The Panama Canal (the year of discovery is 1914): an artificial waterway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

From the course of geography we know that the Panama Canal is one of the most important water transport routes connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It crosses the same isthmus in its lowest part. As a result of the titanic works, the sea route between many ports was significantly reduced, for example, from San Francisco to New York from 24,300 km to 10,700 km. The Panama Canal (1914 opening year) has a length of 81 km, and its passage time is about eight hours.

This channel, along with the Kiel and Suez, has an international status and can only be used in strict accordance with the norms of international law and generally recognized principles, as well as the national legislation of the country to which it belongs. He was already 95 years old. And the Panama Canal was conceived (the year of the discovery of 1914, although it appears) as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century.

In the period from 1534 to 1823, the idea of building it occupied the minds of the Spanish government. It has repeatedly carried out serious studies of this area, has been building plans for the construction / construction of a canal, an important crossing for all through the isthmus. In 1814, the Spaniards even issued an appropriate decree. But in 1823 they lost all their colonies in South and Central America and abandoned their plans. The next 50 years, explorations and projects were engaged in the British, Americans, French and Dutch. In the end, the French company acquired the exclusive right to build and concession for 99 years. It happened in 1876, and three years later this enterprise passed into the hands of the diplomat Ferdinand Lesseps, a construction engineer of the Suez Canal, opened for sea navigation a little earlier - November 17, 1869.

The Lesseps company subsequently went bankrupt, a bankruptcy administration was appointed, and in 1904 the company was sold to the US government for $ 40 million. The Americans agreed with Panama on the eternal lease of the canal territory, and the construction of the Panama Canal began. The year of opening, 1914, marked the end of the 11-year exhausting efforts and labors and showed how much the state realized the realization of the idea. The amount was named considerable - $ 220 million.

As a result, a six-step gateway crossing across the Isthmus of Panama from the port of Cristobal in the Atlantic to the port of Balboa on the Pacific coast, in the direction from the north-west to the southeast, resulted. The length of the canal, as already mentioned, is 80 km, of which 42 - an artificial bed with locks. The length of the sluice chambers is 305 meters, width - 33 and a half. Such dimensions allow 85% of the merchant fleets currently operating worldwide to pass through.

The first ship passed through the isthmus on August 15, 1914, but the official opening of the Panama Canal took place on June 12, 1920, after which it fully entered service.

Now the ships were spared the need to go around Cape Horn and along the Strait of Magellan, thanks to which the most important sea routes were changed. The year of the opening of the Panama Canal was the beginning of a new era in the navigation of this region. The distances between the western and eastern coasts of Canada and the USA, between the Far East and the United States, and between the countries of Latin America itself were reduced 2-3 times.

As early as the 1920s, Panama began to make attempts to transfer the channel to its jurisdiction. This process took place in stages, for many years, and ended only on December 31, 1999, when the Panama Canal (the year of its discovery in 1914, that is, in 85 years) gained complete and real independence.