Panama Canal

a canal extending SE from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the Isthmus of Panama. 40 mi. (64 km) long.

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Canal of the lake-and-lock type, Panama.

Extending across the Isthmus of Panama, it connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is about 51 mi (82 km) long from deepwater to deepwater, with a minimum width of 300 ft (91 m) and a minimum depth of 41 ft (12 m). In 1879 a French company began constructing the canal, but the enterprise collapsed in 1889. Under a 1903 treaty Panama granted the U.S. the Panama Canal Zone and the rights to build and operate a canal. Work began in 1904; facing enormous obstacles, George Washington Goethals directed the construction from 1907, and the canal opened on Aug. 15, 1914. The canal enabled ships traveling between the two oceans to avoid the lengthy circumnavigation of South America and was a boon to world commerce. After disputes over sovereignty, a 1977 treaty provided for Panama to take control of the canal by 2000; it did so in 1999. Except for small craft, no vessel can pass through the canal under its own power. Ships are towed by electric locomotives, and it generally takes 15–20 hours to complete the passage (including waiting time). Sets of double locks enable ships to pass in opposite directions simultaneously.

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▪ canal, Central America

Introduction

Spanish  Canal de Panamá  

  lock-type canal, owned and administered by the Republic of Panama, that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama (Panama, Isthmus of). The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 65 km (40 miles) and from deep water in the Atlantic (more specifically, the Caribbean Sea) to deep water in the Pacific about 82 km (50 miles). The canal is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal. Ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the United States, which otherwise would be obliged to round Cape Horn in South America, shorten their voyage by about 15,000 km (8,000 nautical miles) by using the canal. Savings of up to 6,500 km (3,500 nautical miles) also are made on voyages between one coast of North America and ports on the other side of South America. Ships sailing between Europe and East Asia or Australia can save as much as 3,700 km (2,000 nautical miles) by using the canal.

      From its opening in 1914 until 1979, the Panama Canal was controlled solely by the United States, which built it. In 1979, however, control of the canal passed to the Panama Canal Commission, a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama, and complete control passed to Panama at noon on December 31, 1999. Administration of the canal is the responsibility of the Panama Canal Authority, which answers solely to the government of Panama.

Physical features

The canal

      The Panama Canal lies at a latitude of 9° N, at a point where the North American Continental Divide dips to one of its lowest points. The canal does not, as is generally supposed, cross the isthmus from east to west. It runs due south from its entrance at Colón on the Atlantic side through the Gatún Locks to a point in the widest portion of Gatún Lake (Gatun Lake); it then turns sharply toward the east and follows a course generally to the southeast until it reaches the Bay of Panama, on the Pacific side. Its terminus near Balboa is some 40 km (25 miles) east of its terminus near Colón. Parallel to the canal are the Panama Canal Railway and the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway.

 In passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, vessels enter the approach channel in Limón Bay (Limón, Bahía), which extends a distance of about 11 km to the Gatún Locks. At Gatún a series of three locks lift vessels 26 metres (85 feet) to Gatún Lake. The lake, formed by Gatún Dam on the Chagres River and supplemented by waters from Alajuela Lake (Lake Madden; formed by the Madden Dam), covers an area of 425 square km (164 square miles). The channel through the lake varies in depth from 14 to 26 metres (46 to 85 feet) and extends for about 37 km (23 miles) to Gamboa. At Gamboa, Gaillard (Culebra) Cut through the Continental Divide begins. The channel through the cut has an average depth of about 13 metres (43 feet) and extends some 13 km (8 miles) to the Pedro Miguel Locks. The locks lower vessels 9 metres (30 feet) to Miraflores Lake, at an elevation of 16 metres (52 feet) above sea level. Vessels then pass through a channel almost 2 km (1 mile) long to the two-stepped locks at Miraflores, where they are lowered to sea level. The final segment of the canal is a dredged approach passage 11 km (7 miles) long through which ships pass into the Pacific. Throughout its length the canal has a minimum bottom width of 150 metres (500 feet); in Gatún Lake the width of the channel varies between 150 and 300 metres (500 and 1,000 feet), and in Miraflores Lake the width is 225 metres (740 feet).

