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Panama Canal Facts; Interesting Tidbits about the Building of Mankind's Greatest Engineering Projects

The following is an unordered list of random facts about the Panama Canal.

A Panama Canal fact is that in order to for construction to progress on the Panama Canal a U.S. doctor, Dr. Gorgas, had to reduce the mosquito population so that malaria and yellow fever would be less of a problem. He was so successful in the measures he introduced and that Panama has continued that there has not been a case of yellow fever in Panama since 1905!

A Panama Canal fact is that the US negotiated the Hay-Herran Treaty with Colombia in 1903 to build a canal in the Colombian province of Panama. When the Colombian legislature worried that the US would take over sovereignty and did not approve the treaty. President Roosevelt sent US naval warships and troops to support a budding revolution in the Colombian province of Panama. With US help the country of Panama came into existence.

A Panama Canal fact is that the building of the Panama Canal was and still is one greatest engineering projects in the history of the world. Built between 1904 and 1914 the Panama Canal has provided passage for over 800,000 boats between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. United States engineers and doctors had to excavate over 240 million cubic yards of earth of rock and dirt, and find a place for it, as well as overcome tropical diseases that had killed over 20,000 workers in the French effort to build a canal.

A Panama Canal fact is that the first Panama Canal treaty between the U.S. and Panama was signed by a Frenchman on behalf of Panama. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed by Phillipe Bunau-/Varilla who was a minister in the newly formed Panamanian government. Days after signing the treaty he resigned and moved back to France.

A Panama Canal fact is that the idea of a canal to cross the Isthmus of Panama goes back to the 16th century. A working plan for a canal was drawn up as early as 1529 but no attempts were ever made to dig a canal until 1880.

A Panama Canal fact is that the understanding of the spread of infectious diseases was in its infancy in the 19th and early 20th century. The idea that mosquitoes spread both yellow fever and malaria was initially considered crazy. However, Dr. Gorgas and his staff prevailed on the second chief engineer, John F. Stevens, to use techniques Gorgas had learned in Cuba from his commanding officer, Walter Reed, to reduce mosquito populations. The end result of Gorgas' work was that Yellow Fever was eradicated from Panama with the last known case in 1905. Malaria continued. In 1905 nearly all of the American contingent contracted malaria, including Gorgas. In 1906 to 1907 the death rate of workers from Malaria was 7.45% but by 1913 it had been reduced to .03%. Thus the American effort proceeded with a much less debilitated work force than the French effort.

A Panama Canal fact is that the current Panama Canal locks are huge structures with a sixty foot thick central wall between the lock chambers. The side walls are 55 feet thick at the base and taper in steps to eight feet at the top.

The center wall of each of the Panama Canal locks has three tunnels running is full length. The lowest is a drainage tunnel, the next houses electrical cables, and the top is a passage for maintenance.

The new Panama Canal Expansion lock system will involve much larger locks and a different gate design.

A Panama Canal fact is that the current Panama Canal locks use a hinged door design. This requires shutting down one traffic lane if a door needs to be removed and taken to a dry dock for maintenance. The new Panama Canal locks will have a pair of sliding doors on each end. Each door will be wide enough to work by itself. Thus if a door is in need of repair it will be pulled into its recess in the adjacent wall and a bulkhead sealed to create a dry dock for repairs. The lock will continue to function while maintenance proceeds on the door in question.

A Panama Canal fact is that in 2007 the Panama Canal Authority (ACP, Autoridad del Canal de Panamá) started a ten year long, five billion US dollar project to more than double the capacity of the Panama Canal. This is the Panama Canal Expansion project. A Panama Canal fact is that there have been four treaties by the United States relating to the Panama Canal. The first was with Colombia, the Hay-Herran Treaty. The treaty allowing the building of the Panama Canal was the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. When the United States ceded control of the Panama Canal to Panama there were two treaties, the Neutrality Treaty and the Panama Canal Treaty. These two treaties are usually referred to as the Torrijos - Carter Treaties in reference to the two national leaders who signed on behalf of their respective nations.

Panama Canal Zone