PANAMA CANAL A MODERN ENGINEERING WONDER

Panama Canal is a man made water way in Panama with a length of 82 km connecting Atlantic Ocean with Pacific Ocean. It takes about 8 to 10 hours for the ship to reach Pacific Ocean through the canal. The French company started the construction of the canal in 1881 but stopped later due to engineering constraints. US company took over the work in 1904 and opened the canal for traffic in 1914. The canal was independently managed by US until 1977. Then US jointly with Panama managed the canal upto 1999 and then onwards the government owned Panama Canal Authority is managing the operation of the canal. The most dismal aspect pertains to the canal is 5609 people died there during the construction period due to accidents, disease etc. The average toll per ship to pass through the canal is $1,50,000. Large ships have to pay much above this. Over 15,000 ships pass through the canal every year.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The lock system of the canal lift the ship up by 85 ft to the elevation of the canal. There are 12 locks in the canal. A two step flight at Miraflores and  a single flight at Pedro Miguel lift ships from the Pacific up to Harun Lake and then a tripple flight at Harun lowers them to the Atlantic side. The ship traverse the man made Gatun Lake about 80 ft above sea level and are then lowered to head downward on the other side.

1.81 million tourists visited Panama in 2018. 2000 to 3500 nautical miles are saved by voyages by using the canal depending upon their destinations.

KV George

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