Q 01/05

The Panama Canal spares ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific a voyage around which cape?

A) Cape of Good Hope

B) Cape Finisterre

C) Cape Horn

D) Cape Agulhas

Answer · why

C) Cape Horn

Cape Horn, at the tip of South America. Cutting through Panama instead shortens a sea voyage from New York to San Francisco by nearly 8,000 miles.

Q 02/05

Which event scrapped the grand celebrations planned for the Panama Canal's opening?

A) The Titanic sinking

B) World War I

C) The Mexican Revolution

D) A canal workers' strike

Answer · why

B) World War I

World War I had just broken out in Europe when the canal opened on 15 August 1914, so the planned festivities were scrapped and the first official tra...

Q 03/05

What moves the lake water that fills the Panama Canal's locks?

A) Pumps

B) Steam

C) Tides

D) Gravity

Answer · why

D) Gravity

Gravity alone does the work: water drains downhill from Gatun Lake, 26 metres above the sea, through tunnels in the lock walls. No pumps are used anyw...

Q 04/05

Which US presidential nominee was born in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was a naval officer?

A) John McCain

B) John Kerry

C) Bob Dole

D) Al Gore

Answer · why

A) John McCain

John McCain was born in 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station. When he ran for president in 2008, the Senate passed a resolution recognising him as a na...

Q 05/05

Which Frenchman led the failed 1880s attempt to dig a canal across Panama?

A) Georges Clemenceau

B) Jules Verne

C) Baron Haussmann

D) Ferdinand de Lesseps

Answer · why

D) Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand de Lesseps was a diplomat, not an engineer, and he insisted on digging at sea level, as he had at Suez. The Americans succeeded with the loc...