The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal took just 500 years to become an overnight success.

The Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and declared that a canal would be great for shipping tons of looted Aztec gold back to Spain from Peru. “Una buena idea Vasco”, but way ahead of your time. The Scots had a better idea in 1690 when they named the Darién isthmus New Caledonia and thought everyone would be happy if they cut a road through the jungle. “Nae sa fast laddie - the natives are nae pleased.” The Yanks tried in 1826 but Colombian President Simon Bolivar was having none of their imperialistic nonsense, “No hay manero amigos!” And in 1843 the Brits tried, but never got a spade in the ground. “Sorry old chap. Bad luck.” After the Californian gold rush in 1849 the Yanks had another go, but built a railway instead, “Good call Joe– but no cigar.” and then came the French in 1880. “Ce n'est pas un problème. We 'ave dug zhe Suez canal.” But the Suez canal looks nothing like this...

Digging a canal through a mountain range in a disease ridden, mosquito infested, tropical jungle full of jaguars and crocodiles proved too much for the French. Twenty two thousand men died, and eight hundred thousand French investors lost their shirts in the biggest corruption scandal of the 19th century. They paid a very high price, but made a good start by chopping 320 feet off the top of this mountain...

The Americans got a fire-sale deal from the French in 1904 and spent $380 million finishing the work. They used more than a hundred thousand tons of explosives to shift 300 million tons of rock, (and the French had already excavated 100 million tons). But it takes a lot to make an enormous hole through mountains this big...

That was enough rock and earth to fill train wagons stretching all the way around the world four times.
The 51 mile long Panama Canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914, and the 12 locks in use today are the original ones that are lined with solid concrete walls and floors 60 feet thick. That's a ton of cement! And these steel lock gates weigh over 600 tons each...

As soon as the canal was finished it was realised that the locks should have been wider to accommodate the ever expanding merchant ships, but it wasn't until 2016 that a set of new, supersized, locks were opened. The giant ship in the background is dwarfed by the enormous banks on the new canal. It is carrying upwards of 8,000 containers...

Container ships pay $99 for each full container to use the canal, ($59 for empties), and some have paid over a million dollars. Cruise liners like this one in the Miraflores lock pay $149 for each berth, (occupied or not)...

Just one more thing. The Panama canal is the only seaway in the world where the pilot takes full command of every vessel and here's our pilot, Juan, on the bridge with the bo'sun...

Thanks to Juan, and the nearly thirty thousand men who died creating this magnificent feat of engineering, we sail serenly across the Isthmus of Panama on a canal that links two oceans and we pass the continental divide...

We started in the Pacific, but from here on it is all downhill to the Atlantic. It only takes a few hours – but what a ride!