Locks (lock)

 The canal locks (lock) operate by gravity flow of water from Gatún, Alajuela, and Miraflores lakes, which are fed by the Chagres and other rivers. The locks themselves are of uniform length, width, and depth. Each set of locks is built in pairs, to permit the simultaneous transit of vessels in either direction. Each lock gate has two leaves, 20 metres (65 feet) wide and 2 metres (6.5 feet) thick, set on hinges. The gates range in height from 14 to 25 metres (46 to 82 feet); their movement is powered by electric motors recessed in the lock walls. They are operated from a control tower, which is located on the wall that separates each pair of locks and from which the flooding or emptying of the lock chambers is also controlled. The lock chambers are 300 metres (1,000 feet) long, 33 metres (110 feet) wide, and 12 metres (40 feet) deep.

      Because of the delicate nature of the lock mechanisms, only small craft are allowed to pass through the locks under their own power. Larger craft are taken through by electric towing locomotives, which operate on cog tracks on the lock walls. Before a lock can be entered, a fender chain, stretched between the walls of the approach, must be passed. If all is proceeding properly, this chain will be dropped into its groove at the bottom of the channel. If by any chance the ship is moving too rapidly for safety, the chain will remain stretched and the vessel will run against it. The chain, which is operated by hydraulic machinery in the walls, then will pay out slowly by automatic release until the vessel is brought to a stop. If the vessel should get away from the towing locomotive and, breaking through the chain, ram the first gate, a second gate 15 metres (50 feet) away will protect the lock and arrest further advance.

Breakwaters (breakwater)

      Long breakwaters (breakwater) have been constructed near the approach channels in both oceans. Breakwaters extend from the west and east sides of Limón Bay; the west breakwater protects the harbour against severe gales (gale), while the east one reduces silting in the canal channel. On the Pacific side a causeway extends from Balboa to three small islands (Naos, Perico, and Flamenco) and diverts crosscurrents that carry soft material from the shallow harbour of Panama City into the canal channel.

The economy

Navigation

 Ships are taken through the canal by one or more pilots, who board each ship before it leaves the terminus. With waiting time, ships may require about 15 to 20 hours to negotiate the canal. The average transit time, once a vessel has been authorized to proceed, is about 9 hours from deep water to deep water. When Gaillard Cut is not being dredged, canal traffic generally proceeds in both directions. The heavy rainfall of Panama makes operation feasible despite the irrevocable loss of large quantities of water with each transit. To conserve water, two or more vessels moving in the same direction are passed through together when their size permits.

      Each ship is also boarded by measurers to verify its carrying capacity and to collect tolls. Manifests, ships' papers, and other documents are inspected and recorded. Transits are scheduled and monitored at points along the route by an automated marine traffic control system.

Maintenance

      Continual maintenance work on the canal and its associated facilities is needed to keep it in operation in a tropical climate. This includes dredging channels, scheduling overhauls of locks, and repairing and replacing machinery. Because of heavy rainfall and unstable soils, landslides in the hills adjoining Gaillard Cut have been an intermittent problem since the canal was built. Preventive and remedial measures frequently have been taken to keep the channel open, and a program to stabilize its banks was designed to draw away rainfall that might otherwise undercut its slopes. Two major slides have occurred since 1970, the first in 1974 and the second in 1986; in both cases one-way traffic had to be imposed for a time in the affected area.

      Another serious problem threatening the canal has been the increased silting and sedimentation rate of the rivers and streams of the watershed and, ultimately, of the canal itself. This degradation has been caused by the slash-and-burn (slash-and-burn agriculture) agricultural techniques practiced by local migratory farmers. The canal watershed was still completely forested in the early 1950s, but by the late 1970s it had been reduced by nearly 70 percent. Measures to control soil erosion have been undertaken by the governments of both the United States and Panama.

