Tugboat, Panama Canal
This is one of the many tugboats in service at the canal.
The Pacific Ocean is on the west side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east side of the Americas. However, Panama, located in the Central America isthmus, is a long and narrow country with its long axis running from west to east. Our transit of the Panama Canal is from the Pacific Ocean in the south, and goes northwest to the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) in the north.
France began work on the canal in 1881, but had to stop because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease. The United States took over the project in 1904, and took a decade to complete the canal, which was officially opened on August 15, 1914. The Panama Canal greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999, and is now managed and operated by the Panama Canal Authority, a Panamanian government agency.
Tugboat, Panama Canal
This is one of the many tugboats in service at the canal.
The Pacific Ocean is on the west side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east side of the Americas. However, Panama, located in the Central America isthmus, is a long and narrow country with its long axis running from west to east. Our transit of the Panama Canal is from the Pacific Ocean in the south, and goes northwest to the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) in the north.
France began work on the canal in 1881, but had to stop because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease. The United States took over the project in 1904, and took a decade to complete the canal, which was officially opened on August 15, 1914. The Panama Canal greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999, and is now managed and operated by the Panama Canal Authority, a Panamanian government agency.