panama canal transit line handlers or look at the website http://www.panlinehandler.com/. We even had the option of couchsurfing on such a yacht, but, unfortunately, it didn’t suit the dates at all.

There is also the opportunity to ride a special train along the canal. It’s hard for us to say what you can see from him there to pay pretty decent money.

In the end, we went, like most, to Miraflores. You can get there from Albrook station, which is probably familiar to tourists arriving in Panama City on their own. The bus to Miraflores leaves every hour at 00 (exit F), and, lo and behold, the sign says Miraflores (usually logistics in Panama are not so simple). The bus takes you all the way to the Miraflores complex; entrance tickets cost $15 for non-residents and $10 for children.

Despite the technical possibility of simultaneous servicing of ships in two directions, in the morning the ships go towards the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic), and in the afternoon back towards the Pacific Ocean. The channel is recommended for visiting from 9.00 to 11.00 and then after 13.00. We were late for the first period due to problems with breakfast at the hotel. We managed to pass the time a little by visiting the museum and watching a short film about the construction of the Panama Canal. The session in English starts every hour at 50, in Spanish – at 20 minutes.
The museum complex includes a souvenir shop, as well as a museum with an exhibition, where the most interesting was the video of the passage of the canal from the captain's wheelhouse.

Despite all this entertainment, we had to wait about three more hours for the ships to pass. Meanwhile, local personnel, using loudspeakers, told some facts about the canal, and also informed about the probable time of arrival of the ship. In general, at first it was interesting to listen to, and people with a bullhorn said that it was not the season, but then this record began to really tire and irritate. In our case, the movement was supposed to start at two o’clock, but in fact it happened even later – at three.

There are several opportunities to watch ships. Firstly, there is a large deck on the 4th floor. From there we watched as pleasure boats with tourists who paid $150 per ticket passed the canal from the middle.

On the second floor there is a small amphitheater with stadium-style seating. We had to wait another three hours, so we landed there. True, we were tormented by doubts whether everyone would sit so decorously during the passage of the ships. The center workers assured that this would be the case. Naive... Closer to three people kept coming and coming, and just stood near the fence.

Just before their arrival, workers with a bullhorn tried to reason with the people, but after unsuccessful attempts they quickly retreated. We deliberately took places on the edge so that in case of emergency we would have a view towards the approaching ships. But the smartest spectators stood on the steps and could not be moved. So every now and then I had to get up to take a photo or even go downstairs and brazenly squeeze through.

Probably the best option for observations is the cafe on the third floor. But we don’t know how to book a table and wait, and what the general policy is in this regard.
And then everyone perked up. In the speakers, we heard about the approaching ship. Everyone started clicking their cameras despite the fact that the ship still had a long way to go.

The passage of the ship is certainly interesting and fascinating. The ship enters the lock chamber and stops, after which the first gate closes behind it.

Then the water is pumped out of the chamber, and the ship quietly sinks with it. From the photographs you can see for yourself the initial and final results. As we have already written, the total drop at this gate is 16.5 meters.

When the water level in the two chambers becomes the same, the gate in front of the ship opens and it moves into the next chamber. Locomotives or “mules”, as they are called here, help the ship move inside the canal.

The ship passes the last gate far enough from the observation deck, according to the same scenario as the previous gate, so almost no one paid attention to it.

Thus, we were able to see how the three ships sailed. It was impressive. We spent almost a day here and got a little tired from the heat, the waiting, the people who couldn't sit still, but it was still worth it. We went to Panama Bay to have dinner by the ocean, and along the way we even managed to overtake a ship we were already familiar with.

The construction of the Panama Canal was one of the most important milestones in shipping. Commissioned in 1920 (the first ship passed through it in 1914, but due to a landslide in the fall of that year, official traffic was opened only six years later), the canal shortened the distance between the ports of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans several times - previously, To get from one ocean to another, ships had to go around South America all the way around Cape Horn. Today, the Panama Canal is one of the world's main shipping routes, through which about 18 thousand ships pass annually (the current canal capacity is 48 ships per day), which constitutes a significant part of the world's cargo turnover.

The history of the Panama Canal dates back to the 16th century, when the Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first to cross the Isthmus of Panama and reach the Pacific coast - so it was discovered that the territory of modern Panama is only a narrow strip of land between the oceans. In 1539, the Spanish king sent an exploration expedition to study the possibility of building a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, but the expedition reported to the king that this idea was not feasible.

