Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a navigation canal located between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It crosses the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama (82 km).
Considered one of the great engineering works of the world of the XX century, the The canal works through locks at each end that lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of labor required to dig the canal, to 27.5 meters above sea level, and then lower them to the level the Pacific or the Atlantic. Before its opening, the natural passages used between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn, located at the southern tip of Chile.
Since its inauguration on August 15, 1914, the canal has managed to shorten maritime communication in time and distance, boosting commercial and economic exchange by providing a short and relatively cheap transit route between the two oceans, decisively influencing in world trade patterns, driving economic growth in developed and developing countries, as well as providing the basic impetus for economic expansion in many remote regions of the world. In 2012, the United States, China South Korea, Chile, Japan and South Korea were the top five users of the canal, which takes eight to 10 hours to cross. The expanded canal opened in 2016, after a decade of construction.
History
First routes
The Isthmus of Panama was already used by Native Americans before the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century for displacement between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The first Spanish explorers learned from the aborigines the ancient paths used by pre-Columbian civilizations to cross the isthmus.
Spanish colonial period
The history of the Panama Canal dates back to the first Spanish explorers who arrived in America. Due to its orography, the Isthmus of Panama is the ideal place to create a passage for maritime transport between the Pacific and the Atlantic. At the beginning of the century XVI, Columbus on his fourth voyage came to sail through Central America looking for a way of passage. He also attracted the attention of Hernán Cortés.
On September 25, 1513, the Spanish Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European explorer to contemplate the Pacific Ocean, and he built a route that would serve to transport his ships from Santa María la Antigua del Darién (Panama's Atlantic coast) to San Miguel Bay on the Pacific, although this 50 to 65 km run was quickly abandoned.
In November 1515, Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán discovered a route that crossed the isthmus from the Gulf of Panama to the abandoned city of Nombre de Dios. This route, which was already partly known by the natives, was improved and paved in some sections, starting in 1519, and became known as the Camino Real de Nombre de Dios, becoming the first great route of the isthmus.
In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator under the flag of the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles I, found a different passage between the two oceans: the Strait of Magellan. His odyssey showed that the road was too dangerous, so the need arose to find an easier way to reach the South Seas without having to sail to the southern tip of the American continent.
In 1524 King Carlos I suggested digging a canal that would shorten trips to Peru and allow ships to avoid the dangerous Cape Horn, especially for transporting gold. A first project was carried out in 1529 but the political situation in Europe and the technological level of the time made it unfeasible. After the problems that arose on the Camino Real de Nombre de Dios, in 1533 the richest and most influential settler in Panama and later a great businessman in Peru, Gaspar de Espinosa, suggested to the Council of the Indies the creation of an alternative route by digging a canal. His plan was to build a road from Panama City, on the Pacific, to the town of Cruces, on the banks of the Chagres River, near the line of the canal that Fernando de Lesseps ended up building in the XX (30 km from Panama). Once in the Chagres River, the cargo would be transported by ships to the Caribbean Sea, and vice versa. Although Espinosa died before making this project a reality, the road was also built very soon after, and was named Camino Real de Cruces. From the mouth of the Chagres River, the loads were transported by sea, first to the royal warehouse in Nombre de Dios, and after its construction in 1597, to the city of Portobelo, where for more than two centuries the famous Portobello Fair, which consisted of large exchanges between the southern part of the American continent (Viceroyalty of Peru) and the rest of the continent and Europe. This route was used for several centuries, including in 1840 during the California gold rush, and today the itinerary followed by the Camino Real de Cruces can still be followed on foot, which preserves much of its old cobblestone.
