After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. The United States took over the project in 1904, and opened the canal in 1914. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.Ĭolombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. Location of Panama between the Pacific Ocean (bottom) and the Caribbean Sea (top), with the canal at top center Pacific Ocean from Atlantic Ocean and vice versa A schematic of the Panama Canal, illustrating the sequence of locks and passagesģ locks up, 3 down per transit all three lanesįerdinand de Lesseps, John Findley Wallace (1904–1905), John Frank Stevens (1905–1907), George Washington Goethals (1907–1914)
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