Caricature of Ferdinand de Lesseps, founder of the Universal Interoceanic Canal Company. Getty Images
RTVE.es / EFE
The Panama Canal, administered by Panamanians since 1999, celebrates its centenary marked by ambitious expansion being undertaken and will enable double the capacity of freight movement , from 2016, of the 300 million tons to 600 million tons.
The Canal was also modernized in the 90s of last century with an investment of 1,000 billion by the former Panama Canal Commission (PCC) American.
The waterway, arising from the audacity of halving the Isthmus of Panama to build a water passage that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, it has become a must for trade infrastructure since currently serves 6% of trade world merchandise .
But the dates back to the sixteenth century when Charles V by a decree issued in 1534 led the first study to build a route between the two oceans.
One idea that emerged after Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus Two decades before and realized the short distance that separated the Atlantic Pacific. However, the company abandoned impossible.
It took more than three centuries until the United States and France retake the idea.
France began work 1880
It was precisely the California gold rush between 1848 and 1855 , which triggered a massive movement of people from the east to the west of the American continent, one of the triggers of this renewed interest
Because many of those gold seekers traveling by boat either Cape Horn route well in caravans crossing by land. However, the US initial project was necessary to shorten the travel time and distance was less save for Panama.
was to build a canal in Nicaragua, raised in 1876 as the Interoceanic Canal Commission created by President Grant.
But alongside France also pursued the same goal. Thus, July 5, 1874 Count Ferdinand de Lesseps founded the Universal Interoceanic Canal Company with the purpose of building a canal through Panama.
In this way, the attempt pioneer to build the canal was of French from 1880 and lasted almost 20 years.
A Universal Company which ran out of funds in 1889 and unable to attract more capital is over disolviendo- it went to the New Canal Company and the excavation progressed significantly led by the engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla , but, through it, ended selling their building rights to the United States by $ 40 million .
Part of this failure lay in the obstinacy of insist on doing Lesseps a sea level canal like Suez , although returned Rod the idea of doing another French engineer and two lakes with locks to raise ships and run them along the ridge.
In addition, the human cost was enormous and it is estimated that died over 7,000 workers for accidents or tropical diseases.
USA. concludes the Channel in 10 years
The efforts of the French, and especially cunning to convince Rod USA it is decided by a waterway through Panama and not Nicaragua, he served Washington to successfully complete the canal between 1904 and 1914, at a cost of 400 million dollars .
In those ten years worked to build more than 56,000 people , the Caribbean majority, but also Italian, Greek, Chinese and 7,000 Spaniards, who died more than 5,600 yellow fever , malaria and accidents.
Rod also assisted the independence of Panama was part of Colombia, and signed 1903 the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty with the United States, entitling perpetuity on the channel and sovereignty of the Panamanian isthmus to Washington.
But this caused over the years tensions between the new Republic and USA The most serious incident occurred on January 9, 1964 when 21 students were killed by American troops that tore a flag of Panama that the college tried to hoist in the Canal Zone, which led to both countries sign in 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties which abrogated the Hay-Bunau Varilla .
Under these treaties, the Canal is under full sovereignty of Panama from December 1999 31, and ended with the American military presence in the country.
Panama Canal Authority (ACP) manages the road since the United States transferred to the Panamanians and now holds the extension must be ready in late 2015.
ACP has invested 5,250 billion in this pharaonic project that will double the capacity, because, besides vessels up to 4,000 containers can currently going through the Canal, the third lock allow boats up to 12,000 containers.
A spokeswoman for the Panama Canal Authority has confirmed to Efe that the 85 years that America controlled the Panama route Treasury received 1.878 million dollars .
While ACP between 1999 and 2014 so far, the state has paid 10.572 million dollars and for fiscal 2015, which begins on 1 October this year, has already budgeted a contribution of 966.6 million dollars.
China and Nicaragua Canal
In addition, HKND Chinese company presented on 7 July, the project to build a canal in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua seeks well built, with estimated by the Government of 40.000 million , is three times larger than that of Panama, an airport, two ports, an area of free zones, a resort, budget and canal roads steel mills and cement.
But future competition does not worry the Panama Canal Authority because it estimates to build the Nicaraguan canal have to dig in five years “ten times everything that has been done in Panama “for 120 years .
In addition, the budget plan, the administrator of the ACP, Jorge Quijano, said that” in the best this could cost between 65,000 and 70,000 million “.
Panama Canal, Today and Tomorrow
The Panama Canal has a length of about 80 kilometers between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans . It uses a system of locks that function as water lifts: they raise ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake (26 meters above sea level). Each set of locks bears the name of the place where it was built: Gatun (on the Atlantic side), Pedro Miguel and Miraflores (on the Pacific) . The lock chambers are 33.53 meters wide by 304.8 meters long. The maximum dimensions for vessels transiting the Canal are: 32.3 meters wide, 294.1 meters long and 12 meters deep. The Culebra Cut, the narrowest part of the channel , extends from the north end of Pedro Miguel Locks to the southern tip of Lake Gatun in Gamboa. Between 13,000 and 14,000 ships use the Canal every year .
The draft expansion will create a new lane of traffic along the Canal with the construction of two new sets of locks , doubling the capacity to allow more cargo volume and traffic. The new locks will be 427 meters long by 55 meters wide and 18.3 meters deep. Following the extension will be able to handle boats up to 49 meters wide, 366 meters long and 15 meters deep.
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