The first real attempt to build the Panama Canal was made by the French in 1879 under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps, a diplomat and director of the Suez Canal project, which had opened shortly before, in 1869. But building the Panama Canal was a much more difficult task. In 1889, the French project went bankrupt - the challenge posed by the Panamanian jungle with its tropical rains, impenetrable swamps and at the same time rocky soils, floods and, worst of all, deadly epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus and other diseases was too difficult , which claimed the lives of about 20 thousand people in the first campaign.

Then the United States took up the construction of the Panama Canal. The United States was interested in shortening the waterway from the ports of California to its Atlantic coast, and most importantly, the Panama Canal had enormous military significance - it made it possible to almost instantly transfer a fleet from one ocean basin to another, which significantly increased the power and global influence of the United States. In 1903, the United States bought the Panama project from the French, ensured Panama's independence from Colombia, which did not want to provide the Americans with the canal zone for essentially indefinite use, and then signed a formal agreement with the new Panamanian government (which was again represented by the Frenchman Philippe-Jean Bunod -Varilla, who was one of the main participants in the bankrupt first project). The treaty gave the United States a 5-kilometer zone on each side of the canal for indefinite use (that is, essentially forever) and the exclusive right to occupy territories outside this zone as part of any measures to protect the waterway. Thus, the declaration of the canal as neutral and the guarantee of free passage through the canal for military and merchant vessels of all nations, both in time of peace and in war, was destroyed by the American stipulation that these regulations would not apply to such measures as the United States considered necessary to take for the defense of Panama and maintaining order in the channel. In fact, in a war in which the United States participated, its military fortifications would inevitably deprive the other belligerent of the opportunity to use the canal on an equal footing.

John Frank Stevens became the chief engineer of the Panama Canal. Taking into account the mistakes of the French, the Americans first of all took enormous measures to disinfect the construction area and prevent tropical diseases. The project was also changed - according to the French project, the Panama Canal, like the Suez Canal, was supposed to be built at the same level as the oceans, without locks. This required a colossal amount of excavation work on the watershed section of the route. American engineers changed the project and proposed a lock canal with three stages of locks on each side and a watershed section at an altitude of 26 meters above ocean level. The Gatun Reservoir was created on the watershed, into which ships from the Atlantic side were raised in the Gatun locks, and from the Pacific side - in the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.

The Panama Canal opened in 1920 and remained under US control for many years. There were dozens of American military bases in the canal zone, and about 50 thousand military and civilian specialists worked. Over time, dissatisfaction regarding this began to grow more and more in Panama, and in 1977 an agreement was signed on the gradual transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama. In reality, this process took more than two decades, and the canal zone finally came into the possession of Panama on December 31, 1999.

The length of the canal is 81.6 kilometers, of which 65.2 kilometers are actually on land and another 16.4 approach kilometers along the bottom of the Panama and Limon bays to deep water. Vessels large enough to pass through the Panama Canal are called Panamax vessels. This standard was the main one for seagoing vessels until the beginning of the 1990s, when active construction of Post-Panamax class vessels (mainly tankers), whose dimensions were larger than the dimensions of the Panama Canal locks, began. Today, the cost of one trip through the Panama Canal depends on the type and size of the vessel and ranges from $800 for a small yacht to $500,000 for the largest vessels. There were also funny cases - for example, in 1928, the famous American traveler Richard Halliburton, who sailed through the canal from one ocean to another, was charged 36 cents. :)

The Panama Canal today is not only one of the world's most important transport connections, but also the main tourist attraction of Panama. The Panama Canal now operates a large tourist center at the Miraflores locks, where from several special observation platforms you can see the locks and the ships passing through them, while the loudspeaker tells about each ship, its route and what it is carrying. There are other tours - by bus along the canal, by rail, walks on small boats; Some standard Caribbean cruises take cruise ships through the Gatun Locks up the Atlantic side of the canal to the watershed and then back out into the Caribbean Sea (and tourists can sail the rest of the Panama Canal on excursions). But by far the best, most unique and enthusiastic way to see the Panama Canal is to transit it entirely on a cruise ship, cross it from the Atlantic to the Pacific (or vice versa) and continue the cruise further in a completely different ocean basin. Absolutely everyone, even the most experienced travelers, prepare for the passage of the Panama Canal in a completely special way.

