Panama Canal a 2nd time

Well, it didn't change much from the first time we were here.  It hasn't changed much since it was opened over 100 years ago.  The one big difference when you go from the Pacific to the Atlantic is that bigger ships have to wait for low tide to clear under the bridge on the Pacific side.  Tides on the Pacific side can change up to 15-20 feet.  While we were docked in Panama City they warned us that the gang plank would change decks during the day based on the tide.  I don't think they actually had to change it.

We watched from the sidelines as we went through the canal.  It poured rain early but it turned nice later.  The system relies on rain, 200 inches a year, to fill the man made lakes at the top of Panama,  Gatun Lake, which then drops water into the locks millions of gallons at a time, raising and lowering boats before landing back in the oceans on both sides.  The sun came out and we watched in the 85 degree heat from the sun and rain drenched deck, walking all over the miniature golf course with a bunch of other folks.  Very sticky outside.  After about an hour we left the heat and humidity and moved down to the bridge table. 

The Panama Canal is an engineering marvel.  It is a series of locks that lift boats up from one ocean then drop them back down into a different ocean.  The French attempted to build the canal in the 1880's and lost 30,000 men mostly to disease before giving up.  The US bought it from the French in 1904 for about 1.4 billion of todays dollars then spent approximately $400,000,000  or about 10 billion in today's dollars to build it.  Over 5000 Americans lost their lives in its construction.

As with most man made objects the facts and figures are what people focus on.  The millions of gallons of water all working using gravity and nothing else to raise and lower the massive ships through the locks.  The size of the ships going through.  The cost of passage.  Lowest price ever charged was to a swimmer who went through for 38 cents.  Our ship costs about $200,000 for passage.   Ships needed to be narrow enough to leave two feet of space on both sides of the canal.  That in itself is pretty remarkable.  So for the 110 foot wide canal ships were built to be 106 feet wide.  In World War 2 the canal allowed American battleships which only had one foot of clearance on each side go through.  That proved to be too small a margin.  The new lock system recently opened accommodates ships 1400 feet long and 176 feet wide.  

When you watch ships go through, seeing the clearance, seeing how these massive machines work in concert, watching the "mules" (mechanical haulers) pull the boats forward, watching the water levels change, it does create a sense of wonder.  

The amazing thing to me is looking up at the ships on the other side that are being lowered.  It looks like they are defying gravity and physics.  Realizing that this canal has determined the size and design of ships for over 100 years is mind boggling.  Watching the action surrounding a passage through the locks is interesting for a while.  In essence, watching water rise and lower is not that exciting.