Canal de Panamá
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2011
1
31
48
Trip End
Apr 27, 2011
Where I stayed
Panama City, Panama
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Panama Canal links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through an 80km waterway. Digging a waterway linking the two sides was first undertaken by the French in 1880. Their idea was to dig a massive trench, all at sea level. Work began but was abandonded in 1893 as nearly 22,000 workers died, mostly from malaria and yellow fever.
In 1902 the US acquired the rights to the canal from the French and work resumed in 1904. With the discovery that mosquitos were the cause of malaria and yellow fever, public health measures and mosquito reduction programs were put in place. During the American construction, about 5,600 workers died, a much lower death toll. It was decided that a scheme of locks and dams would be far more feasible than excavating the whole canal at sea level. With construction well on schedule, the canal was officially opened ahead of time in 1914. The canal remained under US authority but this was a contentious issue for the Panamanians and in 1977 authority was given to Panama under the agreement that the canal zone would remain neutral. Panama took full control of the canal in December 1999.
The whole canal consists of channels, artifical lakes and dams and three sets of locks. I visited the two-stage lock at Miraflores, the lock closest to the Pacific side. While I was there, a large car-carrier called the Cetus Leader went through, followed shortly by a chemical tanker, the Politisa Lady. During the mornings boats pass through Pacific to Caribbean and then in the afternoons they pass Caribbean to Pacific. At night time they allow boats passing both ways. Because the size of the locks limits the size of the boat able to pass through, many international shipping ships are built to the maximum size allowed. These ships are called Panamax vessels. The locks are 33.5 metres wide and 320 metres long. All vessels passing through the canal have to pay a toll. The toll is calculated on the type of vessel, size and what it is carrying. The most expensive toll paid was by a cruise ship that paid more than $330,000. The cheapest toll was 36c to an American man that swam the canal in 1928. These tolls may seems like a lot, but they save about 2 weeks of travel by bypassing the 8000 mile journey around South America. To get from one side of the canal to the other takes 8-10 hours. Approximately 35 vessels a day pass through the canal, with a total of more than 14,000 last year.
Obviously for the larger ships only one can pass through the locks at a time, but with smaller boats they can put two or three through at the same time. The larger Panamax vessels must hand over to a canal captain while passing through the lock system. This is due to the size of the locks, the Panamax vessels end up with 2 foot of space on each side while going through the locks so there isn't room for error!! While passing through the locks, the ships are tied to electric trains called mules on each side. These act as an extra safety measure to guide and brake the vessels as they pass through. The lock system at Miraflores raises or lowers vessels by 54 feet. No pumps are used, the water is fed by gravity from the Gatun Lake.
Expansion of the Panama Canal started in 2007 and is expected to be finished in 2014. This will allow the passage of larger vessels carrying greater loads. With the old locks being built nearly 100 years ago, modern technology with allow the new locks to use far less water than they do now.
The Panama Canal Authority has a few live webcams at the Miraflores and Gatun lock if anyone is interested!!
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores
Comments
it looks a bit complicated, i'll youtube it ;D