The actual passage of the Panama Canal takes on average about 9 hours, not counting the waiting time for ships at huge sea roads on each side. The cruise ship, of course, goes exactly on schedule and heads into the canal immediately, out of turn. The Zaandam approaches the Panama Canal Zone at approximately 5 am. The entrance to the spacious approach area of ​​the Panama Canal from the Caribbean Sea is marked by powerful lighthouses and protected by many kilometers of dams. At the entrance to the canal in the roadstead, dozens of ships of all sizes and colors stand waiting for their turn, brightly lit in the night. And on the shore of the bay there is the city and port of Colon, with a huge container terminal. The same container terminal is located at the other entrance to the canal - thus, container ships of the “Post-Panamax” class (that is, larger than the locks of the Panama Canal) are unloaded at these entrance ports, containers with cargo are transported along the railway running along the canal, and then on the other side they board new ships and continue the route. The railway between ports is also used to partially unload large container ships passing through the canal to reduce their draft.

1. It’s five in the morning, it’s just starting to get light, but most tourists are already on their feet: entering the Panama Canal is one of the central events of the cruise! We enter the approaching water area, from the board in the pre-dawn twilight the lights of the Colon port are visible.

4. Having taken on board a group of pilots, we head to the entrance - from the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal begins with a three-stage staircase of Gatun locks, in which ships rise from the level of the Atlantic Ocean to the watershed section of the canal.

5. To the left of the existing two-line locks, starting in 2007, an additional third line of Panama Canal locks has been built.

They will be significantly larger than the existing ones and will increase the maximum size and draft of ships that can sail through the canal. If the current locks have dimensions of 304.8 x 33.5 and a depth of 12.8 meters, then the new ones are respectively 427 x 55 x 18.3. In addition to the construction of the second stage of locks, the fairway at the Culebra watershed is currently being expanded and deepened, so that two-way traffic of vessels along the entire length of the canal becomes possible (currently, traffic and locking on the Panama Canal is essentially one-way - first a group of ships goes in one direction, then in the opposite direction, and the ships diverge on wider lake sections of the route). After the completion of this large-scale reconstruction, the capacity of the Panama Canal will double.

6. Old and new locks of the Panama Canal

9. Longitudinal profile of the Panama Canal

11. At 6-30 am we approach the Gatun locks. The movement of ships along one of the most important transport connections in the world goes on continuously, from the bow of the Zaandam we can clearly see four ships rising up the lock stairs in front of us, two in each line.

12. On the bank of the canal there are huge gates for the second stage of locks under construction - they were made in Italy and were delivered to the canal recently, at the end of August 2013.

13. We approach the first gateway. Clumsy sea vessels are moved from chamber to chamber with the help of special locomotives, to which mooring lines are attached and tensioned. Locomotives with stretched moorings attached to them accompany the ship on four sides (at the bow and stern on each side) - thus, a perfectly clear entry of huge sea vessels into a very small chamber compared to their size is carried out. Mooring lines from the locomotives are supplied to the ship using a boat.

14. The mooring lines are secured - let's go! :)

15. We enter the first lock chamber - ships rise from the Caribbean Sea to the watershed area in the three-stage Gatun locks. The total lifting height is 26 meters. Accordingly, just under nine meters per step. But from aboard a huge sea liner, this nine-meter drop is not perceived as significant.

16. There is incredible excitement on the decks!

17. Since the United States finally withdrew from the Panama Canal in 1999, the unique structure has been maintained entirely independently by Panama. The channel is in good hands! :)

18. The locomotive, starting the ship from the stern on the starboard side, deftly climbs up. Now the gates will close and the locking will begin.

19. Having risen in the first, we move to the second chamber.

20. One of the Panama Canal webcams is installed in the Gatun locks, which broadcast images on the Internet in real time. At this moment, many of my friends and colleagues are watching us walk through the locks. This is what the Zaandam slowly rising along the Atlantic slope of the Panama Canal looks like from the side. :)

21. Having completed the locking in the third chamber, “Zaandam” rises to the level of the watershed section of the canal. From the stern there is a stunning view of the lock staircase going down and the ships ascending it behind us. Breathtaking! Far below lies the expanse of the Caribbean Sea. And for us - to the Pacific Ocean. Goodbye Atlantic! :)

24. Having risen through the Gatun locks, the ship enters the lake of the same name. Lake Gatun is actually a large reservoir formed on the watershed by a large dam on the Chagres River, which is clearly visible on the right side.

