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The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal. A man, a plan, a canal, Panama. Caribbean Sea. Pacific Ocean. N. History. The French first came up with the idea to build a canal across the isthmus of Central America. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal (Egypt) began work in 1881.

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The Panama Canal

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  1. The Panama Canal

  2. A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.

  3. Caribbean Sea Pacific Ocean N

  4. History • The French first came up with the idea to build a canal across the isthmus of Central America. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal (Egypt) began work in 1881. • Yellow fever and malaria killed at least 22,000 workers. There were major construction and financial problems, so the French construction company went bankrupt in 1889.

  5. The US bought the rights from France to finish the canal. But Colombia controlled the land that is now Panama, and Colombia refused to allow the deal. • Panama declared independence from Colombia on November 3, 1903 and the US immediately recognized the new government. Colombia sent troops by sea to try to regain control of Panama, but US battleships prevented their reaching land.

  6. The US and Panama created a treaty which granted the US “sovereign rights over the Canal Zone,” an area extending 8 km on either side of the entire canal. • Construction began again on the canal in 1904 and took 10 years and more than 75,000 workers. The first ship sailed through on August 15th, 1914. • As of January 1, 2000, all US power of the canal has been returned to Panama.

  7. Today • The Panama Canal is one of the world’s most important waterways, truly an engineering marvel, stretching over 80 km from Panama City on the Pacific side to Colón on the Atlantic side. • Nearly 14,000 ships pass through the canal each year. • A staggering 52 million gallons (197,600,000 litres) of water is released to the ocean with the passage of each ship.

  8. Ships worldwide are built with the dimensions of the Panama Canal’s locks in mind: 305 m long and 33.5 m wide. • Ships pay according to their weight, with the average fee around US$ 30,000 • The highest amount paid was US$ 184, 114.80 by a US container ship; the lowest amount paid was US$ 0.36 paid by Richard Halliburton, who swam through.

  9. The Future • Boats are getting bigger…..much bigger! • Construction began in 2007 on a multi-billion dollar expansion of the canal, designed to widen the locks so larger ships can pass through.

  10. Let’s check out some Panama Canal video clips….

  11. The end….

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