What is the Panama Canal?
The Panama Canal is a series of canals, locks, and artificial lakes that have been cut through the land of the isthmus between North America and South America. The canal provides a pathway for ships passing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, about 40 miles. Its importance lies in the fact that ships would have to sail around South America, more than 6,000 extra miles, to reach these oceans without the Canal. How was it built? In the late 1800s a French company started construction of an ill-conceived and under funded sea level canal across the isthmus. As might be expected, the company could not cope the immense problems from working in a tropical climate with odd diseases and few workers willing to work there. It went bankrupt. A few years later, through a series of rebellions, wars, and a questionable treaty, a strip of land 10 miles wide through the middle of the newly independent Panama was obtained by the United States, and the Canal could now become a reality. President The