Canal traffic

      Traffic through the Panama Canal is a barometer of world trade, rising in times of world economic prosperity and declining in times of recession. From a low of 807 transits in 1916, traffic rose to a high point of 15,523 transits of all types in 1970. The cargo carried through the canal that year amounted to more than 134.6 million metric tons (132.5 million long tons). Although the number of annual transits has decreased since then, the canal carries more freight than ever because the average size of vessels has increased.

      The principal trade routes served by the Panama Canal run between the following points: the east coast of the U.S. mainland and Hawaii and East Asia; the U.S. east coast and the west coast of South America; Europe and the west coast of North America; Europe and the west coast of South America; the east coast of North America and Oceania; the U.S. east and west coasts; and Europe and Australia.

      Trade between the east coast of the United States and East Asia dominates international canal traffic. Among the principal commodity groups carried through the canal are motor vehicles, petroleum products, grains, and coal and coke.

Norman J. Padelford Wayne D. Bray Burton L. Gordon William E. Worthington, Jr.

Panama Canal Authority

      The Panama Canal Authority is charged with the administration, operation, conservation, maintenance, and modernization of the Panama Canal. Created by amendment of the Panamanian constitution as an autonomous agency of the Panamanian government, it took over management of the canal from the joint U.S.-Panamanian Panama Canal Commission at noon on December 31, 1999. An important responsibility placed in the hands of the Panama Canal Authority is the care, maintenance, and preservation of water resources in the entire Panama Canal watershed. The watershed is essential to the operation of the canal, and it also supplies water to cities at either end of the canal route.

      The Panama Canal Authority is governed by a board of directors. The board consists of 11 members. The chairman, who has the rank of minister of state for canal affairs, is selected by the president of the republic. The legislative branch of the government designates one director, and the remaining nine members are appointed by the president with the concurrence of the cabinet council. They must be ratified by an absolute majority of the legislative assembly.

Tolls (toll)

      While under U.S. administration, tolls for use of the canal were set at rates calculated to cover costs of maintenance and operation, thereby making the canal self-financing. The charge for each transit was based upon the interior cargo or passenger-carrying capacity of a vessel. The rates established in 1914 remained virtually unchanged for 60 years. In 1973 the canal operated at a loss for the first time, and in 1974 the first of several rate increases went into effect.

      Traditionally, cargoes were carried below deck and tolls were assessed on goods carried there. However, because of changes in marine design and the widespread use of containerized cargoes, a large portion of the burden is now carried on deck. The volume of containerized cargo passing through the canal is outranked only by shipments of grain and petroleum products. These changes led to modifications in rules of admeasurement and the assessment of tolls for on-deck container capacity. Following the lead of the Panama Canal Commission, the Panama Canal Authority approved similar changes in admeasurement regulations and retained the U.S. toll rates in effect when the canal was transferred.

      From the tolls collected, the Panama Canal Authority must pay an annual fee to the Panamanian national treasury. Any surplus remaining after that and the payment of canal operational and maintenance expenses also goes to the treasury.

William E. Worthington, Jr.

History

Construction

      As early as the 16th century, the Spanish recognized the advantages of a canal across the Central American isthmus. Eventually two routes came to be considered, one through Panama and the other through Nicaragua. Impetus for selecting the route through Panama increased with the construction (by the United States) of the Panama Railroad in the mid-19th century. The eventual route of the canal closely followed that of the railroad.

      The first attempt to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama (Panama, Isthmus of) began in 1881 after the Colombian government granted a concession to the privately owned Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique. The company, under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps (Lesseps, Ferdinand, vicomte de), was financed by French capital from countless small investors. Because of Lesseps's recent triumph building the Suez Canal, he was able to attract public support for building a sea-level canal across Panama. This proposal was protested strongly by Adolphe Godin de Lépinay, baron de Brusly, an engineer who had studied the isthmus. Lépinay knew the surface features at Panama: the Continental Divide 15 km (10 miles) from the Pacific, the torrential Chagres River flowing into the Atlantic, and the smaller Río Grande flowing into the Pacific—both rivers suitable for creating artificial lakes. In 1879 he proposed a “practical” plan for building a canal, calling for a dam at Gatún and another at Miraflores (or as close to the seas as the land would permit), letting the waters rise to form two lakes about 25 metres (80 feet) high, joining the lakes by cutting across the Continental Divide, and connecting them to the oceans through locks.

