50 Fun Facts About The Panama Canal

How long is the Panama Canal?

It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, linking the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific.

On what date was the Panama Canal formally opened?

The cargo ship SS Ancon made the opening passage, two years ahead of the target date.

How high above sea level is the artificial lake that the canal's locks lift ships up to?

Gatun Lake was created by damming a river to cut down excavation, and was the largest artificial lake in the world when built.

Which country began digging the canal in 1881 and gave up in 1889?

Engineering problems and a horrific death rate destroyed investor confidence; the US took over in 1904.

Which French diplomat, fresh from building the Suez Canal, led the failed French effort in Panama?

He insisted on a sea-level canal like Suez, dismissing Baron de Lépinay's lock-and-lake plan that the Americans later adopted.

Roughly how many workers died during the French construction attempt of 1881–1889?

By 1884 the death rate was over 200 a month, mostly from yellow fever and malaria; the savings of 800,000 French investors were lost.

What happened to the leader of the French project and his son Charles after the company went bankrupt?

Both were sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

What did the US pay the French Compagnie Nouvelle in 1904 for its equipment, excavations and the Panama Railroad?

Bunau-Varilla had cut the asking price from $109 million to $40 million during an emergency shareholders' meeting.

Which alternative country did a US commission initially recommend for the canal on price grounds in 1901?

The British had tried a Nicaraguan canal in 1843; the route would cross Lake Nicaragua.

From which country did Panama declare independence on 3 November 1903, with US warships blocking a response?

Colombia's senate had unanimously rejected the Hay–Herrán Treaty; Roosevelt later said 'I took the Isthmus'.

Who signed the November 1903 treaty granting the US the Canal Zone, acting as Panama's ambassador?

He was a former engineer of the French company acting as Panama's ambassador; the treaty became a lasting grievance.

Which US president championed the Panama route and famously said he 'took the Isthmus'?

The New York Times called US support for Bunau-Varilla an 'act of sordid conquest'.

What did the US agree to pay under the 1921 Thomson–Urrutia Treaty to win recognition of Panama from its former ruler?

It was paid as $5 million on ratification plus four annual $5 million instalments.

Which chief sanitation officer's mosquito-control campaign against yellow fever and malaria made US construction possible?

One commissioner called his ideas 'barmy'; chief engineer Stevens backed him and the diseases were beaten.

Which self-educated railroad engineer, builder of the Great Northern, was chief engineer from 1905 to 1907?

He rebuilt housing and the railway, backed Gorgas, and told Washington a sea-level canal was 'an entirely untenable proposition'.

Which US Army officer replaced Stevens in 1907 and drove the canal to completion?

He split the work into Atlantic, Central and Pacific divisions and finished two years ahead of the 1916 target.

About how many workers died during the US construction phase, 1904–1914?

The great majority were West Indian labourers, especially Barbadians; about 350 Americans died.

Which West Indian island supplied the largest share of the labourers who died building the canal under the Americans?

Caribbean workers, called Afro-Panamanians, came in large numbers and many settled permanently.

What is the name of the artificial valley through the continental divide, the hardest part of the excavation?

It was called Gaillard Cut from 1915 to 2000 after the major who led the digging; landslides plagued it for decades.

After whom was the canal's great cut through the continental divide named from 1915 until 2000?

The name reverted to Culebra after the canal was handed to Panama.

Which Milwaukee company made most of the railroad-mounted steam shovels used to dig the canal?

77 came from Bucyrus-Erie and 25 from Marion; some were later sold to the Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile.

What was the first ship to transit the canal from ocean to ocean, twelve days before the formal opening?

The floating crane Alexandre La Valley had been the first self-propelled vessel to cross; the Ancon made the formal opening trip.

Which pair of leaders signed the 1977 treaties that provided for handing the canal to Panama?

Full Panamanian control took effect at the end of 1999.

At what moment did Panama take full control of the canal?

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) took command; the Canal Zone itself had been abolished two decades earlier.

How wide were the original locks, setting the 'Panamax' size limit?

Each lock chamber is 1,050 feet long; the ship's height was limited by a bridge at the Pacific end.

