Panama Canal

Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

The Panama Canal cuts across the narrowest part of the Americas, shortening the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific by thousands of kilometres. A French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps began excavating in 1881 but abandoned the effort in 1889 amid disease, landslides and financial collapse, with a huge loss of life. The United States took over in 1904, supported its workforce with an intensive campaign against yellow fever and malaria led by William Gorgas, and built a lock-based canal instead of a sea-level cut. Ships climb into the artificial Gatún Lake by the Gatún Locks, cross the isthmus through the Culebra Cut, and descend by the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks. The canal opened in August 1914 and passed to Panamanian control at the end of 1999. In 2016 a third set of larger locks, at Agua Clara on the Atlantic side and Cocolí on the Pacific, began to handle bigger ships. It is a working waterway, not a monument, and its operation depends on water from the surrounding rainforest, which makes drought and climate a real concern. Visitors can watch ships pass at the Miraflores Visitor Center, with its observation decks, museum and film, or at Agua Clara, which has a viewing deck over the newer locks. Operators also offer partial transits, a rare chance to be lifted within a lock aboard a boat. Check the transit schedule, as ships pass at set times.