      Lépinay's conception eventually established him as an architectural and engineering genius and as the originator of the plan from which the Panama Canal was built. Unfortunately for the French, however, his idea was ignored at the time, and the Compagnie Universelle embarked on its ill-fated undertaking. Lesseps was unfamiliar with conditions in Panama or was unwilling to acknowledge that they were vastly different from Suez. Unlike the arid desert of the Isthmus of Suez, Panama was a tropical jungle, with diluvial rains, debilitating heat and humidity, and tropical diseases. Topographic conditions along the proposed route varied considerably and ranged from coastal marshes to the mountains of the Continental Divide. Despite competent engineering, there was no sound overall plan. Machinery used to dig the canal was either too light or ill-suited for the tough inland terrain, and disease took a terrible toll in workers' lives.

      Progress was costly and extremely slow. As a cost-saving measure, the plans for a sea-level canal were eventually dropped in favour of a high-level lock-type canal, but this change had little effect. With no foreseeable return on its investment, the French public lost faith in the project and its leader. Attempts at further financing failed, and the company collapsed in 1889. Although the company reorganized in 1894, it virtually ceased to function by 1898. Any possibility of completing the canal across Panama was gone; its sole hope lay in holding together an enterprise that could be offered for sale. In the end, less than half of the excavation made by the French was used in the U.S. canal.

 Hope became reality with the passage of the Spooner Act of 1902 by the U.S. Congress, which authorized purchasing the assets of the French company and building a canal provided that a satisfactory treaty could be negotiated with Colombia (of which Panama was then an integral part). When treaty negotiations with Colombia broke down, Panama, with the implicit backing of the United States, declared its independence and was recognized by the United States in November 1903. The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was then negotiated between Panama and the United States. The treaty satisfied the Spooner Act and created the Panama Canal Zone (Canal Zone); it was proclaimed in February 1904.

      From the first Senate resolution in 1835 favouring Nicaragua until the dramatic change of location for the canal in the Spooner Act, the American public and government had consistently and overwhelmingly supported a canal through Nicaragua. That the canal was built in Panama is primarily attributable not to the intrinsic merits of the Panama route but to the ingenuity and zeal of two remarkable men who worked separately toward a common goal: the French engineer Phillipe-Jean Bunau-Varilla (Bunau-Varilla, Philippe-Jean) and the American lawyer William Nelson Cromwell. The political power that turned the U.S. government in favour of Panama was supplied by two people: President Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Theodore) and Senator Mark Hanna (Hanna, Mark). Roosevelt, once committed, supported the project enthusiastically and so is almost universally thought of as the “father” of the canal. Most of the actual work on the canal was done during the administration of William Howard Taft (Taft, William Howard) (1909–13), who had also been involved earlier in Roosevelt's administration.

      By the summer of 1904, work under American administration was under way all along the canal route. The French had abandoned the sea-level approach in favour of a high-level canal with locks, and indeed this was desirable as it would cost less and would eliminate potential problems arising from differences in sea levels at either end of the waterway. Yet engineers still disagreed on the type of canal that should be built, and they faced another problem of equal importance: how to manage the Chagres River, which rose in the northeast highland region of Panama and emptied into the Atlantic. From Gamboa to Gatún the route of the proposed canal tended to follow the path of the river as it made its way to the sea. Fed by runoff created by the area's frequent tropical downpours, the river was subject to tremendous and rapid variations in its rate of flow. Left unchecked, its menacing flood could easily inundate a waterway built near its path.

