What is the Panama Canal?
Q: What is the Panama Canal?
A: The Panama Canal is a waterway (a canal) in the country of Panama in Central America, that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
Q: How long is the Panama Canal?
A: The Panama Canal is 77 km (48 miles) long and cuts across the Isthmus of Panama.
Q: What are the locks used for at each end of the canal?
A: At each end it uses three pairs of locks for lifting and lowering ships on different water levels. This saves ships 15,000 km (10,000 miles) compared to going around South America.
Q: How many ships come through the canal each year?
A: Each year, about 14,000 ships come through the canal. By 2002, around 800,000 ships had come through.
Q: What are Panamax and New Panamax vessels?
A: Panamax vessels are currently the biggest ships that can go through the Panama Canal and they are 110 ft (33.53 m) wide by 1,050 ft (320 m) long and 41.2 feet (12.6 m) deep with a usable length of 1,000 ft (305 m). New Panamax vessels are more than twice as big as Panamax vessels; they are 55 m (180 ft) wide by 427 m (1,400 ft) long and 18.3 m (60.0 ft) deep with new channels connecting to them at both ends of the canal.
Q: Who first attempted to build a Panama Canal?
A: Ferdinand de Lesseps tried building a Panama Canal in 1880 but could not finish it due to various difficulties encountered during construction process .
Q: Who completed construction of this project ?
A: The project was started again in 1904 by United States under presidency Theodore Roosevelt who spent ten years & 375 million dollars building it . It was finally finished in 1914 , at cost approximately 25 , 000 lives .
