Panama Canal

A beautiful palm tree and view on the Panama Canal & Gatun Lake.

Photo by pjoem.

The Bay of Panama as seen from the Panama Canal. Can you spot the Bridge of the Americas?

Photo by Gerryd.

EDIFICIO DE ADMINISTRACIÓN PARA EL CANAL DE PANAMÁ - This building was inaugurated on July 15, 1914, exactly a month before the Canal itself.

Photo by ginger.jengibre.

U.S. Navy navigating through the locks of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, established November 18, 1903 between the United States and Panama, relinquished dominant control of the Canal Zone to the United States. In recent years, a new Panama Canal Treaty has been put in place. Since 2000, this new treaty has returned control of the Canal to the Panamanian government. However, under the new treaty, if the efficiency of the Canal deteriorates, then the United States reserves the right to intervene and reestablish order within the Canal.

Photo by Wendy Chandler.

Observe the tiny bus and tiny car crossing the small bridge over the Panama Canal, and when you look further to the blue freight ship 26 meters (86 feet) higher up, it might fill you with wonder or give you the shivers.

Photo by lyng883.

A ship passing through the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. The Canal has three sets of locks (Miraflores, Pedro Miguel and Gatun), each of which has two lanes. The locks operate as water lifts which elevate ships in their transit of the channel across the Continental Divide to the level of Gatun Lake, which is 26 meters above sea level, and then lower them back to sea level on the opposite side of the Isthmus.

Photo by lyng883.

The Panama Canal transverses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean

Photo by Mr Wayne.

A heavily loaded freight ship getting through the Panama Canal.

Photo by Souer99.