Panamanian Adventures: "The greatest liberty man has ever taken with nature"

I think it is about time I tell you more about Panama City itself and the Canal. I have traveled in many parts of the country, but finally, for this week's class, we got quite the overdose of information about Panama City's history, the canal and the development of its different neighborhoods..

English writer James Bryce called this short-cut that saves about 12 900 km (8000 miles) of South American circumnavigation "the greatest liberty man has ever taken with nature". The canal is 82 km (51 miles) long and connects the Atlantic to the Pacific. If arriving from the Pacific side, you first pass through the Miraflores locks into the artificial Miraflores lake, 16m (54 ft) above sea level. The Pedro Miguel locks bring you to the 26m (85ft) level of Gatún Lake. On the Atlantic side, the Gatún locks bring you back down to the level of the Atlantic. Today, ships pay between USD$50,000 and USD$250,000 (depending on the vessel size and type of cargo) to pass through the canal and do so on average every 45 minutes.

A quick bit of history.. The French arrived in 1880 led by de Lesseps (known at the time as le grand Français for his achievement in building the Suez Canal) with the idea of building a sea level canal through Panama which was then the Darien province of Columbia. In the end, the French experience proved to be a disaster. After 20 years, de Lesseps finally agreed to incorporate the lock system as opposed to digging the canal at sea level, but by then, tropical climate, treacherous terrain and deadly tropical diseases took their toll. Soon, the company was in major financial trouble and their work came to an end.

In 1903, a treaty was signed under Roosevelt proclaiming the creation of the Panama Canal Zone, an area granted to the US in perpetuity for building and financing the construction of the canal. The US then picked up where the French left off. After a difficult year, John Stevens, one of the most famous railroad engineers at the time, came in to change things around. Accompanying him was William Gorgas who understood the French mistake. He was able fight off yellow fever and malaria by essentially eradicating all the mosquitoes in the Canal Zone by implementing radical changes that proved to be very successful (proper housing with screens, mosquito-abatement programs etc). The excavation lasted 7 years, from 1907 to 1913 during which more than 153 million cubic meters of earth and rock were removed. The Canal formally opened on August 15, 1914 (coincidentally the same month that WWI began). From 1903 to 1979 the Canal Zone territory was controlled by the US. During the next 20 years it was jointly controlled by both countries and finally, on December 31st 1999, Panama took over its entire governance. It is important to note, however, that though it is an engineering marvel, the construction of the Canal took 24,000 lives between 1880 and 1913.

The beginning of the Miraflores Locks

The Canal is now going through an expansion to be able to accommodate even bigger ships (49m/160 ft wide). We were very lucky to be able to see the expansion area up close, history in the making! The project has a budget of USD$5.25 billion and is currently the largest public investment project in Latin America. It is projected to finish in 2014, the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the Canal.