Panama Canal | BLUE THING #3: Amazing New Facts and Statistics

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Panama Canal | BLUE THING #3: Amazing New Facts and Statistics

AND NOW...

A compilation of utterly useless information brought to you by web.bryant.edu and www.panamatours.com

Honoring the Grand Opening of the Panama Canal on July 12th, 1920, TNNWC proudly presents:

Amazing Facts About the Panama Canal

Ships traveling between New York and San Francisco save 7,872 miles by using the Panama Canal instead of going around Cape Horn.

The Atlantic entrance to the Canal is 22-1/2 miles west of the Pacific entrance.

More than four and half million cubic yards of concrete went in to the construction of the locks and dams.

Material originally excavated to build the Canal were put on to a train of flat cars, it would encircle the world four times.

The locks of the Panama Canal are seven feet thick.

Each door of the locks weights 750 tons.

Due to the reclining "S" shape of the Isthmus of Panama the sun rises from the Pacific and sets in the Atlantic Ocean.

The average sea level for the Atlantic and Pacific entrance is virtually the same. But since the tidal variation at the Pacific entrance can be up to 18 feet, a sea level canal would be faced with the problem of a current running northbound when the Pacific tide was high and a current running south bound when the tide was low.

On February 29, 1968 the most transits on a single day with an amount of 65 ships crossing the isthmus was recorded.

In June 1979 the U.S. Navy hydrofoil Pegasus made the fastest transit ever when it crossed the Panama Canal in record time of 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Approximately 7,300 or nearly 92 percent of the work force of the Panama Canal is Panamanian.

The 13,700 transit in 1996 carried more than 198 million long tons of cargo to ports throughout the world.

More than 60,000,000 pounds of dynamite was used to excavate and construct the Panama Canal.

The Gatun Locks

The dam constructed across the Chagres River in Gatun created Gatun Lake , the largest man-made lake in the world at that time.

The rock and soil excavated from Culebra cut was used to build the shell of the dam at Gatun on the Atlantic side.

Since 1904 due to accidents and health problems, 5609 workers lost their lives, constructing the Canal. 80% of them were Black and 350 were white Americans.

On August 23, 1928 Richard Halliburton transited the Canal swimming , paying a toll of 36 cents since his weight was 150 pounds.

The cruise ship Rhapsody of the Sea established a toll record in 1997 when it paid $153,662.66 to cross the water-way.

The San Juan Prospector was the longest ship to transit the Canal; it was 751 ft. (229 m.) in length with a 107 ft. (32.6 m.) beam.

In 1963 the Panama Canal for the first time started operating on a 24 hour, round-the-clock schedule, thanks to the introduction high mass fluorescent lighting.

The Panama Canal in 1974 raised the toll rates for the first time since they were not breaking even.

Excavation of the Canal was equal to digging a 10 feet trench deep by 55 wide from California to New York.

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