“A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!”–The longest palindrome I know…

Sunday, January 10:

If you read the title of this entry backwards, it says the same thing – a palindrome!

Today we transit the Panama Canal. We have been through the canal about five or six times, but every time we go through, I marvel at this masterpiece of (relatively) modern engineering, just as others marvel over the Pyramids or the Grand Canyon. Yes, we have visited those as well, but one gets a very different feeling when transiting the Panama Canal.

For starters, at over 100 years old the canal operates today exactly as it did the day it was opened: gravity feeds the hydraulic lock system; ships move under their own power – the “mules” are used only as guides; the dredging has never stopped.

The Canal runs from the northeast corner of the Panama Canal Zone to the southwest corner. Oh, you thought it ran from east to west or vice versa…no. no, no. Here’s a map:


As early as 1524 King Carlos V of Spain first began to try for a cross-Panama canal. It was not until the late nineteenth century after the French had built the Suez Canal (stay tuned for our transit of that “other wonder” in a few months) that Ferdinand de Lesseps, the chief executive of the Suez was sent to Panama to try to duplicate that feat. It didn’t take long for the French to realize they were sinking waaaay too much money, material, and mostly men into a morass from which they might never recover. They gratefully succumbed to then-President Teddy Roosevelt’s offer to take over the digging of the canal.

By the time the United States stepped in, around 1904, a sea-level canal had been long abandoned and the Americans realized that they would need a locking canal. The final product produced the largest man-made lake in the world (at that time), the longest lockable canal in the world (at that time), along with a number of other superlatives.

Here are a few other facts about the Canal:

• The locks raise and lower all shipping traffic about 85’ above sea level.
• Tens of thousands of laborers from all over the world engaged in the construction.
• Over 26,000 died during the construction; most from disease.
• The road running parallel with the canal on the west side is called “Bonnie’s Great-Grandfather’s Road” in honor of Bonnie’s great-grandfather who was one of the engineers working on the project and who was responsible for building that road.
• The Chagres River feeding the canal zone was dammed with the then-biggest earth-fill dam in history: over a mile long and over half a mile wide at its base.
• It takes from 8-10 hours to transit the canal.
• Each canal lock is 1000’ long by 110’ wide; thus specifying the maximum size of all shipping for over half a century and giving birth to the Panamax ship design.
• Over 1 billion gallons of water a day are used in raising and lowering the over 14,000 ships transiting the canal annually. That’s about 52 million gallons used by each lock each day.
• The highest toll ever paid was by the container ship Maersk Dellys in 2006: $249,165.00. The lowest was by Richard Halliburton in 1928: $0.36. The Maersk Dellys was a container ship. Richard Haliburton as a famous long-distance swimmer of the time – he swam through and was locked up and down just like any other transit. By the way: all tolls must be paid in cash at the time of transit!

Here is what the profile of the canal looks like:

 

Here are a few pictures with captions explaining what we see and pass through as we transit the canal.

Here is the approach to the first lock at the Gatun Locks entrance on the north side of the canal (the “Atlantic” or Caribbean side). The large ship getting ready to exit the third step is the ms Amsterdam. Note the rowboats at the near end of the lock center wall.

Here comes the rowboat, as it has since the canal opened in 1914, to get the line that will attach to the electric mules.

These are some of the electric mules. They do not pull or tow, but only guide and assist in steadying the ships. All ships must transit under their own power.

Another shot as we begin to enter the first step of the three-step lock that will raise us about 85’ to Lake Gatun. Over to the right of the picture you can see some “white water.” That is the discharge from the second step that is released after the ship in front of us is in the third step. The riveted steel lock doors are set so precisely that they could be swung, if necessary, by hand! Fortunately, that has not been necessary.

The mule ready to attach to the ship’s capstans. Notice the cables hanging off the side of the mule waiting to be pulled aboard the foredeck.

Here we are getting ready to move into the first step of the Gatun Lock. The first step will move us up about 10 meters (~33’). The second step will move us another 10 meters and the third step will move us the final distance for a total of about 85’. The ms Amsterdam is seen getting ready to exit the third step into Lake Gatun.

This is a Panamax ship coming into the parallel Gatun Lock beside us. Each lock can handle two ships at once in each step of the lock. Notice that the hull is comparatively slim compared to the containers stacked on the superstructure. There is about 18”-24” on each side of the freighter between the hull and the lock walls. It takes a lot of skill to navigate these locks. You can also see that there are two mules near the bow and one astern.  

This is one of the dredges that works around the clock to maintain the shipping channel in the canal. Because of the unstable nature of much of the native soils, there is a need to constantly dredge the channel to assure adequate clearance for the hulls of the large freighters and tankers.

This is “Gold Hill” on the west side of the Culebra Cut. Because the French were having so much trouble financing the project (before the USA stepped in), they told stories of rumored “hills of gold” to interest investors. To date has been exactly zero gold found anywhere along the canal’s route.

This is another shot of Gold Hill and opposite it is Contractor’s Hill, named in honor of the many contractor’s who worked on the project and lost so many workers. Before the final grading as shown in the photo, Gold Hill was about 50’ higher and Contractor’s Hill was about 40’ higher. They originally thought they could bring down both hills to canal level, but never realized that these “hills” represented the continental divide and they would have had to be taken down several hundred feet more.

Tomorrow is a sea day and then on to Manta, Ecuador.

Stay tuned…