The canal is fed with water from Lake Gatun. Such canals, in which the reservoir feeding them with water is located in a watershed area, from which water is distributed by gravity to both slopes, are called canals with natural feeding (gravity). In our country these are the Volga-Baltic and White Sea-Baltic canals.

25. On Lake Gatun there is another raid of ships waiting their turn at the locks and waiting for the end of locking of those who are coming towards them. When the second stage of the Panama Canal is put into operation, traffic along the entire length of the route will become completely two-way.

26. The route along the Gatun Reservoir is approximately half the entire length of the Panama Canal. We admire the surrounding landscapes of the equatorial belt from the deck.

29. The fairway is not wide and quite winding. The waterway is marked with special buoys.

30. At the Gatun Reservoir, ships going in opposite directions diverge. A caravan of ships is coming towards us, having passed through the locks of the Pacific slope in the morning and now heading towards the Atlantic slope of the canal. Large tankers, bulk carriers, container ships pass very close by...

35. The Zaandam is also viewed with interest from the bridges of oncoming cargo ships. The passage of cruise ships through the Panama Canal is a fairly rare event.

36. On the left side you can see the confluence of the Chagres River, which is crossed by a bridge. Gatun Reservoir ends here. Next, the canal route passes through the artificially dug Culebra cut.

37. A railway runs along the Panama Canal route, along which containers are transported from the Atlantic port to the Pacific port and vice versa. Sometimes tourist trains also run along it.

38. We go through the Culebra notch - the narrowest part of the Panama Canal.

39. In some areas, ships travel along the canal accompanied by tugboats. There is a whole special flotilla of them working on the Panama Canal.

40. In the place where the Culebra notch crosses a high mountain range, the banks rise steeply in steps, and the cable-stayed Centennial Bridge is already visible in the distance. It was built in 2004 and became the second permanent bridge over the canal. By the way, bridges over the Panama Canal connect two continents - let's not forget that the Panama Canal not only connects two oceans, but also separates the two Americas. The motto of Panama and the Panama Canal, “A Land Divided - A World United”, I think, is clear without additional translation. Now we have North America on the starboard side, and South America on the left side. :)

41. Rising with stone ledges and reinforced with powerful anchors, the slopes of the excavation in this place are reminiscent of some fantastic Mayan pyramids. In principle, in terms of its grandeur, the Panama Canal is a structure quite comparable to them. The volume of rock excavated during the creation of the Culebra excavation is equal in volume to 63 Cheops pyramids in Egypt.

43. Soon after the bridge, the watershed section of the canal ends and the descent to the Pacific Ocean begins, which ships also overcome in three 9-meter steps. But the Pacific slope is a little flatter - if on the Atlantic slope all three steps are located in a row in the Gatun locks, then here there are two groups of locks - Pedro Miguel (1 step) and Miraflores (2 steps), separated by a small intermediate pool. So, we go into the Pedro Miguel locks.

44. Approximately the same view opens from the captain's bridge. From this angle you can clearly see how narrow the lock chamber is compared to the colossal dimensions of ocean-going ships. Even with locomotives guiding the vessel, the navigators here require pinpoint precision. All ships navigate the canal with a group of local pilots.

46. ​​Locomotives bring the Emerald Express tanker into the parallel chamber.

47. At this time on its decks.

48. Having finished sluicing in the Pedro Miguel locks, the Zaandam enters the small Lake Miraflores, like Lake Gatun, formed by the dam. Here we will have to wait a little - along a parallel thread of locks a huge floating crane is being pulled towards us, and for some time the ships go only along one thread.

49. We go out into the water area and stop. We'll have to wait half an hour until the ship in front of us locks into two chambers, and it's our turn.

50. The ships following us are also waiting - a small traffic jam! :)

51. On the left you can see the dam on the river that formed the Miraflores reservoir.

Many people are interested in the question: where is the Panama Canal located? It is located in Central America, separating the North American continent from the South American continent. It is an artificial water channel connecting the Gulf of Panama in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic. The coordinates of the Panama Canal correspond to the subequatorial zone of the Western Hemisphere.

