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The Panama Canal is an important shipping route. This
artificial waterway is located in Panama, a country in
Central America. On one side of Panama is the Caribbean
Sea; the Pacific Ocean flanks the other side. The Canal
runs through the narrowest part of the Isthmus of
Panama. The Canal allows ships to pass from the east to
the west coasts of the United States and vice versa
without having to go round South America. This shortens
the voyage by 8000 nautical miles and ships no longer
have to sail through the dangerous and stormy Cape Horn.
A huge dam was built across River Chagres, creating an
artificial lake known as Lake Gatun. The Canal flows
through the Gatun Locks to the dam which lies to the
east of Lake Gatun.
The Panama Canal is 81.6 km long. The minimum width
of the Canal is about 91 m and its minimum depth is
about 12 m. Through this Canal, ships can travel from
the Atlantic Ocean via the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific
Ocean. The ships actually have to travel upstream and
downstream in the Canal. This is done by way of locks.
There are twelve locks in the canal. All the locks are
doubled so that ships can pass through in both
directions. The water level in the locks have to be
raised or lowered appropriately to allow a ship to sail
on. The raising or lowering of the water level in the
locks is a time consuming process. A ship will take
between eight to nine hours to cross the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal has been open since 1914. Since
then, the shipping industry has expanded by leaps and
bounds. It has also brought the world closer together.
The existence of the Panama Canal has great political
and commercial importance to the United States. This has
given the United States an edge when trading with
countries in the southern hemisphere of the world and
with the far eastern countries. Routes to the British
Isles and Europe from the western part of the United
States have been made faster. Countries located in the
Pacific Ocean are thus more closely connected with their
manufacturing centers in Europe. The Panama Canal has
also brought the ports in Southeast Asia nearer to the
Atlantic ports of North America.
Lately however, the Panama Canal has not been able to
cope up with the ever increasing demands of modern
shipping. The depth of the water is not deep enough or
certain parts of the waterway are not wide enough for
most modern vessels to pass through. There are also too
many locks in the canal which cause unnecessary delay
and slow down the ships. Due to these factors, proposals
have been made to reconstruct the Canal. One proposal is
to build two-way sea level canals across Costa Rica
which will be underground. These canals will be tunneled
through the mountain range, thus protecting the vessel
from possible storms. |
