Panama Canal Company

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Panama Canal Company

Panama Canal Company, a wholly owned U.S. government corporation that operated the Panama Canal and its auxiliary enterprises (including the Panama Railroad) from 1951 to 1979. Overall policy was established by a board of directors appointed by the U.S. president. The president of the company was also the governor of the Canal Zone. The company was created to replace the Panama Railroad Company, which had performed similar activities since the construction of the canal. The company was succeeded by the Panama Canal Commission, created by the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties and the Panama Canal Act of 1979.

See alsoPanama; Panama Canal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Major, Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903–1977 (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Lindsay-Poland, John. Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.

Fitzgerald, Luis. Historia de las relaciones entre Panamá y los Estados Unidos. Panamá: Editorial Universitaria, 2001.

                                   Michael L. Conniff