Dispatch Number 76 -Panama Canal

This is a slightly dated piece written while in Panama in 2009.

As an American you hear all sorts of stuff about this waterway growing up, the biggest this or that, the greatest engineering task ever undertaken by man and so on... usually with a great deal of American grandstanding. So there I was standing at the Gatun Locks on the Panama Canal, a giant set of locks on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. Locks are the equivalent of gigantic rectangular swimming pools and the Gates are like a pair of swing doors to an old style saloon that open and close holding water in or keeping it out.

The waterway is an 80 kilometer (49 mile) passage over a combination of man made lakes, waterways and canal locks to cross the Isthmus. Since it opened, more than 950,000 vessels have transited the waterway. Enough earth was removed that if it was all put on railroad flat cars, it would circle the globe four times at the equator. The briefest of history- As early as the mid 1500´s the Spanish wanted a water way in Central America to move their gold about, from then on it was studied with various plans made over the centuries. Once the location was set by the French in the 1880´s work began on a sea-level canal that lasted almost ten years. Due to the immensity of the project and high number of worker deaths (over 20,000) caused mostly by yellow fever and malaria, both untreatable diseases at the time, that the French abandoned the ambitious project. The Americans took over the canal rights from the French at the open of the new century choosing a Lock-type canal to speed construction after concluding the French plan would take twenty more years to complete.


There were two canal routes under consideration at the time, one in Panama the other in Nicaragua. The Nicaragua canal, favored by the United States, was known as the American Route. While traveling in Nicaragua I took the American Route on the Rio San Juan, on a colorful combination of river boats, dug out canoes and lake ferries. It was one of the highlights of my travels so far. The landscape along the San Juan feels unchanged from the late-1800s and remains road-less to this day. I traveled for nearly two weeks on the 120 mile long river and discovered it was populated with just three towns; everything between them was virgin jungle, cow pastures and the occasional one house settlement. Thousands of would be gold miners made their way to join the California Gold Rush during the 1850's over both routes using a combination of ships, wagons and trains to make the passage over the isthmus.

To expedite U.S. interest's to build and control the canal Roosevelt´s Administration recognized Panama when it proclaimed independence from Columbia in 1903. It did this because Columbia was slowing the concession discussions and asking for more money. Teddy and his investors would have none of it. The discussions and planning for Panama's secession from Columbia took place in Washington, D.C. The process was a shameful one. When Panama claimed independence America promptly recognized it as a sovereign nation at a ceremony in the White House. It did not include a single Panamanian nor was Spanish spoken. Additional insult was added when the canal treaty was negotiated without Panamanian government officials; it was conducted by a Frenchman. The history of the canal reads better than fiction. Better.

The US went on to build, manage and fully control the land five miles on each side of the waterway from 1903 to 1999. It was run like a military base (and looks exactly like one) that included very large defense installations at the Pacific and Atlantic entrances with 15 inch naval guns. All rights were returned to the Government of Panama in 1999 honoring a handover agreement made in 1977.
Enough history.


At the Gatun Locks observation platform I watched the container ship Maersk Dunbury make the transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean dropping ninety feet in three monumental steps, then set free to sail the Atlantic. From the viewing platform I could throw rocks at the ships as they moved slowly by like sleeping skyscrapers. The Dunbury is a class of container ship designed to just squeeze through the canal with 2 1/2 feet on each side to spare. Cables are tied to the ship then moved by locomotive tugs that keep it centered in the canal way. Transit from ocean to ocean takes eight to twelve hours.

The Dunbury was over 900 feet long and 105 feet wide and paid $268,000 cash for the passage, every ship pays cash two days in advance including the U.S. Navy. The Dunbury is in the Panamax-class of ships designed to maximize the canal dimensions of 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long. In 2014, a new set of giant locks will open as a third lane to allow transit of post-Panamax ships, the canal dimensions grow to 180 feet wide and 1,500 feet long. Trivia- The smallest toll ever paid was by American adventurer Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1928, it took ten days and he paid a 36 cent toll. Tolls are based on weight of a vessel.

Amidst all the heavy industrial equipment and vast volumes of water movement it is of interest to note that the first time a ship is connected to the canal is by row boat that two canal workers row out to catch the lead line. A ship is moved without computers or electronic sensors, instead it is done the old fashioned way: by eye, bells, steam whistles and radios.

The Gates, aptly described as giant steel swing doors weight 700 tons each and are the originals installed in 1914. They open or close in under two minutes and the locks empty and fill in under ten minutes moving a ship up or down 28 vertical feet. The water movement is staggering as a massive pipe system moves, via gravity, 26,000,000 gallons of water in less than ten minutes. The process is repeated three times until vertical movement of 90 feet is reached. Despite these massive movements of machinery, ships and water the whole process is oddly silent, even the movement of water is done so smoothly that it looks as calm as a duck pond.

Fresh out of questions for David the guide, I asked what the worst accident was to happened at the canal, thinking I would hear of a runaway ship crashing the giant steel gates followed by an explosion of water. Careful what you ask, the answer was sobering and both accidents involved the steel cables that run from the locomotive tugs and the ship. The lucky guy, if you consider it so, had both his legs cut off when a cable snapped, today he holds an office job and gets around by wheelchair. The other handler, less fortunate, was sliced in two mid-torso by a broken cable.

Last year the Panama Canal Authority had revenues of $2.2 billion, after operating expenses, $800 million was left to the government. As a rural traveller I can attest to the vast scope of infrastructure projects canal revenues have funded in the country side: schools, medical clinics, potable water and sewer systems, erosion control and road improvements. The level of infrastructure in Panama stands apart from other countries in Central America. The Panama Canal is, as I am told, the eighth wonder of the world. While impressive I am unsure deserves to be on the list a world wonders.


Postscript: When I shipped my truck from Panama to Colombia it was loaded on the Carribean side of the canal, thus it never transited the canal. I shared a 40' container with one other vehicle, it cost us each $800 USD to ship our cars. I skipped services offered by freight forwarders who would have handled everything, instead I dealt with every detail of an international shipment directly, it was quite a learning experience in both the process and cultures of the Latin American countries involved.

David
Huaraz, Peru