Characteristics of the structure

The Panama Canal connects 2 oceans - the Pacific and the Atlantic - with a narrow strip of water. It is located in the tropical zone of the northern hemisphere. Geographic coordinates of the Panama Canal: 9°12´ north latitude and 79°77´ west longitude. On August 14, 2014, the centenary of the official launch of this gigantic technical structure was celebrated.

The length of the Panama Canal is 81.6 km. Of these, 65.2 runs on land, and the remaining kilometers are along the bottom of bays. The width of the Panama Canal is 150 meters, and the width of the locks is 33 meters. The depth of water in the canal is 12 meters.

Bandwidth is moderate. This is explained by the small width of the Panama Canal. Up to 48 ships can sail through it per day. But any ship, including tankers, can pass through it. When constructing ships, the width of the channel is taken into account, which determines the limit of their width. Approximately 14,000 ships pass through it every year, carrying a total of 280 million tons of cargo. This is 1/20 of the total value of all ocean shipping. Such a dense flow leads to congestion of the canal with ships.

The price for passage of a vessel is very high and can reach up to $400,000.

The time it takes for ships to travel through the canal is more than four hours, with an average of 9 hours.

The described channel is not the only one of its kind. The Panama and Suez Canals are quite similar to each other, being exclusively artificial structures.

Geographical features of Panama

A decisive role in the economy of Panama is the service of transit ships. This is an important source of income for this state. Panama was formed as an independent country in 1903, after secession from Colombia.

Panama is located on the narrowest part of the Central American Isthmus. A narrow mountain range runs through its center, with lowlands on both sides. There is extensive depression in the Panama Canal area, with a maximum height of only 87 meters above sea level.

The climate of Panama is divided into 2 types. In the part that faces the Caribbean Sea, it is humid tropical, with a vaguely defined wet season and the absence of a dry season. The amount of precipitation is about 3000 mm per year. On the Pacific side, the amount of precipitation is much less, and the dry season is quite clearly defined.

Resources of Panama

In Panama, large areas are covered with forests. In the north these are moist evergreen forests, and in the south they are semi-deciduous, with areas of open woodland. Due to slash-and-burn agriculture, there is a risk of river shallowing and disruption of the Panama Canal.

Among mineral resources, oil and copper deposits are of greatest importance. Fishing and agriculture play a major role in the economy.

Channel history

The construction of the Panama Canal was first discussed back in the 16th century. Then the construction was abandoned for theological reasons. It was only in the 19th century, against the backdrop of the rapid growth of ocean freight traffic, that real construction began. However, the project turned out to have little correspondence with the geographical realities of the places where construction was carried out. Thousands of construction workers died from tropical diseases, and the work itself was more difficult than it should have been according to the project, which led to cost overruns already at the initial stage of construction. The results were court cases and mass public protests in France, whose workers built the canal.

Among the accused was the creator of the famous Eiffel Tower - A. G. Eiffel. Due to all these failures, construction work was stopped in 1889. Panama Canal shares have lost value.

After 1900, the Americans took over construction. To do this, they decided to conclude an agreement with Colombia on the transfer of the right to use the strip of land where the canal was to be built. The agreement was signed, but the Colombian parliament did not approve it. Then the United States, by organizing a separatist movement, separated a piece of territory from Colombia, which became known as the Republic of Panama. After this, an agreement was signed with the authorities of this new republic on the transfer of rights to use this section of the territory.

Before starting to build the canal, the Americans decided to get rid of malaria mosquitoes. To do this, an expedition of 1,500 people was sent to Panama, who began draining the swamps and destroying mosquito larvae with pesticides. As a result, the danger of fever was reduced to an acceptable level by those standards.

Construction began in 1904 according to a new, more realistic project, which turned out to be successful. In addition to the canal itself, locks and artificial lakes were created to overcome the difference in altitude. 70 thousand workers were involved and $400 billion were spent, and the work lasted for 10 years. Almost every tenth worker died during construction.

In 1913, the last isthmus was officially blown up. To do this, a 4 thousand kilometers long cable was stretched from there to the office of US President Thomas Wilson, where a button was installed. At the other end there was 20,000 kg of dynamite. Various high-ranking officials attended the ceremony at the White House. The Panama Canal opened a year later. However, various problems prevented the canal from working, and only in 1920 did it begin to perform its functions sustainably.

