19 12 map by Poole Bros., Chicago: ~ero View ofthe Panama Canal, Looking Southwest: The World's Greatest Engineering Feat, To Be Realized 395 Years After First Proposed. "
the largest man-made lake yet created. Lake Gatun is a m arvel-as are the dams that tamed the wild Chagres River to create it. Those who transit the fifty-mile-long canal today from the Caribbean side pass through the three Gatun locks that elevate the ship 85 feet above sea level. Crossing the lake allows considerable headway before passing through the Culebra C ut (also known as the Gaillard C ut). The Culebra Cut is itself a major engineering achievement. While the geology of the C ulebra ridge was tho ught to be stable, a layer of viscous blue clay caused continuous slides during construction and long after the canal was cut. To cross the
Continental Divide and the ridge line that separated Adan tic side waterways from the Pacific, hundreds of millions of tons of rock and soil had to be rem oved and the banks cut back repeatedly in order to create the crucial waterway. The solution to the problem of where to deposit the soil can be seen today in the form of stepped pyramids that line the sh ores of the can al-symbolic temples to the more than 25 ,000 who died building it. In the later decades of the twentieth century, the existence of th e Am ericancontrolled Canal Zone bisecting their nation became a thorn in the side of Panamanians. D espite the fam ous assertion by California
Senato rial candidate S. I. Hayakawa that "We sho uld keep the Panama C anal. After all, we stole it fair and square," the United States ratified a treaty in 1978 to return the canal to Panam a. On 31 December 1999 the Panama Canal and the land around it were officially returned to Panamanian rule. The Panam a Canal's importance to world shipping can be seen in the language that has grown to address its unique qualities. For many years, the world's cargo ships were design ed specifically to fir into the Canal's locks. The largest of such vessels are known as Panamax. But, as global commerce has grown exponentially, so have the sizes of the ships
Building the canal required much more than just digging, and the structures designed and built to create Gatun Lake and the locks on either side ofit were engineering marvels in their day. (left) Miraflores Locks, under construction, 19 12; (right) Gatun D am and sp illway.
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SEA HISTORY 148, AUTUMN 2014