Travel 2017 - The Panama Canal
If you’ve never traveled to Panama and visited the Panama Canal, you simply must add this to your bucket list! This year, our trip to the Panama Canal was one of our best trips ever.
*Sunrise as we waited our turn to go through the locks
Here are some interesting facts we learned about the Panama Canal:
- Malaria and Yellow Fever ran rampant during the construction of the Panama Canal, killing a total of 30,609 French and Panamanian workers.
- The US took control of the Panama Canal in May, 1904 and the first official transit through the locks was August 15, 1914.
- The Panama Canal is a 51 mile long passageway that runs through Panama in South America and joins the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
- Each time the Canal has to fill a lock, it fills 52 million gallons in approximately 15 minutes.
- The area of the Canal Zone is approximately 436 square miles.
- The length of the Canal, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is 51 miles, and is 10 miles wide.
- Tolls to pass through the canal are not cheap! However, the cost of sailing around South America is higher - and takes FAR longer.
- The Norwegian Pearl paid the most expensive toll to pass through the locks - a whoppig $375,600!
- The lowest toll paid was US $0.36 and was paid by Richard Halliburton who crossed the Canal swimming in 1928.
- Each door of the locks weighs 750 tons (1,500,000 pounds).
- There are 12 locks (6 pairs) in the Panama Canal.
- A boat traveling from New York to San Francisco can save approximately 7,900 miles by going through the Panama Canal, instead of having to go around Cape Horn.
- Approximately 40 ships cross the Panama Canal each day, taking 3-5 hours to do so.
- 12,000-15,000 ships will cross the Panama Canal every single year.
*It's a tight squeeze, passing through the canal!
*We found the locks incredibly intriguing; to think how many tons of water are being filled and held back by these locks is difficult to fathom.
© Debe Maxwell | The Maxwell House Group | CharlotteBroker@icloud.com | Travel 2017 - The Panama Canal
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