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THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS APPEARED IN THE RECORD ON April 24, 2002

We witnessed the Eighth Wonder
of the world



Last week we returned home, safe and sound and still mesmerized by the Eighth Wonder of the world. I'm referring of course to the Panama Canal, better known as the greatest man-made waterway in the world, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Along with the other 2033 passengers (including 115 Canadians) and as many cameras clicking away we experienced the thrill of traveling on the Canal in spectacular sunny weather and temperatures in the mid 80s.

While standing on the 14th deck

From the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal we witnessed the canal in operation while standing on the 14th deck of the Sun Princess, once the world's largest cruise ship when she entered service in 1995. While a lecturer provided continuous historical and technical commentary, our 106 feet wide ship, nearly three football fields in length and weighing 77,000 tons, was raised 85 ft above sea level.

All the while, four electric locomotives, or "mules," as they are commonly referred to, guided our huge luxurious ocean liner from each side, thus preventing her from smashing into the sides of the locks. Once we cleared the three massive Gatun Locks, each 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, our ship remained anchored in the artificial 163 square mile emerald green Gatun Lake, surrounded by a lush impenetrable jungle.

After a typical five- course buffet lunch which we ate next to the ship's main pool (one of five) our ship headed back through the locks and docked in the port of Lim? Costa Rica.

Had we made the full transit

Had we completed the "dusk to dawn", 50 mile-long transit through the Panama Canal, we would have continued west from Lake Gatun, crossed the Continental Divide through Gaillard Cut. However, for a full transit we would have been obliged to take either a longer cruise or one that would have disembarked us in Mexico or California. In either case, our ship would have been lowered to Miraflores Lake by Pedro Miguel Lock and then by the Miraflores Lock (a set of two) to the sea level of the Pacific Ocean. The Miraflores lock system, the largest in the world, is over 1,000 feet long, with gates seven feet thick, weighing 730 tons and as high as a seven story building.

How the locks operate

The series of enormous locks act as giant elevators and operate in a surprisingly simple manner. The locking system looks much like an immense aquatic stairway and relies on the power of gravity. For each transit, 52 million gallons of fresh water are supplied by Gatun Lake, which ultimately are flushed into the sea. When our 856' long ship entered the first lock with two feet to spare on each side, the immense two- door gate closed behind her with nothing more than the power of a 50 horsepower electric engine beefed up through a set of gears. Water from the second lock poured into the first lock through tubes as large as railroad tunnels, raising the water level and lifting our ship upwards. Once the water in the first lock arose to the same level as the second, the second gate opened and our ship moved under her own power into the second lock. The same procedure was repeated in the second and third locks and when the final gate opened, we cruised into Lake Gatun.

Building the Eighth Wonder

If the Panama Canal system, made up of locks and lakes, sounds simple in the way it is operated, the building of it was anything but. Following Panama's declaration of independence from Colombia, Panama and the United States undertook in 1903 to construct the interoceanic ship canal across the 50-mile Isthmus, directly between Central and South America. The following year the United States purchased the rights and equipment of the French "Canal Interoceanique" for $40 million and took over the construction. The French company had already invested $287 million in trying to build the canal but was plagued by diseases, financial burdens and major engineering problems.

The new builders of the Canal faced unprecedented problems beginning with tropical diseases caused by mosquitoes carrying malaria and yellow fever. The problem was so serious that the entire Canal area had to be sanitized before it was possible to establish whole new communities made up of the required laborers. It took ten years, $400 million, which was a staggering amount in 1914, the labor of more than 75,000 men and women to carve the canal out of the virgin jungle. The engineering problems included excavating a nine-mile trough through the Continental Divide where the elevation peaked at 312 feet above sea level, removing a total 200 million cubic yards and damming a river to create the largest man-made lake of its time.

Then came the designing, construction and installation of the huge sets of locks and gates. In1999 the Republic of Panama assumed responsibility for the canal's administration. Since the opening of the Canal over 825,000 vessels have passed through the waterway. When completing the average 16-hour trip through the shortcut, a ship traveling from New York to San Francisco saves the two-week, 7,872-mile trip around South America. During the year 2000 a total of 13,653 ships transported 193.7 million tons of cargo and paid $ 574 million US in tolls alone. The highest Canal toll, which is based on the weight and size of a vessel, was $202,176 US paid by the luxurious cruise ship Radiance of the Seas in April 2001. The lowest toll ever paid was 36 cents by Richard Halliburton who swam through the Canal in 1928 over a period of 10 days. For a sailboat less than 50' the transit fees are $500 US, payable in advance.

The 10-day, 3136 nautical mile-cruise from Fort Lauderdale, which also included ports- of- call in Costume and Grand Cayman, was unquestionably our best. For security reasons the cruise line decided to replace the planned stopover in Cartagena, Columbia for an extra day in the Republic of Panama. The decision didn't come as a surprise since kidnappings have been occurring in all regions of Columbia on a daily basis. The Panama Canal may not be the longest, the widest, the deepest, nor the oldest canal in the world, but undoubtedly will always remain one of the highlights of our cruising experience.