A View and Review of the Impressive Panama Canal

One of the highlights of our trip to Panama was visiting the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone. We also learned about the history of one of the world’s greatest achievements. Many years ago, I read a book about the Panama Canal. Ever since then, seeing the canal in person has been on my bucket list.

Disclaimer: This article contains a lot of canal history. Skip to the Panama Canal Visit Notes section at the bottom, if you are only interested in our experience at the canal.

Panama Canal Conception and Construction

Ever since Balboa “discovered” the Pacific Ocean in 1513, Western countries have sought to build a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Fresh off his success at the Suez Canal, French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps secured an exclusive license in 1880 from Columbia (which then included Panama) to attack the problem in the same manner, i.e. dig straight between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Oceans.

The Panamanian mountains proved much harder to dig through than the sands of Egypt. Yet, it was ultimately yellow fever and malaria that brought the French effort to a halt by 1888. Fully 85% of the construction workers were hospitalized from disease, an amount too large to overcome.

US Time in Panama and Controversy

After the US Civil War, there was great interest in building a canal to help fully realize Manifest Destiny. Our belief was that “expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable”. There were only two things in the way of building the canal in Panama, disease, and money. The government of Columbia wanted more for the canal rights than the US was willing to pay.

In classic US Imperialism-style, we addressed diplomacy by assisting a separatist movement in Panama. The movement, ultimately allowed Panama to begin governing itself in 1903. All we asked for in return was an exclusive license to build and operate the canal. In the end, the US paid $40M to acquire the rights and assets of the French company formed by de Lesseps. An additional $10 million was paid to Panama, along with a $250,000 yearly fee. The license also included a five-mile exclusion zone (aka The Canal Zone) on both sides of the canal. The Canal Zone effectively cut Panama into two pieces into perpetuity. A small quid pro quo for our support, no?

Addressing the Insect-born Diseases

Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay was the first to identify mosquitos as the cause of Malaria and Yellow Fever, in 1881. However, his theory was very controversial. By 1904, a decision was made to adopt a broad program of mosquito control and the mortality rate dropped precipitously.

Construction started immediately after the diplomatic and medical impediments were removed. Even Teddy Roosevelt came to visit Panama and have some Bob The Builder quality time at the controls of a steam shovel. He must have enjoyed that immensely.

The Panama Canal began operation in 1914 and of course, captured the imagination of the world. Ships big and small could now cut 3 weeks of the voyage from ocean to ocean. The US started raking in big fees for the time benefit. The smallest fee paid for the crossing was 36 cents, charged to American Richard Halliburton, who swam the length of the canal in 1928. Well, unless you pay a boatload of cash (pun intended), I’m sure.

Components of the Panama Canal

The US plan for the canal was to utilize locks to lift boats up to cross the isthmus rather than digging through at sea level. One inspired element was to create an elevated lake (today’s Gatun Lake). The locks would form a reservoir in the middle, raising and lowering ships to lake level. Although the elevation of Gatun Lake is only 85 feet, it meant far less excavation was required. Even better, the lake acts as a reservoir, providing water for the locks and hydroelectric power to operate the locks. A beautiful solution all around.

Unless you are familiar with the map of the region, it may surprise you to learn that ships transiting from the Atlantic to the Pacific are mostly heading south and east. Yes, ships going through the canal head southeast when going from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The Pacific entry is very close to Panama City. Ships heading in first go through 2 chambers of the Miraflores Locks, then a short transit through Miraflores Lake before ascending to the highest canal elevation through the Pedro Miguel Lock into Gatun Lake. On the Atlantic side near the town of Colon, the three chambers of the lock system are all together at the Gatun locks, which has no intermediate lake like Miraflores Lake.

The hardest digging was at the Culebra Cut, a nearly 8-mile section dug through the highest section of the crossing. The dig took 6 years to complete and was delayed by numerous landslides.

For a much better history, I highly recommend David McCollough’s The Path Between The Seas. Frankly, I don’t read many books but this one is really exceptional.

