Century and a half old canal remains to be newsworthy

The Panama Canal is currently Panama’s biggest claim to fame in the topic of international news. As the country itself is located between two oceans, it automatically has a strategic advantage for oceanic traffic and industrial development. The commotion surrounding the engineering of the Panama Canal is something that began in the late 19^th century and continues to be a topic of news almost 150 years later.

Today, the Panama Canal Expansion project team is working to meet a goal of completing the installation of a third lock to the structure, essentially enabling more transits and bigger ships to pass through. When I asked my diplomat, Alexis Simoneau, to give me her inside take on the newsworthiness of the expansion project, I received this response.

I can tell you that one of Rick Scott’s initiatives in his governance is to expand Florida’s ports because of the expansion of the Canal which is kind of interesting I guess.

Since I’ve been home, one of the questions people most often ask me about Panama is if I got to see the Canal. I expected to hear this question a lot. I lived in old Fort Clayton which is an old US military base from back when the US ran the canal and the city I lived in was literally right across the street and within visible distance of the Miraflores locks. The Miraflores locks are the first set of locks for ships coming in from the Pacific side of the Canal and the last set of locks for ships coming out from the Caribbean side. As I walked to school, I would watch the massive barges and occasional cruise ships sail past me. Depending on which classroom I was in, I could also watch the ships pass through while sitting in class avoiding paying attention to my professors.

There are these really cool machines/cars/tugboat things that ride along tracks and they weigh a lot and they literally carry these MASSIVE barges through the locks.

Don’t really know what else to say about the Canal.

As this was not exactly the response I expected, here are some fun facts readers may not know about the Panama Canal:

1. Approximately 40 ships pass through the Panama Canal each day, 14,000 each year.

2. The cheapest fare paid to pass through the canal was by Richard Halliburton on August 23, 1928. As he swam his way across, his charge was determined by his body weight (150 lbs) which cost him 36 cents.

3. The locks on the canal that enable it to open and close are 7 feet thick.

4. The Panama Canal sees a gross income of over $3 billion each year.

Judging by the last fact, it is no wonder the Panamanian government is so concerned with expanding their prized possession. The Panama Canal provides its country with over $800 million dollars a year in pure profit and allows for the passing through of 5 percent of the worlds international trade.

Panama Canal