A few years later, in 1550, another Portuguese navigator, Antonio Galvao, thought that the only way to create quick access to the southern seas would require the construction of an artificial passage and that the only possible locations would be: Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Panama or Darien. The project would not be carried out and, during the reign of Felipe II, José de Acosta wrote a report in 1590 about the difficulty of uniting the two oceans as some Spanish navigators and explorers wanted: «Some people have talked about excavating this land of six leagues and unite one sea with the other […]. That would be flooding the earth because one sea is lower than the other. Apart from these reasons and others of a theological nature, it was also considered that other maritime powers could take advantage of the canal. With Felipe III the project resumed importance and a study was commissioned to Dutch engineers, but the Council of the Indies warned that this project could pose a risk to the Spanish territories in America. Even during the 18th century the project was maintained, but the Crown had other priorities.
The Scottish Expedition
The Darien project was another attempt to establish a route between the oceans. In July 1698, five ships left Leith, Scotland to establish a Scottish colony in Darien and build a trade route with China and Japan. The settlers arrived in Darien in November and called it Caledonia. But the expedition was not prepared to face the adverse conditions that they found there, suffering from local diseases and poor organization. The colonists abandoned New Edinburgh for good, leaving four hundred graves behind. Unfortunately for them, another relief expedition had already left Scotland, reaching the colony in November 1699. It encountered the same problems, as well as being attacked and blockaded by the Spanish. On April 12, 1700, Caledonia was finally abandoned.
19th and 20th centuries
In the 19th century, the dominant project was the construction of a canal at sea level—technologically, much more easy—through Nicaragua. This project (Nicaragua canal) was abandoned for political reasons, although in the XXI century it has been revived.
The idea of the Panama Canal lay dormant for a time, not to reappear until the early 19th century, after the trip of the German naturalist, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, who prepared a project for the excavation of the isthmus between the Chagres and Panama. The French diplomat Fernando de Lesseps presented, ten years later, his project for the excavation of the Panama Canal.
By the end of the 19th century, technological advances and commercial pressures were such that the construction of a canal became became a viable proposition. A first attempt by France failed, but a first excavation was managed. After this failure, the Herrán-Hay Treaty was signed between the Colombian and American governments, with the aim of building a transoceanic canal in Panama, which at that time was part of Colombia. However, the treaty was rejected by the Colombian Senate, a situation that pushed a group of Panamanian businessmen, led by José Agustín Arango, to establish a separatist movement that would allow the Istmeños to directly negotiate a treaty for the construction of the canal with the United States. United, outside the government of Bogotá. The separation of Panama from Colombia was carried out on November 3, 1903, with the support of the United States. The aspirations of President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panamanian elite to build a canal in Panama were formalized with the signing of the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, which allowed the engineering work to be carried out, inaugurated and opened to maritime traffic on August 15, 1914.
The canal is operating in local hands, through the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, signed on September 7, 1977, in Washington, by the president of the United States Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian general Omar Torrijos and with the support of Colombian President Alfonso López Michelsen, since Colombia maintains special rights of passage through the Canal. The treaty ended with the term "perpetuity" of the old Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty and entered into force on December 31, 1999, at 12:00 p.m. m.; date on which it was received by President Mireya Moscoso from former US President Jimmy Carter. In 1999 "The Anthem to the Panama Canal " (Ref. Panamapoetry), was created in its music and lyrics, by Jesús O. Picota C., collaborator of the Panama Canal with 42 years of service. And then, later when he began the studies of the Expansion of the Canal, he made the first musical propaganda titled "Amplification, Homeland and Hope".
The railway
Studies began in 1827. Various projects were proposed and money was sought. In the middle of that century other factors appeared that encouraged the project: the annexation of California by the United States in 1848, and the displacement of colonists to the west coast, each time in greater numbers, increased the demand for a fast route between the oceans.. The California Gold Rush also further increased the movement of settlers westward.
The Panama railroad was built across the isthmus between 1850 and 1855, 75 km long, from Colón on the Atlantic to Panama on the Pacific. The project represented an engineering masterpiece of its time, carried out under very difficult conditions: it is estimated that more than 12,000 people died in its construction, most of them cholera and malaria.