Since 2000, the Panama Canal has become the property of Panama.

Channel benefits

The canal project became one of the largest in the history of mankind. Its influence on shipping in the world, and especially in the Western Hemisphere, is very great. This makes it one of the most important objects of geopolitics. Previously, ships had to go around the entire South American continent. After the opening of the canal, the length of the sea route from New York to San Francisco was reduced from 22.5 to 9.5 thousand km.

Technical features of the structure

Due to the location of the Isthmus of Panama, the canal is directed from the southeast (Panama Bay of the Pacific Ocean) to the northwest (to the Caribbean Sea of ​​the Atlantic Ocean). The height of the canal surface reaches 25.9 meters above sea level. Therefore, artificial lakes and sluices were created to fill it. In total, 2 lakes and 2 groups of locks were created. Another artificial lake, Alajuela, is used as an additional source of water supply.

The canal has two passages designed for the movement of ships in both directions. Only on their own afloat, ships are not able to pass it entirely. To transport ships through the locks, special electric locomotives using railway tracks are used. They are called mules.

In order to sail smoothly through the canal, the ship must meet certain dimensions. The bars are set for the upper values ​​of indicators such as length, height, width and depth of the underwater part of the vessel.

A total of 2 bridges cross the canal. A road and railway run along it between the cities of Colon and Panama.

Calculation of payments for vessel passage

The collection of payments is carried out by the Panama Canal Administration, which is the state property of the Republic of Panama. The amount of the fee is determined according to the established tariffs.

For container ships, payment is made based on the volume of the vessel. The unit of volume is TEU, which is equal to the capacity of a regular twenty-foot container. For 1 TEU you need to pay about $50.

For other types of vessels, the rate is calculated based on their displacement, expressed in tons of water. For one ton you need to pay about three dollars.

For small vessels, the amount of dues is determined by their length. For example, for vessels with a length of less than 15 meters, the amount is $500, and for ships with a length of more than 30 m - $2,500 (for reference: 1 dollar is 57 Russian rubles).

Modern modernization of the channel

Recently, work has been actively carried out to increase the channel's capacity. This is due to the growth of global trade turnover, in which China plays a decisive role. It was he who initiated the new construction work. The modernization began in 2008 and was completed in mid-2016. All work cost more than $5 billion, but the costs will quickly pay off.

Thanks to its greater capacity, the canal can now serve supertankers with a capacity of up to 170 thousand tons. The maximum number of ships capable of passing through the Panama Canal per year has increased to 18.8 thousand.

It is symbolic that the first ship to sail through the reconstructed canal was a Chinese container ship. The expanded capabilities of this facility will make it possible to transport up to 1 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to China per day.

A feature of the modern reconstruction was the deepening of the bottom and the installation of wider locks.

Future plans

The constant growth of trade between countries and the increase in the number of ships will eventually lead to the need to build additional routes to pass through the isthmus. There are plans to build another canal, but through the territory of Nicaragua. Such projects appeared back in the 17th century, but were not implemented. Now the situation is completely different.

Thus, in 2013, the Nicaraguan authorities approved a project to build a canal on their territory, which could become an alternative and even a competitor to the Panama one. Construction costs here will be much higher - as much as $40 billion. Despite this, this project was approved in 2014.

Conclusion

Thus, the Panama Canal is one of the largest hydraulic structures in the history of mankind. The history of the projects of this building goes back several centuries. And although the canal was built by the United States, China now plays a decisive role in its future fate. Another trans-American canal for shipping is possible in the near future.

This waterway divides the state of Panama into 2 parts. It is of great importance for maritime navigation, as it shortens the sea route from one ocean to another by thousands of kilometers.

The length of this man-made creation is 81.6 km. Across the Isthmus of Panama the distance is 65.2 km. But in order for sea vessels with high draft to freely enter the canal, it was also necessary to deepen the Panama and Limon bays. They account for 16.4 km.

The building is a gateway. Locks were built to reduce the amount of excavation work. They are located along the edges of the waterway and lift ships to a height of 26 meters above sea level. Their width is 33.5 meters.

