The Panama Canal in Spanish known as Canal de Panama, it is an 82 km ship canal that is located in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The canal is known to be the key conduit for international maritime trade and it cuts across the Isthmus of Panama. Let’s talk about a little history of how the Panama Canal was built. In 1880 the work on the canal began and was completed in 1914 which makes it no longer necessary for ships to sail the lengthy Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America and then to navigate the dangerous waters of the Strait of Magellan. Panama Canal also holds the record of being one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever made. There is also a Panama Canal shortcut which made it possible for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in half of the time previously required.
The Panama shortcuts have made the trip shorter and faster and safer route to the U.S. West Coast and also to the nations in and along the Pacific Ocean, it allowed those places to become more integrated with the world economy. In 1534, the earliest mentioned of the canal across Isthmus of Panama, King of Spain Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, has ordered a survey for a route through the Americas that would ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru. This route had given the Spanish military advantage over the Portuguese. Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for its construction during the expedition from 1788 to 1793. One of the most historical story happened in 1849 was the discovery of gold in California which created a great interest in crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Sooner or later, there was a railway built to cross the isthmus which was called the Panama Railway which opened in 1855. Under the French construction in 1881-1889, the first attempt to construct a sea-level canal began under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps, in 1880, builder of Suez Canal, with the substantial financing and support from Paris. There was a report that the French effort went bankrupt after spending US$287,000,000, and was largely abandoned by 1890.
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