Until the opening of the canal, the railway transported the largest volume of cargo (minerals, materials, etc.) per unit length of all the railways in the world. The existence of the railroad was a key factor in the selection of Panama for the construction of the canal.
The French project
The idea of building a canal through Central America was suggested again by a German scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, leading to renewed interest at the turn of the century XIX. In 1819, the Spanish government authorized the construction of a canal and the creation of a company to build it.
The Republic of New Granada, present-day Colombia, granted a concession for the first time in 1839 to a French company, to establish a line of communication from Panama City to any point on the Atlantic coast. France carried out field studies and the results were positive enough for the French Prime Minister Guizot to send an officer, Napoleón Garella, to verify this optimism. The officer found nothing on the ground that could confirm such optimism; quite the contrary, he highlighted the difficulty of the undertaking, which prompted the French government to lose interest, and the company that owns the concession to renounce it.
The project was in the air for some time. Between 1850 and 1875 many studies were carried out, which led to the conclusion that the two most favorable paths were: through Panama (then part of Colombia) and through Nicaragua. A third option was to build a route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.
In May 1879, the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had completed the excavation of the Suez Canal, presented his project for an interoceanic canal without locks to the Paris Society of Geography, which was to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean through the Isthmus of Panama. Lesseps's project was accepted, and the rights to the concession were purchased for ten million francs. The cost of the works was estimated at 600 million francs, and a company was founded, the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, which raised the necessary funds to execute the project. On December 30, 1879, Ferdinand de Lesseps arrived in Panama with his family and some time later he went to New York, where he was received courteously, but the leaders of the United States did not hide from him that they would oppose, by all means, his company.
The works began in 1881, facing several challenges: the rugged terrain, the malaria and yellow fever epidemics with high mortality among the staff, etc. The work was delayed, and Lesseps appealed to small investors through businessmen such as the Baron de Reinach and Cornelius Herz, who did not hesitate to bribe the press, corrupt ministers and parliamentarians to obtain public financing. The case was uncovered and led to the "Panama scandal", while Gustave Eiffel, consulted on the project, questioned its design, concluding that the canal should include locks to accommodate to the relief of the region. This decision was made, above all, because the Culebra massif was the main obstacle on the canal route.
Ferdinand de Lesseps initially chose the option of a level canal as he did with the Suez Canal, however, carrying out a project of this type in Panama meant having to go through the Culebra massif and therefore, seeing forced to dig a very deep trench in a field made up of different layers.
Another problem occurred in September 1882, when an earthquake shook the isthmus, so that the work and traffic of the railways had to be interrupted for some time. This event led to a drop in the company's share price on the Paris stock exchange.
Despite these setbacks, in 1886, during his inspection, Ferdinand de Lesseps was very satisfied with the progress of the works. Changing the construction plans to a canal with locks saved the company a lot of money. However, from 1886, the opponents of Lesseps did not leave him alone and, during this time, in Paris the intrigues against the company were more and more open and reached the public opinion, which was disastrous because the money ended in 1888. Lesseps was forced to stop all work and abandon the project, which represented the end of the "French Canal".
Finished bankruptcy on February 4, 1889, the de Lesseps company was taken over by the chief engineer of the canal construction site, Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, who was carrying out new work according to the Eiffel project. Without financial support, Bunau-Varilla turned to the US government, to which he decided to cede the rights to exploit and build the Panama Canal and control of the area around it. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty validated this operation and was signed on November 18, 1903, almost immediately after the revolution that caused the separation of Panama from Colombia.
US administration and assignment to Panama
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The new Republic of Panama, represented by Bunau-Varilla, granted the US perpetual rights to the canal, and a wide area of eight kilometers on each side of it, in exchange for a sum of 10 million dollars and an annual income of $250,000.
On January 7, 1914, the floating crane "Alexander La Valle" made the first complete transit through the canal. However, it was not until August 15, 1914 when the steamer "Ancón" officially inaugurated the Panama Canal. The interoceanic highway began operations 24 hours a day in May 1963, with the installation of new fluorescent lighting at Gaillard Cut or Culebra Cut and the three locks.
