World’s most important waterway: the Panama Canal

the panama canal is the most important waterway on earth it turns this journey into this and it brings the united states closer to both europe and asia the marvel that is the panama canal is both narrow and short and yet every year about 14 600 ships pass through its locks here is how canals have existed in some capacity for nearly all of human history as traveling by boat is one of the most ancient modes of transport it's no wonder that ancient engineers figured out a way to connect two bodies of water together creating new more efficient shipping routes however the construction of the suez canal in 1869 set a new precedent for what was possible a pathway connecting two seas together with the mediterranean sea and red sea now connected governments throughout the west set their sights on connecting two even bigger bodies of water together the atlantic and pacific oceans during the california gold rush of the mid-19th century panama was often used as a shortcut for shipping goods from new york to california ships would dock either on the pacific or atlantic side and transport their goods across what is now panama eventually a railroad was built to make the shortcut more efficient the french had different plans though in 1881 work began on building a sea level canal similar to egypt's suez canal however a combination of poor planning and inefficient design led to france failing to make any meaningful headway into constructing a canal after significant worker casualties due to illness floods and poor management the u.s took over construction in 1904 chief engineer john frank stevens took one look at the geography and instantly knew why the french had failed a sea level canal was simply not possible thus work began on the creation of the world's then largest artificial lake getun lake by damning the nearby chagras river engineers created the artificial lake to function as a water reservoir system 85 feet above sea level this would work in conjunction with a series of canal locks to raise and lower ships as needed as they passed through the canal further expansion projects would then ensue as the ship traffic passing through the canal steadily increased throughout the years so how does the panama canal work as a cargo boat nears the canal's approach channels from the sea several tugboats come to greet it the tugboats attach a tow line to the cargo ship and move them into alignment with the canal lock's narrow entrance once a cargo ship is firmly within a lock a tugboat remains behind to keep it in place the lock gate behind it then shuts while the lock gate ahead gradually opens displacing water at a steady pace thus raising the ship so that it can then enter the next lock where it will eventually join gatun lake ships are protected by rubber fenders installed along the locked sides preventing them from scraping or chafing as they pass through they then cross gatun lake towards a different set of locks on the other side where the process is repeated it is crucial for this process to be gradual as this keeps the water flowing at a manageable rate the average amount of time it takes for a ship to pass through the panama canal is about 11 hours with most of that time spent waiting for other ships to pass as the canal's locks functioned as gates for ships to pass through building additional locks was the first order of business when the panama canal was expanded during the late 2000s as of 2021 the panama canal features four separate sets of canal locks for ships to pass through the gaton and agua clara locks facing the atlantic and the cacholi and miraflores locks facing the pacific the original locks measured 110 feet wide and 1050 feet long and could fit ships up to 965 feet in length and 60 feet in beam ships built with specifications that would fit through the canal were dubbed panamax class ships they could fit up to 5000 standard shipping containers on board while this may seem like a huge amount of cargo this figure is dwarfed by the additional capacity granted by the canal's newer bigger locks with the construction of new locks new panamax or neopanamax class ships could accommodate up to 13 000 containers while the panama canal has yet to face a blockage similar to the suez canal's mishap earlier this year maintenance has been an ongoing issue the estimated annual cost to maintain it has been quoted to be as high as 350 million dollars engineers are constantly fighting natural phenomena such as erosion and landslides just to keep the canal intact over its century of service the panama canal has varied an innumerable amount of cargo between its narrow straits chances are many of the things you own have found themselves on a ship passing through the panama canal at one point here's to hoping this marvelous feat of engineering lasts a hundred years more [Music]

Channel: Interesting Engineering

Views: 233,820

Keywords: engineering, science, technology, panama canal, water locks, waterway, shipping, culebra cut, transit, pacific ocean to the atlantic, hydropower, hydrology, river, gatun lake

Id: SK_CNbv1bis

Length: 6min 0sec (360 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021