The Panama Canal is an 82-kilometer artificial canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
It is the most important shipping lane after the Suez Canal.
There have been operations for a long time to open the area so that ships are not forced to go around Cape Horn which means travel with an additional 8,000 miles. But the territorial irregularities and the difference in the level of the two oceans, made it an impossible task.
The first important step was taken by the French in 1881 when great work began. But due to the tropical fever they had losses in the workforce. In 1888 the company that undertook the project went bankrupt due to corruption and mismanagement and so the work stopped.
In 1904 the USA bought the rights from the French and so the work started again. In 1913 the project was completed and a year later it was put into operation.
Ships pay tolls based on their tonnage. The capacity of the canal is 50 ships per day.
For transit, ships enter tanks and are lifted to enter Lake Gatun. After reaching the other side of the lake, they enter another reservoir to descend to the water level in the other ocean.
Until 2000, the economic operation of the canal belonged to the USA.
But militarily the area is considered a neutral zone.
In 2007, work began on widening the canal to accommodate larger ships, which lasted until 2016.
[Source: el.wikipedia.org]
