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The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal was an engineering marvel of the early 20th Century. It is a 48-mile long set of locks and canals that allows ships to travel from the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean without traveling all the way around South America. When the canal was opened in 1914 it shortened the sea voyage from New York City to San Francisco by about 8,000 miles.

The Canal actually has a much longer history than most people realize. Charles V (King of Spain, 1516-1556; Holy Roman Emperor, 1519-1558) had a possible route for the canal surveyed in 1534 - some 380 years before it actually opened.

The canal includes three locks, the Miraflores, Pedro Miguel, and Gatún. These locks allow ships to be raised from sea level into Lake Gatún, about 85 feet above sea level. Miraflores Locks and Pedro Miguel Locks transport ships from Panama City on the Pacific side into the lake' Gatún Locks transport ships between the lake and Colón on the Caribbean side.

There is a land platform where you can watch the canal at the Miraflores Visitors Center about a 15 minutes from Panama City. It's a nice place - four floors of exhibitions, interactive displays and a theater with info on the canal's history and impact on world trade, and some environmental information. You can watch ships from an observation deck, and the best time to see them is in the afternoon, about 2pm.

The Miraflores Visitors Center also has a restaurant (reasonable prices) open from 11am to 11pm.

Resources on the Panama Canal

  • **[[duko>http://www.canalmuseum.com/|Canal Museum]]**
  • **[[duko>http://www.eclipse.co.uk/~sl5763/panama.htm|The Panama Canal]]**
  • **[[duko>http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/panamacanal.htm|@ About Dot Com]]**
  • **[[duko>http://www.frommers.com/destinations/outsidepanamacity/3752010029.html|@ Frommer's]]**
  • **[[duko>http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html|Panama Canal Authority]]**
  • **[[duko>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal|Wikipedia]]**

  • *[[Duko>http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyng883/133064777/|by lyng883 ]]**

  • *[[Duko>http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyng883/133066250/|by lyng883 ]]**

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