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Round the Clock Viewing; the Panama Canal Live Cams

The Panama Canal is the system of man made channels, locks, dams, and artificial lakes that connect the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean across the Isthmus of Panama. Since its completion of The construction in 1914 the Panama Canal has allowed shipping to cross the fifty mile wide isthmus at the narrowest part of the Americas. The Panama Canal locksallow ships to enter the system from either ocean and to be raised to the level of artificial Lake Gatun, 26 meters above sea level, to transit central Panama before being lowered to sea level on the other side.

There are Panama Canal live cams set up along the Panama Canal. Three are broadcast on the web site for the Panama Canal Authority (Autoidad del Canal de Panama, ACP). These three Panama Canal live cams are at the Miraflores and Gatun Locks and at the Centennial Bridge. The Miraflores, Panama Canal live web cam updates its image every ten seconds.

Panama Canal Info

The Panama Canal allows ships to avoid the Drake Passage around Cape Horn at the tip of South America saving up to 8000 miles for shipping that originates north of the canal.

Current passage time is about 9 hours. In 2007, 312 million tons of commercial shipping passed through the Panama Canal in 13,223. If you watch the Panama Canal live cam at Miraflores for 24 hours you will see about 36 container ships pass.

The hydroelectric power to run the canal system comes from the Gatun Dam. The canal does not use all power generated and sells the unused portion.

Cost of Passage

When you watch a Panama Canal live cam shot of a container ship passing through the Miraflores locks remember that The ships pay a toll for passage. For example, based on charges updated on May 1, 2007 container ships pay based on capacity to carry shipping containers measuring twenty feet by eight feet by 8 and a half feet. For each twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) a ship pays $54. For a large container ship with a capacity of 4,400 TEU's the toll would be 4,400 X $54 = $237,600. Smaller boats are assessed by length with boats less than fifty feet length paying $500 and those over 100 feet paying $1,500.

This Panama Canal live cam shot is of the Centennial Bridge by night. The Panama Canal live cam at the bridge changes images every 30 seconds and in this shot shows a tug moving under the bridge.

The Panama Canal is an engineering wonder as well as a sight seeing wonder. Visit the Panama Canal live cams from time to time to see The cruise ships, Panamax container ships, and small vessels transit the Panama Canal.

Panama Canal Fact

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!