Panama Canal Opens

On this day in 1914, the Panama Canal opened to traffic, after a decade of American ownership and construction.

The Panama Canal, much like the earlier Suez Canal in Egypt, was designed to shorten shipping routes and make global trade easier and more efficient. The idea for a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans had been around since the 16th century, but it wasn’t until the late 19th century that plans to build such a route began. Originally started by the French, design difficulties and disease resulted in the project being abandoned, and later bought by the United States after the turn of the century. Although initially following the French plan for a canal at sea level, the United States altered the design to include locks, to combat the issues faced due to the landscape. A sea level canal had worked fine for the Suez Canal, being built across relatively flat desert, but was not a practical plan for the more varied terrain around the Panama Canal site, which was susceptible to landslides.

Controlled by the United States until it was signed over to the Panama Canal Authority in 1999, the Panama Canal is vital to the growing global trade network. Access to the canal massively shortens trade routes, saving valuable (thousands of) miles, in turn allowing money to be saved, both by companies and the consumer.

The one millionth ship passed through the canal in 2010, and expansion works finished in 2016, to allow new and much larger ships safe access to the route.