PANAMA CANAL
The canal is joining the atlantic and pacific oceans.
It runs from
Cristobal on lemon bay, a part of the Caribbean sea, to Balboa, on the Gulf of Panama. including The canal is slightly more than 64 km long, not The minimum depth is 12.5
the dredged approach channels at either end. m, and the minimum width is 91.5 m.
The construction of the canal ranks as
one of the greatest engineering works of all time. In history people had interest in a shorter route from the Atlantic to Pacific. 16th century. This began with the explorers of Central America early in the Hernan Cortez was a spanish conqeror of mexico who suggested Other explorers had favored
a canal across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. routes through Nicaragua and Darien.
The 1 st for a canal through the
Panama was started by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Who in 1523 ordered a survey of the isthmus. A working plan for the canal was drawn In 1534 a spanish Later more
up as early as 1529, but was shown to the king. offical
suggested a canal route close to that of the present canal. of the
canal plans were suggested but no action was taken upon any of these plans suggested.
Later on there is more in the canal.
The Spanish goverment
abandoned its interest in the canal but in the early 19 th century the books
of the Germam scientist Alexander von Humboldt brang back the interest in the project of the canal, and in 1819the Spanish goverment formally athorized the construction of a canal and the creation of a company to build it. spanish Nothing came of this effort, however, and the revolt of the
colonies soon took control of possible canal sites out of spanish hands . The republics of Central America tried to interest groups in the United States and Europe in building a canal, and it became a subject of perennial debate in the congress of the United States. The discovery of gold in
California in 1848 and the rush of would-be miners started the United States interest in digging the canal. Various surveys made between 1850
and 1875 indicated that only two routes were practical, the one across Panama and that across Nicargua. organized. goverment. isthmus. The United States involvement was the international company failed, and in 1880 a French company was organized by Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal. 1889. His company went bankrupt in In In 1876 an international company was
Two years later it obtained a consession from the Colombian Panama was then part of Colombia to dig a canal across the
United States interest in a Atlantic-Pacific canal however continued. 1899 the United States congress created an Isthmian Canal comission to examine the possibilities of a Central American canal and to recommend a route. The commission 1 st decided on the Nicaragua route, but reversed
its decission in 1902 when the reorganization Lesseps company offered its assets to the United States at the price of $ 40 million. States The united
goverment negotiated with the Colombian goverment to obtain a strip of
land 9.5 km wide across the isthmus, but the Colombian Senate refused to ratify this consession. Colombia. In 1903 , however , Panama revolted from
That same year the United States and the new state of Panama signed the Hay - Bunau - Varilla Treaty by which the United States guaranteed the independance of Panama and secured a perpetual lease on a 16 - km strip for the canal. Panama was to be compensated by an initial payment of The
$ 10 million and an annuity of $ 250 , 000 , beginning in 1913 . figure
was later revised upward in 1936 to $ 430 , 000 , and in 1955 to $ 2 million per year. The construction of the canal in 1905 the Isthmus Canal Commission
decided to build a canal with locks rather than a sea level channel , and this plan was approved by the United States Congress the following year . President Theodore Roosevelt put the construction work under the direction of the United States Army Corps of Engineers . Goethalls was named to head the project . It was estamated that the canal would be completed in ten years , however , it was in operation in the summer of 1914 . The construction Colonel George W .
involved not only excavating an estamated 143 million cu m of earth , but also sanitizing the entire canal area , Which was infested with mosquitos that spread yellow fever and malaria . The sanatation was under taken by Clonel William C . Gorgas of the United States Army Medical Corps , who almost eliminated the dissease . construction An unexpected difficulty in the actual
was the prevailence of slides of earth from the banks of the canal , partially in the Gaillard cut . REexcavating after these such slides added about The final cost of the
25 % to the estamated amount of earth moved . canal was $ 336 million .
In 1977 the United States and Panama agreed on two treaties to replace their 1903 agreement . These treadies provided for Panama's sovereignty ratification and it control of
over the canal zone shortly after their the canal
itself at the beginning of 2000 , but left the United States the right to defend the canal even thereafter . The treaties took affect in 1979 .