For anybody interested in things mechanical, the Panama Canal is about the most interesting thing that you could possibly encounter.
The canal is not really a canal in the true sense of the word, it is not a big ditch, like the Suez. The reason it is not a ditch is because the bottom end of the Great Divide, [the Rockies] was in the way of the proposed ditch. The ditch would have had to be too deep to be constructed with known technology. That is still likely true today.
So the decision was made to block a river thereby making the biggest man-made lake in the world. The presence of the lake meant that the ships could sail over half the distance across the isthmus without any digging at all. However they had to construct locks at both ends, [Atlantic and Pacific], that raised the ships up 85 feet to the lake, then the ships sail across the lake and then lower it the same 85 feet at the other end. The tremendous amount of water needed to operate the locks is a result of the substantial amount of rain that falls in the surrounding rain forest. About nine feet a year. The dams built to block the river generate the power to run the whole operation. The lake's elevation means that no pumps are required to flood the locks, so it is almost a perpetual motion machine.
The French had started their dig, as a ditch, not locks, in 1879. It was terribly unsuccessful. It cost over 20,000 lives due to small pox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever and snake bites. They abandoned the project 1889.
In 1903 the US staged a bloodless revolution that in the end meant that Panama was taken from Colombia and became an independent country. All nicely engineered by the new US president Theodore Roosevelt with the help of the US navy. The second attempt to dig the Panama Canal was started late 1903. It was deemed in the best interest of the US to have control of the canal as it saves over 8000 miles in getting shipping, including naval ships, from the US east coast to the west coast.
There was a strip of land running the entire length [50 miles], and ten miles in width which is/was known as the Canal Zone, under US control. The Canal opened in 1914 after terrible hardships. Over 5500 men and women died in this attempt. There had been medical advances since the French had their futile attempt, so many diseases had been conquered and mechanical and electrical innovation had also advanced substantially as well.
That is a very very brief version of one of the most amazing engineering feats ever accomplished. Since 1999 the Country of Panama has run the Canal Authority, apparently with an extremely high degree of efficiency and now employees over 8000 people. The US retains the right to protect the Canal operation, should the need arise, otherwise it is open to all nations.
For your information our ship, Arcadia has about two feet to spare in width, and a fair amount in length. The ship moves in and out of the locks under their own power, while in the locks, they are 'centred' in the lock by electric 'mule' locomotives that are tightly secured to the ship.
The cost for us to transit the canal... are you ready for this?
Over $370,000 U$.
It was very misty/smoky when we went outside early this morning, and the humidity was unreal. A sister ship, Oriana was going through alongside of us for the first set of locks this morning. She is just going to turn around and sail out later today, not going through the other set of locks and going into the Pacific. It is called a 'partial transit'. Her cost today, $260,000 U$! Oddly enough, Fellette and my sister and I were on Oriana exactly 10 years ago, transiting the canal, again to San Francisco where we flew to Maui. Who would have thought that we would be doing it again 10 years later. Not I for one.
It was quite exciting to see all the fuss and bother about two ships from the same line so close to each other for over an hour. Lots of cross-ship chatter, particularly with the crew.
It is uncomfortably hot and humid outside. We will be a few hours in the lake and then go through and down the other set of locks and into the Pacific for dinner tonight. sophisticated
My sister and brother-in-law transited the Canal west to east several years ago. When their ship was through the canal and in the open sea, the captain announced that there had been an invasion of the Canal Zone by US forces. They had seen helicopters and Army activity but thought that is was a training exercise.
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