When did the expanded canal with its third, wider lane of Neopanamax locks begin commercial operation?

Construction ran from September 2007 to May 2016; the new locks are Agua Clara on the Atlantic and Cocolí on the Pacific.

What are the two-stage locks nearest the Pacific entrance called?

Panamax ships descend first through the single-stage Pedro Miguel Lock, cross Miraflores Lake, then drop through Miraflores to the Pacific harbour.

Who paid the lowest toll in the canal's history, 36 cents, in 1928?

The most expensive regular toll, $375,600, was paid by a cruise ship in 2010.

Which cruise ship set a then-record regular toll of $375,600 in April 2010?

A tanker once paid $220,300 at auction just to jump a 90-ship queue in 2006; the expanded locks have since brought far larger tolls.

Roughly how much fresh water is used in a single ship's passage through the canal?

Gatun Lake is filled by rain, so droughts threaten the canal's operation.

Which body has ranked the canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World?

Annual traffic grew from about 1,000 ships in 1914 to 14,702 in 2008.

Which conquistador's 1513 crossing of the isthmus first raised the idea of a canal?

The canal was completed 401 years after his party crossed; Charles V ordered the first survey in 1534.

Which kingdom's ill-fated Darien scheme of 1698–1700 was the first attempt to make the isthmus a trade route?

It was abandoned because of the inhospitable conditions.

What event in 1848 created huge demand for a crossing of Panama?

William Aspinwall's steamship line and the Panama Railroad, built 1850–55 at the cost of thousands of lives, exploited it.

Which river was dammed to create Gatun Lake and still feeds the canal?

In flood it rose up to 10 metres, wrecking French plans; the Madden Dam upstream added Lake Alajuela in 1935.

Which island in Gatun Lake is run by the Smithsonian as a research station?

Peacock bass accidentally introduced around 1967 became the lake's dominant game fish, devastating native species.

What was the average time for a ship to pass between the canal's two outer locks in 2017?

Canal Waters Time, which includes waiting, ranged between 20 and 30 hours in the 2000s.

Which structure at the Pacific end long limited the height of ships using the canal?

The cut through the divide passes under the Centennial Bridge; the Atlantic Bridge is at the Colón end.

What did USS Saratoga knock over on her first trip through the Gatun Locks in 1928?

The locks had been built to a compromise width between the Navy's wishes and the engineers'.

How far on each side of the canal's centreline did the US-run Canal Zone extend?

It excluded Panama City and Colón; its capital was Balboa.

On what date was the Panama Canal Zone abolished?

It had existed since 18 November 1903; joint control of the canal followed until 1999.

What became of the Hong Kong-based HKND Group, which won a 2013 concession for a rival canal through Central America?

Nothing was ever built on the 50-year concession.

What was the longest ship ever to pass through the canal's original locks, at 973 feet?

An ore-bulk-oil carrier later renamed Marcona Prospector, with a beam of 32.31 metres.

Which 1846 treaty with New Granada gave the US transit rights and the right to intervene militarily on the isthmus?

Roosevelt cited it in 1903 when he backed Panama's separation from its neighbour.

Which 1850 treaty bound Britain and the US to joint control of any Central American canal?

It followed a failed British canal attempt of 1843.

What was the toll rate per ton for the first 10,000 tons of a commercial vessel in fiscal 2016?

Rates then step down to $5.14 and $5.06 per ton for higher tonnage.

Roughly what share of the French workforce of 40,000 in 1888 came from the West Indies?

Panama's canal needed only 40 percent of Suez's length but tropical rain forest, locks and disease made it far harder.

Which French engineer proposed a lock-and-lake canal with a lake at Gatun and a cut through the hills at the 1879 Paris congress, only to be overruled?

Only 42 of the 136 delegates were engineers; the rest were speculators, politicians and friends of the promoter.

Which 1902 act saw the US Senate choose the Panama route over Nicaragua?

The act required the necessary rights to be obtained first, which led to the Hay-Herran Treaty with Colombia in 1903.

Which Army officer led the Atlantic Division that built the Gatun locks and dam?

The Pacific Division under Sydney Williamson handled Miraflores and Pedro Miguel; Gaillard took the central Culebra Cut.