Passengers which are traveling to Panama certainly should not miss the magnificent Panama Canal, wonder which is builded by human hands. Panama is a country in which North America encounters with South. Also it become a place where the Pacific Ocean connecting with the Atlantic through the world-famous Panama Canal.
400 years ago people wanted to dig a channel. If ships which are sailing from east to west can move through this channel, they would not have to spin even through western America. Traveling that way cut thousands of kilometers. It took 30 years and cost a large sum of money to dig the channel through swamps, jungles and mountains of Panama. What is worse, many of the people who worked on this project died from diseases. The construction of the Panama Canal began in 1881 and was completed in 1914.
The debt of Panama Chanel is 77 km and has a system of dams around 300 meters long. The Panama Channel was dug through the narrowest part of Central America. Along its entire length two-way channel consists of 17 artificial lakes and several other channels. Passing one cargo ship through the Panama Channel takes about nine hours.
All numbers that are related to the Panama Canal are impressive. The canal annually serves around 15 000 ships and five percent of the world’s marine cargo. The channel connects more than 144 sea routes, 1700 world ports and 160 countries. The entire construction, a century ago, cost 375 000 dollars.
Today the city of Panama survives from this channel. Annual income is measured in billions of dollars and 10000 people have secured job. The great project of reconstruction and expansion of channels, on which the inhabitants of Panama decided in a referendum, started in 2007.
It is especially interesting to sail through the Panama Canal surrounded by pretty wild and untouched nature and enjoy the ambiance of some cruise ship. Today, Panama Canal is considered as one of the most influential human achievements in history. The American Society of Engineers declared it as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