About 15 thousand ships cross the Panamanian waterway every year. In total, since 1914 there have been more than 815 thousand of them. For example, in 2008 there were 14,705 ships. They transported 309 million tons of cargo. The capacity is 49 marine vehicles per day. The waterway from the Atlantic to the Great Ocean can be navigated by a vessel of any size. Currently, there are standards in the world shipbuilding industry. They do not provide for the construction of sea ships, which due to their dimensions will not be able to overcome the watery part of the Isthmus of Panama.

Construction of the grandiose structure began in 1904 and ended in 1914. 375 million dollars were spent. At the current exchange rate this amounts to 8 billion 600 million dollars. The project is considered one of the largest in the entire history of civilization. The official opening of the waterway took place on August 15, 1914. The first ship to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in just a few hours was called the Ancona. Its displacement was 9.5 thousand tons.

Thanks to the Panama Canal, the sea route from one ocean to another has been significantly reduced

History of the Panama Canal

Europeans began to dream about a short route from one ocean to another in the first half of the 16th century. But only at the end of the 18th century did the first plans for a great construction appear. The situation began to become more specific after 1849, when huge reserves of gold were discovered in California. A shortened path from ocean to ocean has become a vital necessity.

Therefore, from 1850 to 1855, a railroad was built across the Isthmus of Panama. But, of course, it did not solve the problem of huge cargo transportation. It was the waterway that was seen as the ideal solution.

In 1877, French engineers surveyed the proposed route and published their design. The authority of the French was extremely high after the construction of the Suez Canal, which connected the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean. And the Americans had their own project, which involved the construction of the Nicaraguan Canal across the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua.

First construction of the canal

However, the French turned out to be more energetic and purposeful. In 1879 they organized an interoceanic company, headed by Ferdinand Lesseps. It was he who supervised the construction of the Suez Canal 10 years ago and coped with this task brilliantly. The concession for construction work was purchased from the Colombian government, and Lesseps began to deal with organizational issues according to an already established scheme.

To cover future dividends, shares were issued under the guarantee of France and Colombia. The profit promised to be big, so people eagerly bought securities. Many people invested all their savings in them, counting on solid profits in the near future.

However, Lesseps turned the hundreds of millions of francs obtained in this way into dust. Work began on January 1, 1881 on a project that did not include the construction of locks. The project did not take into account many geological and hydrological features of the region. The builders constantly ran into mountains and hills that had to be leveled and deepened to the level of the world's oceans. But this presented a difficult problem, as landslides interfered.

The existing equipment quickly rusted in the tropical climate and failed. But the workers themselves suffered the most. Mosquitoes living in the Panamanian jungle were carriers of yellow fever and malaria. This led to illness and death. A total of 22 thousand people died, which at that time was comparable to losses during the war.

In 1889, the company declared itself bankrupt, and all work on the construction of the Panama Canal was stopped. A terrible scandal broke out. About 1 million people who invested money in the project were deceived. An investigation began, and then trials. Lesseps, as the main culprit, received 5 years in prison. But soon the poor fellow was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, as he began to talk and behave inappropriately. Apparently the indelible shame had a depressing effect on his psyche.

In 1894, on the initiative of the French government, another company was created, which took over the implementation of the project. But it all ended with the company’s management starting to look for buyers for the existing assets. These included preserved excavations and equipment.

Panama Canal on the map

Second canal construction

In 1903, Panama declared itself independent from Colombia. In this she was fully supported by the United States. In the same year, the United States received land in the area of ​​the unfinished canal for perpetual use. In 1904, the Americans bought equipment and excavations from the French. In May of the same year, US President Theodore Roosevelt appointed an American engineer and administrator to lead the construction John Findlay Wallace. But he resigned a year later, saying that he could not cope with the construction.

His place was taken John Frank Stevens, who at one time built the Great Northern Railway. It was he who put forward the idea of ​​gateways, which was much cheaper compared to digging into the earth's crust to the level of the world's oceans. He also proposed creating an artificial lake by damming the Chagres River. The length of the lake was 33 km, which almost halved the amount of work.

To ensure the safety of the workers, Stevens organized work to drain the swamps, cut down the jungle and burn the grass. The earth was poured with engine oil, and the mosquitoes that brought death disappeared. Comfortable housing and canteens were built here, and a water supply system was created for thousands of people ready to work on the construction of the canal.

