Panama Canal

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Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a 51-mile ship canal with six pairs of locks that crosses the Isthmus of Panama and allows vessels to transit between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Built between 1904 and 1914, the canal shortened maritime voyages considerably. For its first 85 years the canal was operated exclusively by the United States government as an international maritime passage, according to the 1903 Hay-Buneau-Varilla Treaty and the 1977 Carter-Torrijos Treaty that replaced it. Under the latter treaty, the canal was turned over in 1999 to the Republic of Panama, which has operated it ever since.

One of the world's great engineering projects, the canal was controversial because of the method by which the United States gained the concession (by negotiating a treaty with a French shareholder temporarily representing Panama) and its operation of the utility with little regard to the interests of Panama. Panamanian and other critics pointed out that the United States took unfair advantage of the newly independent republic (separated from Colombia in 1903, with the help of the United States) to impose conditions for near-sovereign ownership; complained that it exceeded its original concession by creating a strategic military complex with fourteen bases and numerous intelligence sites; and asserted that it created a virtual state within a state by establishing public agencies and enterprises in the 500-plus square miles of territory it controlled in the Canal Zone. These controversies were settled by the 1977 treaty, which provided for a twenty-two-year period of U.S. withdrawal and turnover of the canal to Panama.

HISTORY AND DESIGN

The possibility of an interoceanic canal in Central America had been considered since the sixteenth century, but construction had not been feasible until the nineteenth. Ferdinand de Lesseps, organizer of the French company that had built the Suez Canal in the 1860s, gained a concession and undertook to build a canal in Panama in the 1880s, but this effort failed because of design flaws, tropical disease, and mismanagement. The U.S. government began work on a Nicaraguan canal in the 1890s but also desisted. In 1902–1903, however, given the opportunity to build at a more favorable site in Panama, the United States negotiated first with Colombia (of which Panama was a province) and then with Panama for canal rights. The negotiations were unequal and coercive, but guaranteed Panama's independence; the U.S. acquired the rights to build, operate, and protect the canal. This episode confirmed the emergence of U.S. imperialism in the region and helped to project the nation onto the world stage.

Canal construction was carried out by private contractors under the guidance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Overall authority was exercised by the Interoceanic Canal Commission, which eventually became the Panama Canal Commission. After determining that the French sea-level plan was not feasible, the designers settled on a lock canal that would create an artificial lake in the Chagres River Valley some 85 feet above sea level. The river was dammed a few miles from its mouth to create Gatún Lake, which provided water to operate the locks by gravity flow and allowed ships to complete about half the crossing under their own power. Massive excavation was required to cut through the mountains south of the lake and to create approach channels between the locks and the open sea at either end. It was the largest and costliest engineering project undertaken to that time.

The enormous concrete lock chambers, each measuring 1,000 by 110 feet, receive transiting ships, close their steel gates, and fill with water flowing through underground conduits. Highly trained canal pilots are always in control of the ships while they are in the canal. Three pairs of locks at either end of the canal raise and lower ships 85 feet. Due to close quarters and turbulence, locomotives (called mules) tow and control ships during lockages. All the machinery runs by electric power, a new technology in 1914. Ships proceed under their own power through the lake. The entire transit takes about eight hours, not counting the approach and time spent waiting at anchor to enter the canal. Delays and heavy demand can slow down transit time considerably.

During the U.S. period, the canal served mostly U.S.-owned ships (albeit flying other nations' flags of convenience) and transported largely bulk cargo. Since the 1980s, however, an increasing percentage of ships, classified as "Panamax" (Panama Canal maximum)—designed specifically to fit the dimensions of the canal locks—are carrying more high-value cargo, mainly containerized.

TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP

Most of the transition from U.S. to Panamanian management took place in the 1990s, culminating in the turnover of December 31, 1999. Panamanian employees systematically replaced their U.S. counterparts in preparation. Canal managers carried out major capital improvement projects, including widening and dredging the narrowest sections and renewing the heavy equipment inventory. Under legislation passed in the 1990s, two new agencies of the Panamanian government oversaw policymaking for canal operations and the transfer of properties being vacated by the United States. Most challenging was finding productive uses for the former military bases, some of which were hazardous due to toxic chemical wastes and unexploded ordnance. Much vacant land on both sides of the canal was designated as a national park, to prevent development that could threaten the canal watershed and future operations. As part of a general privatization of public enterprises, operation of the contiguous ports of Balboa, Cristobal, and Coco Solo were contracted to private, mainly Asian corporations, and a U.S. company completely rebuilt the Panama railroad to carry containers.

Since the transfer of ownership, canal traffic and revenues have grown with the rise in world trade. The Panama Canal Authority, an independent public agency, has run the canal efficiently and generates considerable profit for the nation. It has also integrated canal business more fully into the national economy.

After several years of debate, the government held a referendum in 2006 on a giant undertaking to build a new set of locks capable of taking much larger ships, dubbed "post-Panamax." These would include supertankers, container vessels from Asian ports, and vehicle transporters. The project, which was approved with over 60 percent of the votes, is expected to cost over five billion dollars.