Why? Well, consider what life was like without this shortcut. Traders moving cargo between Asia and Europe had two choices: They could take the long and dangerous route over land through China and the Middle East (as Marco Polo had done centuries earlier). Or, they could sail all the way around the tip of South America to get from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, a long and very risky journey.

If only they could take the shortcut across Panama - a mere 40 miles - they could cut the sea voyage in half and avoid the need for the dangerous land route.

But building a canal through Panama was much easier to dream about than to do.

Until the 1800s, engineers and builders simply didn't have the know-how or the equipment to take on such a big task. After all, the 40-mile canal would have to cross a mountain range and cut through tropical jungle. So, people dreamed of how wonderful a canal would be, but didn't attempt to build one.

In the mid 1800s, a company from the United States built a railroad across Panama. This railroad - as you can imagine - became the most popular line in the world! It wasn't as convenient as a canal, but both passengers and cargo could now travel quickly across Panama, leaving a ship on one coast and getting on a different ship at the other coast.

Still, even with the successful railroad, people still dreamed of a canal across Panama. With a canal, ships could cross all the way through. There would be no need to unload and then reload passengers and cargo.

In the late 1800s, a French company got permission from the country of Colombia (which then ruled Panama) to build a canal. But the effort did not succeed. It was just too difficult a task.

About 20 years later, the United States became very interested in the canal idea. In 1903, the U.S. tried to make an agreement with Colombia to try to build a canal across Panama, just as the French company had done in the 1880s. But this time, Colombia did not agree.

Many people in Panama weren't happy about that. They rebelled and declared Panama an independent country from Colombia. The U.S. military helped them… and Panama became an independent country, which allowed the U.S. to build and manage the canal.

The Panama Canal took over 10 years to build. It includes six double sets of locks (floating elevators to take ships from one level of water to another) and several man-made lakes. The United States controlled the Canal until 1999. Since then, Panama has operated the canal.

The Panama Canal is a major help to trade and travel! It makes shipping goods around the world from Europe to Asia quick and convenient for the 13,000 ships that travel through it each year.

Shipping company APL has a special shipping route called the Atlantic-Pacific Express (or APX) that travels through the Panama Canal each week. With this route, customers can ship goods from, say, Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Hong Kong through the Panama Canal. The Boomerang Box used this service to travel between Miami, Florida (on the East Coast of the United States) to Oakland, California (on the West Coast of the United States).

However, not all ships going this way travel through the Panama Canal. Some modern container ships are just too big to fit through the canal! These ships are called post-Panamax. The first of these ships was built in the 1980s. These post-Panamax ships can hold many thousands of cargo containers, but they're just too wide and too deep to make it through the canal.

Even though not all ships can make it through the Panama Canal, the Canal has proven to be a real help to travel. Hundreds of years of dreaming resulted in a canal that is used by people all over the world to travel and trade.

Study Questions:

1. What is the land route between Europe and Asia? Use and encyclopedia or the Internet to learn more about Marco Polo and his journeys. Write a 1-page paper about what you learn. How long did this route take travelers on foot or horse? Why was it dangerous?

2. Become a cartographer (a map-maker)! Use the encyclopedia, the Internet, or an atlas to draw a map of Panama including the Panama Canal. See if you can find out details about the locks on either end of the canal and show where they are located.

Check out past Trade Topics entries!