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Associated Press
On This Day: Panama Canal Opens
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On Aug. 15, 1914, the SS Ancon passed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in a record nine hours, officially opening the Panama Canal.
30-Second Summary
At 7:00 a.m., the SS Ancon left Cristobal, Panama, on the country’s Atlantic coast, reaching Balboa, Panama, on the Pacific, at 4:00 p.m. Her nine-hour journey was the first commercial trip through the 50-mile canal.
The passage realized a centuries-long desire for a shortcut through the Isthmus of Panama. The Canal cut 8,000 nautical miles off a trip from New York to San Francisco, which would otherwise require voyaging around the southern tip of South America.
The canal was the largest endeavor to date undertaken by the U.S. government.
Construction began in 1904, after the United States paid $10 million to Panama for land around the planned waterway. America had already paid $40 million to the ill-fated French Canal Company, which started construction in 1880 but ran over budget. Most of the French work was unusable because the American planners favored a lock-canal, not a sea-level canal.
By its end, the project claimed an estimated 25,000 lives, mostly through diseases such as yellow fever and malaria contracted before effective treatment was developed.
“The amount of earth removed was equal to a building nineteen miles high with a base the size of a city block.” Each lock, if stood upright, would be taller than the Eiffel Tower.
The United States owned the Panama Canal until 1979, when control passed to a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama. Complete control passed to Panama at noon on December 31, 1999.
The passage realized a centuries-long desire for a shortcut through the Isthmus of Panama. The Canal cut 8,000 nautical miles off a trip from New York to San Francisco, which would otherwise require voyaging around the southern tip of South America.
The canal was the largest endeavor to date undertaken by the U.S. government.
Construction began in 1904, after the United States paid $10 million to Panama for land around the planned waterway. America had already paid $40 million to the ill-fated French Canal Company, which started construction in 1880 but ran over budget. Most of the French work was unusable because the American planners favored a lock-canal, not a sea-level canal.
By its end, the project claimed an estimated 25,000 lives, mostly through diseases such as yellow fever and malaria contracted before effective treatment was developed.
“The amount of earth removed was equal to a building nineteen miles high with a base the size of a city block.” Each lock, if stood upright, would be taller than the Eiffel Tower.
The United States owned the Panama Canal until 1979, when control passed to a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama. Complete control passed to Panama at noon on December 31, 1999.
Headline Link: ‘The Panama Canal Officially Opens
The New York Times describes the opening of the Panama Canal. The SS became first ship to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Canal on August 15, 1914. It did so only nine hours.
Source: The New York Times
Background: ‘Troubled Passageway’
Encyclopaedia Britannica provides a comprehensive description of the canal, past and present. It discusses Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa’s realization of the area’s relatively narrow width, French canal failures and American lessons, and ends with Panama’s recent political problems.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Official Panama Canal Web site offers Frequently Asked Questions about the Canal’s physical characteristics, tolls and transits, and more. Wondering what was the volume of material excavated during the construction of the Canal? “As of July 1, 1914, a total of 238,845,587 cubic yards of material had been excavated during the U.S. construction period … 3 times the volume excavated for the Suez Canal."
Source: Panama Canal Authority
The Panama Canal Authority presents videos that explain how canal locks work, where the canal flows, and the canal’s dimensions.
Source: Panama Canal Authority
Later Developments: U.S. cedes control to Panama
According to the Panama Canal Treaty, the United States was to cede control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government by 2000. Written just a month after the signing of the Treaty, the article describes how the issue has been closely connected with American power in the wake of the Cold War.
Source: Time
Related Topic: ‘Noriega on Ice’
In 1990, U.S. forces arrested Manuel Noriega and brought him to Miami to face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering and numerous other crimes. “There he was posed in a T shirt for a humiliating mug shot, then stashed in a windowless basement cell. Panama’s numero uno had become federal prisoner 41586.”
Source: Time
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