The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, however, was highly contested in the following decades. Panama wanted to regain control of the Canal Zone. Negotiations began in 1970, between the US government and the Panamanian authorities. On September 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter and Panama's head of government, Omar Torrijos, signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaty, which returned full control of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.
Foreign support
It should be noted that the main foreign leaders who mainly supported this negotiation were Carlos Andrés Pérez (Venezuela), Alfonso López Michelsen (Colombia), Daniel Oduber (Costa Rica) and José López Portillo (Mexico), this support being vital importance to the success of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
The canal is currently administered by the Panama Canal Authority.
Timeline to 1999
- 1881: First attempt to build a canal in Panama by a French company.
- 1902: Signature of "Law Spooner" by President Roosevelt. The U.S. The United States agreed to resume the construction of the Panama Canal, following the failure of the French company.
- 1903 (January): Preparation of the Treaty on the right of the construction of the Panama Canal by the US. U.S.
- 1903 (August): The Congress of Colombia rejects the Herran-Hay Treaty.
- 1903 (November): Proclamation of the separation of Panama from Colombia. The new Republic of Panama is recognized by the US Congress. U.S.
- 1903 (November): Signature of the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, by the new Plenipotentiary Minister of Panama, Philippe Bunau-Varilla. The U.S. The United States now had the authorization to continue the construction of the Panama Canal. They also had territories on both sides of the canal, and full sovereignty in the Canal Zone.
- 1904: Renewal of the works of the interocean way by the USA. U.S. The Channel Isthmic Commission was created for its construction.
- 1913: Completion of the construction of the Panamanian canal, symbolized on August 15, 1914 by the passage of steam "Ancon". The Channel's Islamic Commission ceased to exist. The governor of the Canal Zone will be the administrator. That same year the United States through the Urrutia-Thomson Treaty gives 25 million dollars to Colombia as compensation for the loss of Panama.
- 1964: (January) U.S. police fire against thousands of protesters, who try to break the canal fence by force. (see: Martyrs' Day).
- 1977: (September) Signature of the Torrijos-Carter treaty, which implied the progressive cession of the sovereignty of the Canal Area USA. U.S. to Panama.
- 1999: The Panama Canal Commission ceased to exist, passing the administration to the Panama Canal Authority.
Administration
Víctor Abad delegated to the Republic of Panama full responsibility for the administration, operation and maintenance of the Panama Canal at noon on December 31, 1999. The government entity, called the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), created by The Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama and organized by Law 19 of June 11, 1997, is responsible for the administration of the canal.
According to the constitution of Panama, the canal constitutes an inalienable patrimony of the nation, for which reason it cannot be sold, transferred, mortgaged, or in any other way encumbered or alienated. The fundamental objective of the legal regime established for the ACP is to preserve the operating conditions of the channel. Although in fine print in the face of a state of emergency or world war, the United States can retake control of the channel at any time.
Every year around ten million dollars are invested in personnel training programs on the operation and maintenance of the canal.
Timeline since 1999
- 1999: Starts administration through the Panama Canal Authority
Sequence of lifting of a ship, and passage through locks Miraflores. - 2005: A new TEU-based ship arching system is implemented.
- 2006 (April): The proposal to expand the Panama Canal is presented through the construction of a third set of locks.
- 2006 (October): The proposal for expansion is approved by referendum.
- 2007 (September): The expansion work begins in the Cerro Paraíso.
- 2009 (July): The main contract of the U.S. Consortium is awarded by the Canal, led by Sacyr Vallehermoso.
Tolls
The highest toll paid for transiting the canal is US$317,142 paid on May 7, 2008 by the freighter MSC Fabienne The previous record was the cruise ship Norwegian Pearl, of the Norwegian Cruise Line company, imposed by paying US$313,000 on October 7, 2007. The record for the lowest toll was set in 1928 by Richard Halliburton, who swam the Channel paying a toll of only US$0.36. Its 10-day journey began on August 14 and ended on August 23. The average toll rate is around US$54,000.
