The result: Yellow fever in the area was all but eradicated. And, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , deaths from malaria in the total population were reduced from a maximum of After seeing the relative success of another waterway — Egypt's Suez Canal , which opened in — America envisioned a shortcut through Central America as a way of strengthening its position as a two-ocean power. Before the Panama Canal opened, ships had to travel all the way around South America to get to the other side of the country.
The trip took 66 days. It would have taken around 21 days if the Panama Canal were operational and saved some 8, miles 12, kilometers of travel. For years, the U. But engineering concerns — not to mention worries about active volcanoes in the area — prompted President Teddy Roosevelt to continue with the failed French site in Panama instead.
As the Americans took control, the building of the Panama Canal became an audacious example of American ingenuity and know-how. By the end, the U. The project came in some percent over budget. Besides the deadly diseases that plagued the early days of the construction, the difficult weather tropical rains and intense heat and the costs, engineers debated the very nature of the Panama Canal early on.
They finally abandoned ideas about a sea-level canal like the Suez , with Stevens instead insisting upon a series of locks that would raise or lower ships as needed. But that design necessitated construction of another big project. Gatun Dam, at one time the largest dam in the world, had to be built across the sometimes-raging Chagres River to ensure the proper flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic. That formed Gatun Lake, a major component of the canal's operation more on that below.
And then there was the sheer scope of the project: Between the French and American builders, some 7. Most of the muck was placed onto railcars, shipped to the coasts and dumped into huge piles in the ocean. It now forms breakwaters and the foundation for towns and a military base.
Much was dumped into the adjacent jungle, too. And it didn't afterward for a long time. Also a continuing problem: landslides. Yet despite the constant challenges, the Panama Canal opened in August , with the SS Ancon becoming the first ship to officially make the trip through. All over this year period, all diverted down to Panama. In its first five years, decreased traffic because of World War I and a series of landslides which closed the passage for almost all of and would continue for years , the canal was barely used.
That would soon change. The Panama Canal was traveled extensively by U. At one time, engineers again looked at making the passage a sea-level canal, which would eliminate the need for locks and decrease travel time. That idea was scrapped. It functions as a waterway between North and South America. The canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Before the canal, ships had to sail 13, miles around the tip of South America An artificial lake across Panama connects the oceans.
The Gatun Lake is 85 feet above sea level. How do the ships get raised and lowered? The canal has a water lock system that acts like a massive elevator. When ships enter the locks, they're raised by water from the lake. Each lock raises the ships until they're 85 feet above sea level. They then travel across Gatun Lake. In order to let the vessels pass the lock, each chamber needs to be filled with 26,, US gallons of water.
The lock system includes 18 feet wide water culverts attached to it, performing the duty of carrying water from these lakes to the chambers to raise the vessels and from chambers to the next lock or the sea to lower the vessels. Operated electrically, the entire process of the lock system is controlled from a control room located on the centre wall of the upper flight of locks. The control rooms guide the vessels through the lock chambers using electric towing locomotives.
On average, ships require six of such mules, three on each side, when using the locks to enter or exit the canal. The water level is equalized again and the ship finally exits the lock and enters the 77 km long canal.
At the other end of the canal, a similar process will be performed in order to lower the vessel to sea level. For a ship entering the canal from the Atlantic end, travelling in a southeast direction, the first entry will be into the first sea level lock chamber located at the Gatun Locks.
After the vessels entered the chamber, the watertight lock doors are closed by the lock-master and the valve is opened to allow the flow of water from the adjacent second lock chamber, 28 feet above sea level.
However, no pumps are used here; the entire operation of equalizing the water levels between the locking chambers on the Panama Canal depends on the principles of gravity to move the water and on the fact that water seeks its own level.
When the water levels of two adjacent chambers are equal, the water stops flowing from the water culverts. Once the water levels between the first and second chamber are the same, the valve gets closed by the lock-master and the watertight lock doors between the first lock chamber and the second lock chamber are opened subsequently.
This process allows the ship to proceed to the second lock chamber. The first operation is repeated then between the second lock chamber and the third lock chamber, which raises the ship to the level of Gatun Lake. After the closure of the final valve and opening of the watertight lock door, the ship is raised 85 feet above sea level and is able to continue its journey to the Pacific. The same process inversely is followed in order to send the ship back to sea level.
At the Pedro Miguel Locks on the Pacific end of the canal, when the ship enters the first chamber, the watertight doors are closed and the valve gets opened on that lock chamber, allowing water to drain from the first lock chamber into the relatively lower second lock chamber.
After the water level between the two chambers is at the same level, the watertight doors are opened allowing the ship to continue to transmit down the Gaillard Cut to the Miraflores Locks, where the operation of lowering the ship to sea level is completed. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same.
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