Panama Canal - Part 2

OK, I confess I’m no engineer and not really that much interested in mechanical things but even I’ve found this interesting.  Paul was up at sparrow’s, and I joined the action about 7.30 am.  The Observation Deck was 10 deep with eager viewers: our neighbours grabbed their spot at 5.15 am – it’s a really big deal for many fellow passengers.  It takes virtually a whole day to transit so there’s plenty of time to learn about the canal.  Here’s a few things I didn’t know – remembering I’m starting from a VERY low base.  The formatting of this post is appalling but with the ship internet it's just to hard to fix - you can match the text to the pictures.

“Fun Facts” about the Panama Canal

·         The canal runs roughly North South and extends for 80kms through Panama; there’s a five mile exclusion zone on each side (formerly the Panama Canal Zone) to allow the tropical rainforest to keep water in the lakes and locks;

·         

It’s nothing like the Suez Canal in its operation – you go through a series of locks then float across a large man-made lake in the middle then a few more locks at the other end;

·         It opened in 1914 and had its millionth ship traverse the canal in 2010; just over 40 ships traverse the canal each day.  It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year;

·         The French began building the Canal in 1880 but the operation was abandoned due to the enormous loss of life from Malaria (they thought it was caused by bad (mal) air and the freshwater they supplied to overcome this gave the mozzies ideal breeding conditions.  They also went broke;

·          The US built and operated the Canal until 1999 when it was formally handed over to Panama who are currently building a new set of locks to accommodate larger ships.  There is a special type of ship called a Panamax just to traverse the Canal with maximum tonnage;

·         There are two channels at the moment that can either run in the same or opposite directions; the third lock will run in one direction only;

·         There are two bridges across the Canal: the Centennial Bridge (2004) at the narrowest part on the canal the Culebra Cut (12.7 metres)



    and the Bridge of the Americas (1962) near Panama City on the Pan American Highway – looks familiar?

·         Each crossing uses 200 million (yep) litres of water – the new lock will recycle about 70%, but at the moment it just goes out to sea;

·         The only new technology since 1914 has been lights to allow it to operate round the clock, updating the rolling stock and the computerisation of some operations;  despite all attempts to mechanise tying the ships to the guidance vehicles it’s still done by men in a rowboat throwing the ropes

·         The ships are pulled by small - ‘toy’ according to our guide – trains known as mules.  They have never been actual horse like mules;

·         It costs around $180,000 for our ship to go through – it can cost over half a million dollars but the cheapest crossing was in the 20s when some guy (moron, hero?) swam the length of the canal and was charged 36 cents based on his weight;

·         You must pay your money 48 hours in advance and this needs to be cleared before transit; no cheques or credit cards accepted.  There’s always a pool of ships each end awaiting clearance;

·         On entering the Canal, you ship is boarded by a pilot who takes control of the ship and the ship loses its identity and becomes a ‘number’ during the crossing.

·         The 1913 architecture of the buildings is in the Empire Revival style used extensively in Canberra (Old Parliament House, East and West Block, the Hyatt etc. by Government Architect John Smith Murdoch

Well I think that’s enough info to get anyone through a Trivia Night.  We’re now on our way in the Pacific Ocean to Ecuador and a side trip to Quito to stand on the equator!