Why go
The construction story gives scale to what you can see at the locks: ships rise to an inland lake, cross a cut through high ground, then descend toward the other ocean. It also connects the impressive machinery to the difficult choices, excavation and human losses behind it.
What to look for
- Gatun Dam created the lake that forms the canal's high central passage.
- The Culebra Cut carries the route through the continental divide.
- Gatun's locks and Atlantic approach were major parts of the U.S. construction effort.
The full story
The narrow land bridge drew canal proposals long before construction began. After the Suez Canal opened, a French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps tried to build a sea-level passage across Panama. Work began in 1881. Excavation advanced, but the project failed amid engineering difficulties and high mortality from disease. Its abandoned works still formed part of the starting point for the later U.S. effort. The United States took over in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. Its solution depended on controlling water as much as removing earth. A dam on the Chagres River formed Gatun Lake, allowing ships to cross much of the isthmus above sea level. Locks raise and lower vessels at either end; the Culebra Cut takes them through the ridge between. On the Atlantic side, construction also included a breakwater at Limón Bay, an approach channel and the Gatun locks. Those pieces help explain why a lock chamber is only one visible part of a much larger engineered landscape.