It cost the U.S. $375 million, thousands of lives, a movement for national independence — and a Nicaraguan postage stamp — to take over and finish construction of the Panama Canal, rightly chosen in 1996 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of the engineering wonders of the world.
And now, Panama is gearing up for the largest modernization plan in its 92-year history. Voters in October approved a $5.25 billion expansion of the canal that will include a third set of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides to handle the world's largest ships.
Construction will begin in 2007 and is expected to last eight years.
A canal was first conceived in the early 16th century by King Charles V of Spain, who ordered the governor of the region of Panama to survey a route following the Chagres River to the Pacific. This was the first survey for a proposed ship canal through Panama, and more or less followed the course of the present Panama Canal.
The desire to build such a canal gained additional impetus during the 1848 Gold Rush, when prospectors could either sail around Cape Horn, cross the Great Plains, or journey across the isthmus by foot or canoe and then take ship north from the Pacific coast. The first interoceanic railroad in the world was constructed on the isthmus in 1855 but the opening of a canal would mean travelers sailing from, as an example, San Francisco to New York went from a journey of 14,000 mi. (22,500 km) around Cape Horn at the bottom of the continent to one of a mere 6,000 mi.
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