Panama Canal | Definition, History, Treaty, Map, Locks, & Facts

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• Introduction & Top Questions
• Physical features
  • The canal
  • Locks
  • Breakwaters
• Operation
  • Navigation
  • Maintenance
  • Canal traffic
  • Panama Canal Authority
  • Tolls
• History
  • Lesseps’s failed attempt
  • American intervention
  • Human costs and completion
  • Treaties governing the canal’s international status
  • Capital improvements
    • Effects of expansion
  • Water use and the effects of climate change

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• What is the Panama Canal?
• Why is the Panama Canal important?
• How was the Panama Canal made?
• Why does the Panama Canal need locks?
• Who built the Panama Canal?

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External Websites

• Digital History - A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama
• National Archives - The Panama Canal: Riots, Treaties, Elections, and a little Military Madness, 1959�-1973
• Officla Site of the Panama Canal
• ABC listen - Rear Vision - The Panama Canal

Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

• Panama Canal - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Panama Canal - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Panama Canal canal, Central America Ask Anything Quick Summary Homework Help Also known as: Canal de Panamá Written by Norman J. Padelford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1945–71. Author of The Panama Canal in Peace and War. Norman J. PadelfordAll Fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Mar. 12, 2026 •History Britannica AI Ask Anything Quick Summary Table of Contents Table of Contents Quick Summary Ask Anything Top Questions

What is the Panama Canal?

The Panama Canal is a constructed waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the Isthmus of Panama. It is owned and administered by Panama, and it is 40 miles long from shoreline to shoreline. Ships can cross going in either direction, and it takes about 10 hours to get from one side to the other. Ships from any country are treated equally with respect to conditions of passage and tolls.

Why is the Panama Canal important?

Before the Panama Canal was built, ships traveling between the east and west coasts of the American continents had to go around Cape Horn in South America, a voyage that was some 8,000 nautical miles longer then going through the canal and that took about two months to complete. All journeys between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are shortened by thousands of nautical miles by going through the canal.

How was the Panama Canal made?

The Panama Canal was made by building dams on the Chagres River to create Gatun Lake and Lake Madden, digging the Gaillard Cut from the river between the two lakes and over the Continental Divide, building locks between the Atlantic Ocean and Gatun Lake to lift boats to the lake and another set of locks at the end of the Gaillard Cut to lower ships, and digging a channel to the Pacific Ocean.

Why does the Panama Canal need locks?

A mountain range runs the length of Panama, including through the Canal Zone, though it is lower there. In addition, the tidal levels of the oceans on either side of the Panama Canal differ. Locks raise ships to the level of the lakes (which account for about half the distance of the canal) and then lower them to sea level.

Who built the Panama Canal?

A French company headed by Ferdinand, viscount de Lesseps, started to build a canal in 1881 but failed by 1889. The United States, led by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, negotiated the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, giving the U.S. control of the Canal Zone. Work under U.S. supervision began in 1904, and the Panama Canal was completed in 1914. Tens of thousands of people, mostly labourers from Barbados, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, worked on the project.

News •

Iran war and rising fuel costs could boost Panama Canal traffic, administrator says • Mar. 12, 2026, 11:07 PM ET (AP) ...(Show more) Hong Kong firm seeks $2 billion over Panama's takeover of 2 key canal ports • Mar. 7, 2026, 1:15 AM ET (AP) Panamanian investigators remove documents from offices of company that ran canal ports • Feb. 26, 2026, 11:39 PM ET (AP) Hong Kong protests after Panama takes control of 2 key ports on the Panama Canal • Feb. 24, 2026, 3:33 AM ET (AP) Panama seizes 2 key canal ports from Hong Kong operator following Supreme Court ruling • Feb. 23, 2026, 10:56 PM ET (AP) Show less

Panama Canal, lock-type canal, owned and administered by the Republic of Panama, that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 40 miles (65 km) and from deep water in the Atlantic (more specifically, the Caribbean Sea) to deep water in the Pacific about 50 miles (82 km). The canal, which was completed in August 1914, is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal. Ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the United States, which otherwise would be obliged to round Cape Horn in South America, shorten their voyage by about 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) by using the canal. Savings of up to 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) are also made on voyages between one coast of North America and ports on the other side of South America. Ships sailing between Europe and East Asia or Australia can save as much as 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) by using the canal.

From its opening in 1914 until 1979, the Panama Canal was controlled solely by the United States, which built it. In 1979, however, control of the canal passed to the Panama Canal Commission, a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama, and complete control passed to Panama at noon on December 31, 1999. Administration of the canal is the responsibility of the Panama Canal Authority (Spanish: Autoridad del Canal de Panamá [ACP]), which answers solely to the government of Panama.

Physical features

The canal

The Panama Canal lies at a latitude of 9° N, at a point where the North American Continental Divide dips to one of its lowest points. The canal does not, as is generally supposed, cross the isthmus from east to west. It runs due south from its entrance at Colón on the Atlantic side through the Gatún Locks to a point in the widest portion of Gatún Lake; it then turns sharply toward the east and follows a course generally to the southeast until it reaches the Bay of Panama, on the Pacific side. Its terminus near Balboa is some 25 miles (40 km) east of its terminus near Colón. Parallel to the canal are the Panama Canal Railway and the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway.

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In passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, vessels enter the approach channel in Limón Bay, which extends a distance of about 7 miles (11 km) to the Gatún Locks. At Gatún a series of three locks lifts vessels 85 feet (26 meters) to Gatún Lake. The lake, formed by Gatún Dam on the Chagres River and supplemented by waters from Alajuela Lake (Lake Madden; formed by the Madden Dam), covers an area of 166 square miles (430 square km). The channel through the lake varies in depth from 46 to 85 feet (14 to 26 meters) and extends for about 23 miles (37 km) to Gamboa. Gaillard (Culebra) Cut begins at Gamboa and passes through the Continental Divide. The channel through the cut has an average depth of about 43 feet (13 meters) and extends some 8 miles (13 km) to the Pedro Miguel Locks. The locks lower vessels 30 feet (9 meters) to Miraflores Lake, at an elevation of 52 feet (16 meters) above sea level. Vessels then pass through a channel almost 1.2 miles (2 km) long to the two-stepped locks at Miraflores, where they are lowered to sea level. The final segment of the canal is a dredged approach passage 7 miles long through which ships pass into the Pacific. Throughout its length the canal has a minimum bottom width of 500 feet (150 meters); in Gatún Lake the width of the channel varies between 500 and 1,000 feet (150 and 300 meters), and in Miraflores Lake the width is 740 feet (225 meters).