The Panama Canal came into existence to solve the inconvenience of circumnavigating South America when shipping goods from San Francisco to New York or Tokyo to London, saving ships about 8,000 miles of travel distance and significant time and expenses in the process.

hofstra.edu

The French initiated the canal construction in 1881 but abandoned it due to engineering challenges and high worker mortality rates. The United States, led by Theodore Roosevelt, resumed the project in 1904 and completed it by 1914, amounting to a cost of $921 million, an equivalent of nearly $10 billion today. Adjusted to the GDP share at that time, this expense would be akin to the U.S. spending $119 billion today.

Although widely known, most people overlook the functioning of the Panama Canal.

The common perception of the canal as a carved-out swath of land that creates a narrow passage across Panama is inaccurate. In reality, the canal resembles more of a man-made channel or river running over the land’s surface, enabling ships to traverse across. At its highest point, ships reach an elevation of 85 feet (26 meters) above sea level.

But how do ships, some as long as 950 feet, ascend the land?

Here’s the explanation:



The Panama Canal utilizes a series of locks to move ships in steps, akin to a staircase, maintaining them at a constant level throughout the journey. The system consists of three upward and three downward steps. When it was initially constructed in 1914, it stood as a remarkable feat of engineering.

Shown is a map featuring the canal’s lock locations, along with an animation illustrating precisely how the locks operate, albeit with slightly exaggerated heights:

Source: buettner.to