People from all over Europe and America went to the construction. They were paid well, although the work was hard. However, all the costs were brightened up by an established life and high wages.

Stevens was replaced in 1907 George Washington Goethals. He was a protégé of the president and headed the already well-established and organized construction work. They ended in 1914 and lasted a total of 10 years.

Lock on the Panama Canal

Panama Canal today

The canal currently belongs to Panama. The average fee charged to a ship crossing from one ocean to another is about 13 thousand US dollars. Calculations are made depending on the tonnage of cargo ships and the number of berths on passenger liners. The maximum cost of passage today is 376 thousand dollars. This is what a Norwegian cruise ship paid in 2010.

But the captain of an oil tanker paid $220,000 in 2006 for priority passage, so as not to wait for 90 other ships. Typically, owners of large cargo ships pay no more than 54 thousand dollars. But it’s good for owners of small yachts. They range from 1.5 to 3 thousand dollars depending on the length of the vessel.

The Panama Canal plays a huge role in maritime transport. Although it was built 100 years ago, it meets all modern requirements. Moreover, cargo transportation increases every year, but the waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean is constantly being modified and improved. However, this cannot go on forever. Therefore, the construction of the Nicaraguan Canal is planned for the future, which will create additional amenities for cargo and passenger ships.

Each of us knows about, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which allows transport companies to save huge amounts of time and money. But even the simplest canal is not just a dug ditch between reservoirs, but a complex technical system of locks. Let's try to understand this issue.

The Panama Canal is a collection of locks, a man-made shipping channel created at the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama in Central America. Since its opening in 1920, the Panama Canal has remained one of the most complex engineering projects in the world.

Any type and size of vessel can pass through this S-shaped isthmus: from a modest yacht to a large tanker. Currently, the channel size has become the standard for ship construction. As a result, thanks to the locks of the Panama Canal, up to 48 ships pass through it per day, and millions of people around the world enjoy this comfort.

So why are locks needed in the Panama Canal? The question is geographical, and the answer is obvious: since the canal consists of several lakes, deepened rivers and man-made canals, and at the same time connects two huge oceans, it is necessary to constantly equalize the water drop along the entire path and regulate the currents. And the difference in water level between the canal and the World Ocean is large - 25.9 m. Depending on the size and tonnage of the vessel, the water level in the lock increases or decreases, thereby creating the necessary conditions for the vessel to move smoothly through the canal.

Features of the Panama Canal locks

There are two groups of locks operating in the canal bed. Each gateway is double-threaded, i.e. can simultaneously transport vessels in oncoming traffic. Although practice shows that ships usually pass in one direction. Each airlock chamber holds a maximum of 101 thousand cubic meters. m. water. Dimensions of the chambers: width 33.53 m, length 304.8 m, minimum depth - 12.55 m. Large vessels are pulled through the locks by special electric locomotives (“mules”). So, the main gateways of the Panama Canal are:

1. Set in direction from the Atlantic Ocean three-chamber gateway "Gatun" (Gatun), connecting the same name with Limon Bay. Here the locks lift ships 26 m to lake level. The gateway has a camera installed, the image from which you can watch in real time on the Internet.
2. On the Pacific side it works two-chamber gateway "Miraflores" (Miraflores) It connects the main canal bed with Panama Bay. His first airlock also has a video camera.
3. Single-chamber gateway "Pedro Miguel" (Pedro Miguel) operates in conjunction with the Miraflores gateway system.
4. Since 2007, work has been underway to expand the channel and install additional gateways to increase the capacity of the Panama Canal (third line). New parameters of the third line: length 427 m, width 55 m, depth 18.3 meters. Work is also underway to expand and deepen the main fairway in order to still accommodate the oncoming movement of ships. It is expected that from 2017 the channel will be able to carry double load.

How to look at the Panama Canal locks?

A highway and a railway line run along the entire canal. You can independently and free of charge follow any vessel and get acquainted with the canal system from afar. You can also buy a tourist tour for the same purpose.

The Miraflores Gateway is considered accessible to tourists. You can take a taxi to it or buy a bus ticket for 25 cents, and as a group, drive as close to the gateway as possible to get to know its work. includes a visit to the museum ($10) and access to the observation deck, where information about the operation of the gateway is announced in real time over a loudspeaker.