Transport & space · 1914

Panama Canal

Locks lift ships 26 m over the Isthmus of Panama, joining Atlantic and Pacific.

The US completed the canal in 1914 after France's failed attempt. Mosquito control against yellow fever and malaria made construction survivable, and dynamite blasted the Culebra Cut. It shortened New York to San Francisco by sea by about 13,000 km.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 3

Watch

How the Panama Canal Was Built | The Engineering that Built the World (Season 1) | HistoryHISTORY · YouTube The Construction of the Panama Canal [1913-1914] (Reel 1-5 of 5)US National Archives · YouTube

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Merchandise exports as a share of world GDP Latest: 24.2 % of GDP (2014) Source: Our World in Data

World trade as a share of GDP since 1500 Latest: 1950-now (PWT): 57.8 % of GDP (2023) Source: Our World in Data