The Panama Canal is a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, built by the United States (1904-14) on territory leased from the republic of Panama. The canal, running S and SE from Lim?n Bay at Col?n on the Atlantic to the Bay of Panama at Balboa on the Pacific, is 40 mi (64 km) long from shore to shore and 51 mi (82 km) long between channel entrances. The Pacific terminus is 27 mi (43 km) east of the Caribbean terminus. The minimum depth is 41 ft (12.5 m).

From Lim?n Bay a ship is raised by Gat?n Locks (a set of three) to an elevation 85 ft (25.9 m) above sea level, traverses Gat?n Lake, then crosses the Continental Divide through Gaillard (formerly Culebra) Cut and is lowered by Pedro Miguel Lock to Miraflores Lake and then by the Miraflores Locks (a set of two) to sea level. The average tidal range on the Atlantic side is less than a foot (.3 m); that on the Pacific side is 12.6 ft (3.8 m).

Spain began settlement of the Isthmus in 1510, and in 1534, Charles V ordered the first survey for a proposed canal across the 50-mile-wide Isthmus. A canal was beyond their capabilities, but the Spanish did pave mule trails with cobblestones to carry tons of gold moving back to Spain from the conquest of Peru. Vestiges of the Las Cruces trail can still be seen today.

In 1850, U. S. interests began construction of the Panama Railroad, just in time to make a fortune carrying gold seekers on their way to California. They came to the Isthmus by ship, crossed the Isthmus, and continued on by ship.

Geographically the project was well conceived; but the malaria and the yellow fever took the lives from more than 25.000 Chinese workers that were brought to work. In 1855 the railroad was finished, which again woke up the interest in an interoceanic canal. A French engineer, Bonaparte Wyse, negotiated a deal with Colombia that attracted the attention of Ferdinand De Lesseps, constructor of the Suez Canal.

In 1880, Ferdinand de Lesseps fresh from his triumph building the Suez Canal, sold stock to millions of Frenchmen to finance the building of a canal in Panama. But the considerable skill of the French engineers was not enough to overcome the disease and geography they found on the Isthmus or make up for the mismanagement in France that brought the enterprise to financial ruin before the end of the century.

In 1903, following Panama’s declaration of independence from Colombia, Panama and the United States undertook to construct an interoceanic ship canal across the Isthmus. The following year the United States purchased the rights and equipment of the French “Canal Interoceanique” for $40 million and took over the construction.

It took ten years, the labor of more than 75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million to complete the job. The builders of the Canal faced unprecedented problems: tropical disease; the unusual geology of the Isthmus that made land slides a constant hazard; the enormous size of the locks and volume of the excavation needed; and the need to establish whole new communities, to import every last nail, and to organize work on a scale never before seen.

Most of the names of the men and women who worked on the Canal are forgotten today, but their legacy lives on.
Of those most well remembered, Colonel William Crawford Gorgas and his medical team are credited with eradicating yellow fever from the Isthmus and bringing malaria under control.

Early Chief Engineer John F. Stevens and other railroad men set up the towns and the supply system and organized the all-important train system to haul dirt out of Culebra Cut, and Col. George Washington Goethals and his staff deserve the credit for the final construction of the locks and Gatun Dam and excavation of the Cut.

By August 15, 1914 the Canal was officially opened by the passing of the SS Ancon. At the time, no single effort in American history had exacted such a price in dollars or in human life. The American expenditures from 1904 to 1914 totaled $352,000,000, far more than the cost of anything built by the United States Government up to that time.

Together the French and American expenditures totaled $639,000,000. It took 34 years from the initial effort in 1880 to actually open the Canal in 1914. It is estimated that over 80,000 persons took part in the construction and that over 30,000 lives were lost in both French and American, (not mentioned the locals).

In the 1960s there was increasing agitation in Panama to achieve greater Panamanian control over the canal, resulting in the negotiation of a new treaty (1967), which failed, however, to gain ratification by the Panamanian government. In 1977 negotiations were successful, and a new treaty was signed. It returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama while setting up joint U.S.-Panamanian control of the canal until the end of 1999, when Panama gained full control. A separate treaty (1979) guarantees the permanent neutrality of the canal.

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