      In 1906 Roosevelt resolved the matter when he sided with Chief Engineer John Frank Stevens (Stevens, John Frank), who argued for a lock-type canal. The plan ultimately approved by Congress was similar in all essential respects to the one proposed by Lépinay but rejected by Lesseps. Included in the proposal was an enormous earthen dam across the Chagres River at Gatún. The dam created what was then the largest artificial lake in the world (Gatún Lake), and at the same time it brought a considerable part of the Chagres River under control. So massive was the lake that it was able to accommodate the greater part of the river even at flood stage. Perhaps more important, the man-made lake formed more than 30 km (20 miles) of the canal route.

 Where tropical fevers— yellow fever and malaria in particular—had decimated the ranks of French workers, those in charge of the American effort were determined to prevent the same thing from happening again. American medical staff understood how the diseases were transmitted and how they could be controlled, and by 1906 the Canal Zone was safe for work to resume in earnest. At times more than 40,000 people were employed on the project, mostly labourers from the West Indian islands of Barbados, Martinique, and Guadeloupe but also many engineers, administrators, and skilled tradesmen from the United States. Railroads and heavy machinery were critical elements. Most notable was the use of more than 100 steam shovels, many of which were used to dig the Culebra Cut, later called Gaillard Cut after David du Bose Gaillard, the American engineer who supervised its construction until his death in 1913. The unstable nature of the soil and rock in the area of the Cut made it one of the most difficult and challenging sections of the entire canal project. Workers who laboured in temperatures of 38 °C (100 °F) or higher used rock drills, dynamite, and steam shovels to remove as much as 73 million cubic metres (96 million cubic yards) of earth and rock as they lowered the floor of the excavation to within 12 metres (40 feet) of sea level. Hillsides were subject to unpredictable earth and mud slides, and at times the floor of the excavation was known to rise precipitously simply due to the weight of the hillsides. The well-known Cucaracha slide of 1907 continued for years and poured millions of cubic metres into the canal excavation. The canal, the greatest engineering feat yet attempted, was opened to traffic on August 15, 1914.

Capital improvements

      The first major capital improvement on the canal was the construction of the Madden Dam and Power Project, which was completed in 1935. This not only stemmed and controlled the flow of water moving into Gatún Lake to a rate of some 6 billion cubic metres (200 billion cubic feet) per year but also created a large reservoir, Lake Madden (now Alajuela Lake). It also increased the production of electric power in the region. The Boyd-Roosevelt Highway was then built across the isthmus, thereby adding a third means of transportation to the waterway and the railroad. In 1955 the Thatcher Ferry Bridge was built, which connected Panama City and Balboa to the west side of the canal. From 1957 to 1971 Gaillard Cut was widened from its original 90 metres (300 feet) to 150 metres; and from 1991 to 2001 it was widened again to 200 metres, permitting two vessels to pass each other in the cut.

      Many of the ships built since the 1970s, notably supertankers and large naval vessels, are too large to pass through the canal. Thus, there has been much study on the feasibility of either widening the existing canal and locks or building a larger sea-level canal at another location. Proponents of the sea-level canal contend that it would be less expensive to operate and, since it would have no locks, less vulnerable to military attack than the Panama Canal. Opponents of such a project cite its enormous expense and the possibility that it could create serious environmental problems by permitting the exchange between the two oceans of long-separated plant and animal species.

International status

      The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was an irritant to Panamanian sensibilities from the moment it was signed. It had been written and negotiated for the infant republic by Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla (Bunau-Varilla, Philippe-Jean), a French citizen who had not been in Panama for 18 years and who later openly admitted that he was willing for Panama to pay any price to ensure acceptance of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. The most onerous part of the treaty, in the Panamanian view, was the right granted to the United States to act in the entire 16-km- (10-mile-) wide, ocean-to-ocean Canal Zone as “if it were the sovereign.” Thus, the Canal Zone became in effect a foreign colony that bisected Panama, despite Theodore Roosevelt's declaration in 1906 that no such result was intended. As eventually constituted by the middle of the century, the Canal Zone was administered by an American governor appointed by the U.S. president. Judicial matters were settled before magistrates appointed by the governor or by a circuit court judge appointed by the president. The governor was ex-officio a director and president of the Panama Canal Company, an American corporate body whose directors were charged with operating and maintaining the canal in a businesslike manner. In order to guarantee operation of the canal in the event of war, U.S. military units were stationed in the Canal Zone.

