Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is considered to be one of the wonders of the world. It is one of the most unique creations of human beings where they have tried to bring the world more closely by linking two oceans. The basic concept of building the Panama Canal was to avoid people to sail around Cape Horn in South America. The Panama Canal has a length of approximately 80 kilometers between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is being estimated that in a year nearly 13,000-14,000 ships use the Canal to transfer goods and it has strength of nearly 9,000 workers, who work day and night offering transit service to ships worldwide.

The construction of the Panama Canal took several years as it involved construction by two different companies, firstly in between the year 1881 to 1888 it was headed by the French company and later Americans finally constructed it between 1904 and 1914. The first attempt made by the French people failed because of the high cost involved and also death of around 22,000 people because of malaria and yellow fever. Then the construction began again by the United States, which employed 75,000 men and women to finally complete the canal in the month of August, and was estimated budget involved was twenty three million dollars approximately.

The Panama Canal saves a lot of time while traveling from the east coast to the west coast of the US, which otherwise in the olden days consumed a lot of time. The uses the locks system that play the role of water elevators in raising the ships from sea-level to 26 meters above sea-level. For convenience each lock is being titled in the name of the town where it has been built, on the Atlantic side the lock is being named as Gatún and on the Pacific side it is being named as Pedro Miguel and Miraflores. It is seen that an estimated time of fifteen hours is needed to cross through the three locks of the canal and this includes the waiting time in traffic also.

Now is being extended and it is estimated to be completed by 2014. It is a $5.2 billion project and this will enable the ships of double the size to pass the canal and this help to increase the business also. The present capacity of the ship to carry the load is 65,000 tons, and with the expanding business now all ships are being redesigned to increase its capacity. But despite of all the limitations the is still considered to be the highest traveled waterways of the world.