With the purpose of improving the quality of the service offered to its customers, and due to the congestion that the canal was suffering until the expansion scheduled for 2016 was completed, the Panama Canal Authority implemented a reservation service, which offered transit quotas for a maximum of 24 vessels per day that wish to guarantee a transit date and a voyage of 18 hours or less. Reserve slots are available via the Internet up to a year in advance, and the interested party had to pay a preferential rate in addition to the normal toll. Quota number 25 was also available, which was assigned one per auction to the highest bidder. The record for the highest fee paid through the Panama Canal auction and quota reservation system is US$220,300 and occurred on August 24, 2006. The client was the Panamax tanker Erikoussa, which avoided a queue of 90 ships which was formed due to maintenance work on the Gatun lock, thus avoiding a seven-day delay. The normal booking fee would have been just US$13,400.
Infrastructure
During the construction of the canal, more than 183 million originally excavated material was removed that, if put on a platform train, would go around the world four times.
From a technical point of view, the Panama Canal is one of the greatest achievements of modern engineering. From the Atlantic to the Pacific it is 80 kilometers long; it has a depth of 12.8 meters in the Atlantic and 13.7 meters in the Pacific; the width is from 91 to 300 meters. It has two terminal ports, one in each ocean; three sets of twin locks, Miraflores, Gatún and Pedro Miguel, and one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, Gatún, which covers 425 km² and was formed by an earthen dam built across the Chagres River.
Enlargement
On April 24, 2006, then President Martín Torrijos Espino, formally announced the proposal to expand the Panama Canal, through the construction of a third set of locks and the expansion of the navigation channel. This project was based on the construction of new locks, one on the Atlantic side and another on the Pacific side, to allow the passage of Post-Panamax size vessels, which, since they are larger than Panamax, currently cannot navigate through the interoceanic route. The approximate cost of this operation, according to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) would be 5,250 million dollars.
Recent adaptations to the internal regulations of the ACP and the Ministry of Environment eliminated bureaucratic barriers to complete the construction project of the third set of locks.
The expansion of the canal was decided by a national referendum, which was announced on July 24, 2006 by President Martín Torrijos and held on October 22, 2006. The results of the referendum granted a 76.83% of the votes in favor of the expansion project and the 21.76% in against.
The expansion works began on Monday, September 3, 2007, with the detonation of Cerro Cartagena located on the banks of the canal. The new locks were intended to be inaugurated on August 15, 2014, the date on which the first centenary of the interoceanic highway was commemorated, although a crisis, arising from the increase in costs over the initial budget, between the construction consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal and the Panama Canal Authority, seriously delayed the works, so that the Expanded Panama Canal was finally inaugurated on June 26, 2016.
Traffic
Most traffic through the canal moves between the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Far East, while traffic between Europe and the West Coast of the United States and Canada is the second largest trade route of the waterway. However, other regions and countries, such as the neighboring countries of Central and South America, are proportionally much more dependent on this vital artery to promote their economic advancement and increase trade.
The main products that transit through the canal are: grains, containerized cargo, oil and derivatives.
Since its opening on August 15, 1914, the canal has provided quality service to more than 700,000 ships. Even though in recent years there has been an increase in the number and size of transiting ships, thanks to improvements designed to respond to traffic demand, the average time spent by a ship in canal waters is less at 24 hours.
Handy fees
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During the last hundred years, the Panama Canal Authority has designated some Honorary Practicals. The most recent of these has been Commodore Ronald Warwick, who at one time captained the RMS Queen Mary 2, which crossed the channel as captain more than 50 times. Previously, it was Captain Raffaele Minotauro, Senior Commander of ships, of the historic Italian government navigation company, known in the maritime world as the Italian Line.