From the course of geography, we know that the Panama Canal is one of the most important water transport routes connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It crosses the eponymous isthmus in its lowest part. As a result of titanic labor, the sea route between many ports was significantly reduced, for example, from San Francisco to New York from 24,300 km to 10,700 km. The Panama Canal (opening year 1914) has a length of 81 km, and its passage time is about eight hours.
This channel, along with Kiel and Suez, has an international status and can only be used in strict accordance with international law and generally recognized principles, as well as the national legislation of the country to which it belongs. He is 95 years old. And the Panama Canal was conceived (the year of opening was 1914, although it is listed) back in the early sixteenth century.
In the period from 1534 to 1823, the idea of its construction occupied the minds of the Spanish government. It has repeatedly conducted serious research of this area, made plans for conducting / building a canal, which is important for all crossing the isthmus. In 1814, the Spaniards even issued a corresponding decree. But in 1823 they lost all their colonies in South and Central America and abandoned their plans. Over the next 50 years, the British, Americans, French and Dutch were engaged in research and projects. In the end, the French company received the exclusive right to build and concession for 99 years. This happened in 1876, and another three years later this enterprise passed into the hands of the diplomat Ferdinand Lesseps, a civil engineer of the Suez Canal, opened for shipping a little earlier - November 17, 1869.
Lesseps's company subsequently went bankrupt, competition management was appointed, and in 1904 the company was sold to the US government for an amount of $ 40 million. The Americans agreed with Panama on the perpetual lease of the canal, and construction began on the Panama Canal facility. The year of discovery, 1914, marked the end of 11 years of exhausting efforts and labors and showed how much the state cost the implementation of the idea. The amount was named considerable - 220 million dollars.
The result was a six-stage lock passage through the Isthmus of Panama from the port of Cristobal in the Atlantic to the port of Balboa on the Pacific coast, from the north-west to the south-east. The length of the canal, as already mentioned, is 80 km, of which 42 are an artificial channel with locks. The length of the lock chambers is 305 meters, the width is 33 and a half. Such dimensions allow passing 85% of the vessels of the merchant fleet of the whole world currently in operation.
The first ship passed through the isthmus on August 15, 1914, but the Panama Canal officially opened on June 12, 1920, after which it fully commissioned.
Now ships were spared the need to go around Cape Horn and along the Strait of Magellan, thanks to which the most important sea lanes were changed. The year of the opening of the Panama Canal was the beginning of a new era in the navigation of this region. 2-3 times reduced the distance between the western and eastern coasts of Canada and the United States, between the Far East and the United States, between the countries of Latin America itself.
Back in the 20s of the last century, Panama began to attempt to transfer the channel to its jurisdiction. This process took place in stages, many years, and ended only on December 31, 1999, when the Panama Canal (the year of its opening in 1914, that is, 85 years later) gained full and real independence.