Panama Canal: If we ask you whether a ship can cross a mountain, your answer will be ‘no’. Will believe if we say that it is not only possible, but every year about 15 thousand water ships also cross the mountain. Actually, it is known to be so because of the Panama Canal. Making this canal is considered the world’s largest and most difficult engineering project. Let us know about the unique workmanship of this canal.
Canal connects two oceans
This canal is in Panama, America. This canal works to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. This canal is one of the major waterways of the world. The length of this canal is 82 km, the average width is 90 meters and the minimum depth is 12 meters. The specialty of this canal is its technology. The Panama Canal passes through Gatun Lake. Whose water level is 26 meters above sea level. In such a situation, the land between the lake and the ocean was a hindrance. Which was removed by making a canal here. Ships are lifted here and passed through this canal. In simple words, the ship is lifted up and passed through the canal.
canal construction
The Panama Canal was built by US President Theodore Roosevelt. But its work was started by France. French diplomat Mr. Ferdinand de Lesseps started the work of this canal in the year 1881. In the year 1894, about 22,000 workers died due to the spread of yellow fever and malaria. That’s why the work of this canal was stopped. Ferdinand went bankrupt after spending $287 million. After this, America started the remaining work in 1904. This canal was completed after 10 years in 1914.
Distance decreases by about 13 thousand kilometers
In fact, due to the existence of the Panama Canal, the distance between the east and west coasts of America decreases by 12,875 km. When this canal was not there, then the ships had to make a long trip of two weeks. Thanks to the Panama Canal, the distance of two weeks is covered in just 10 to 12 hours. In today’s time, about 15 thousand ships pass through this canal every year. Panama City gets huge revenue from toll fees to cross the canal. In the year 2021, the toll revenue of the Panama Canal was $ 3 billion.
technology is amazing
A complex technique is used to pass ships through the Panama Canal. Three lock sets have been made here. In these, the ship is first entered in a lock. After this, the ship is raised by filling it with water. Then the ship is allowed to enter the next locks. Here also the ship is sent ahead by maintaining the water level. Similarly, when a ship has to be lowered, the ship is lowered into the sea by reducing the water of the locks. During this, the captains of the ships give full control of their ships to the local expert captain of the canal.
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