Martyrs and a Change of Canal Ownership

For the first 50 years or so, the US operated the canal as it pleased and in a similar fashion to any government facility or military base. Panamanians were only allowed into the Zone for work purposes. The US didn’t even bother to build a bridge across the canal until 1963. Prior to that, Panamanians had to take ferries or fly between the two halves of their country. The ferries limited the canal traffic to daylight hours to prevent collisions. Since building the Bridge of the Americas, canal traffic could proceed 24 hours a day, but most traffic still happens during daylight.

This status quo really began to unravel in 1964 when a group of Panamanian students attempted to put their national flag next to the American flag at a high school in the Zone. The Zone residents mounted a fierce resistance and the result was 28 dead Panamanians, martyred at the hands of the US. Martyrs Day is observed annually and is considered by many Panamanians to be their most important holiday. Not our best legacy.

Inspired by the martyrs, the movement to reclaim the Zone grew. Finally, in 1979, President Carter agreed to a 20-year plan to transition the canal back to Panama. Panama took control of the canal at noon on Dec 31, 1999. At the same time, a corporation was established to operate and maintain the canal. The corporation was formed to prevent politicians from manipulating the use of the canal or raiding profits for their own purposes.

Panama Canal Usage and Expansion

Ships have long been built to fit the canal locks, which are 110 feet wide. These Panamax ships are narrow enough to clear the locks with only 24 inches on either side. But the demand for ever-larger ships drove an expansion of the canal not long after Panama gained control of the canal. Completed in 2016, the expanded locks allow much bigger ships (up to 168 feet wide) to pass and allow the corporation to collect the accompanying bigger fees. Still, only 8-10 ships per day go through the new locks.

Today, ships are typically charged an average of $120,000 to transit the canal. Think about that when you wonder why there are not many cruise ships going through the canal. The biggest ships pay about half a million dollars to transit the canal, one-way. You can see the ships queue up overnight from Panama City, waiting for the canal to begin operations in the Atlantic direction in the morning. The biggest ships can carry as many as 15000 containers at a time.

Only 35 ships make the transit on a typical day and the total transit time is about 8-10 hours. Transiting just from 1 chamber to another in the Miraflores Locks takes about 10 minutes. In part, this is due to the Culebra Cut, which is only wide enough for 1 ship, i.e. two ships cannot pass in it. Therefore, transit is allowed from either side into Gatun Lake in the morning and out of Gatun Lake in the afternoon. So, if you visit the Miraflores locks in the morning, you’ll see the ships heading toward the Atlantic. In the afternoon, you see them heading toward the Pacific.

Global Warming

The level of Gatun Lake has been dropping and this water is critical to the operation of the canal. Changes in the weather patterns have presented a challenge to the operation of the canal. The lake sits in an area that in the past had nine months of rain a year but in El Nino years, there is less precipitation than other years. In addition, El Nino years are becoming more frequent and severe. The original locks are able to reuse about 30% of the water needed to fill the chambers. Improvements in design allowed the new locks to reuse 60% of the water. But there is a concern about whether there will be enough water for the canal and the residents going forward. Only time will tell.

Panama Canal Visit Notes

The Miraflores visitor center is about 30 minutes by car from downtown Panama City. We chose to take an Airbnb Experiences tour where we saw the canal and the Bridge of the Americas, the Canal Zone, and the Visitor Center at the Miraflores Locks. In addition to the visits, we got a lot of information about the operation and history of the Canal and the Zone. They also reserved space for us at the visitor center, so we cut in front of people who didn’t have reservations.

We spent about an hour watching a couple of ships transit the locks. Rail engines, called “mules” are used on both sides of the locks to keep the ships centered in the lock. Thus preventing any damage. It was great to watch the “mules” keeping the ships in place. I’m sure the real mules, originally used for this purpose, would be quite challenged by the size of today’s ships.

Heading Back to Panama City

We arrived late in the day and they closed the center immediately after we left. We then got to experience Panama City traffic. It took us over an hour to return to our point of departure. The visitor center only recently reopened after lockdown and reservations are still limited due to Covid.

Another stop on our tour was Fort Amador, a former US military base just outside the canal entrance. The base was decommisioned when the canal zone was given back to Panama in 1999. The government is slowly renovating the former barracks but it still looks like a US military base. The site offers some great views on the shipping lanes.

The canal is truly an engineering marvel and it was one of my bucket list items to visit and see it in action. Perhaps someday I will get to cross through it, too.