Panama Canal - 1

by Richard Krebs

Title

Panama Canal - 1

Artist

Richard Krebs

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

The Panama Canal is a man made 51 mi. waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Isthmus of Panama. It is a passage way for large container vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. east coast or vice versa. The canal consists of a series of gravity fed locks that lift one vessel at a time to the middle of the canal, where an artificial lake, called Gatun Lake, was created to collect the water that is needed to feed the locks. This engineering decision reduced the amount of excavation that was necessary (through hard rock) to construct the canal. The series of locks raises a ship 85 feet above sea level and then lowers it at the other end. The original locks were 110 feet wide; however, in 2016, a wider lane of locks was constructed to handle newer, larger container vessels.
Original work on the canal began in 1881, by France, but was discontinued due to engineering problems and a high death rate caused by malaria. In 1904, the U.S. resumed work on the canal and completed it in 1914. The Panama Canal is considered one of the most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, partly because it was located in a jungle with no electricity or potable water and a huge mosquito problem. What made the project successful in the end was the brilliant idea to create the lock system, rather than merely excavating a canal similar to the Suez Canal in Egypt. Part of the brilliance of the design was that no pumps are used to open and close the locks - that is accomplished by water and gravity.
The creation of the Panama Canal has been a boon to international shipping, greatly reducing the travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and enabling ships to avoid the hazardous Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

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February 27th, 2020

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