      Some of the harsher effects of the 1903 treaty were ameliorated by subsequent treaties, principally those of 1936 and 1955. The United States relinquished its claimed right to acquire additional lands and waters adjacent to the canal, granted Panamanian control over the ports at Colón and Panama City, and brought the wages of Panamanians employed in the Canal Zone closer to the level of Americans. But the Panamanians continued to press for more drastic changes, including eventual full sovereignty over the canal. After years of negotiation, agreement was reached between the two governments in 1977. The Panama Canal Treaty was signed on September 7 of that year by General Omar Torrijos Herrera (Torrijos, Omar) of Panama and President Jimmy Carter (Carter, Jimmy) of the United States. It terminated all prior treaties between the United States and Panama concerning the canal and also abolished the Canal Zone. The treaty recognized Panama as territorial sovereign in the former Canal Zone, but it gave the United States the right to continue managing, operating, and maintaining the canal and to use lands and waters necessary for those purposes during a transition period of 20 years covered by the agreement. The treaty also provided for joint study of the feasibility of a sea-level canal and gave the United States the right to add a third lane of locks to the existing canal. The treaty went into effect on October 1, 1979, and expired on December 31, 1999.

      The 1977 treaty was supplemented by a separate, but interrelated, Neutrality Treaty that also went into effect in 1979 but has no termination date. Under the Neutrality Treaty the United States and Panama guarantee the permanent neutrality of the canal, with nondiscriminatory tolls and access for all nations; U.S. and Panamanian warships, however, are entitled to expeditious passage. No nation other than Panama may operate the canal or maintain military installations within Panamanian territory. The United States, however, reserved the right to use military force, if necessary, to keep the canal open; this was, in part, the rationale behind the U.S. military intervention in Panama in 1989–90, which, nonetheless, did not prevent the canal from being closed down for about a day in December 1989.

      The U.S. Senate ratified the two treaties in 1978, after one of the lengthiest treaty debates in American history. The treaties were then implemented into U.S. domestic law by the Panama Canal Act of 1979. This act, among other things, established the Panama Canal Commission, which replaced both the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone government. The commission was controlled by a board consisting of five American and four Panamanian members. Until 1990 the administrator was an American and the assistant administrator a Panamanian national; after 1990 the roles were reversed, and Panamanians assumed the leadership position. The function of the commission was somewhat different from its predecessor, as activities not directly related to the canal, such as maintenance and operation of terminals and the Panama Canal Railway, were transferred to Panama in preparation for the final turnover. With the turnover of the canal in December 1999, the Panama Canal Authority assumed complete responsibility for the canal.

      The international status of the canal also is affected by two older treaties. In the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (Hay–Pauncefote Treaty) of 1901, the United Kingdom gave up its interest in an isthmian canal. And, while the United States was free to take any measures in order to protect a canal, it agreed that there would be “entire equality” in the treatment of ships of all nations with respect to “conditions and charges of traffic.” In the Thompson-Urrutia Treaty of 1914, the government-owned vessels of Colombia were exempted from paying tolls.

Wayne D. Bray Burton L. Gordon William E. Worthington, Jr.

Additional Reading

A concise physical description of the Panama Canal is found in Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.), Panama: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1989). Paul J. Scheips (ed.), The Panama Canal: Readings on Its History (1979); and David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (1977), detail the history of the canal's construction.Works treating the canal mostly from the point of view of international law and foreign relations include Paul B. Ryan, The Panama Canal Controversy: U.S. Diplomacy and Defense Interests (1977); J. Michael Hogan, The Panama Canal in American Politics: Domestic Advocacy and the Evolution of Policy (1986); Walter LaFeber, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective, updated ed. (1989); John Major, Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903–1979 (1993); and Mark Falcoff, Panama's Canal: What Happens When the United States Gives a Small Country What It Wants (1998).Burton L. Gordon William E. Worthington, Jr.

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