Canal tid bits
Interesting facts about the canal:
* Ships passing through the canal pay tolls. Canal authorities even charged U.S. adventurer Richard Halliburton to swim the 50-mile-long (80-km) canal in 1928. It was the lowest ever toll charged at $0.36.
* When opened in 1914, the canal was the single most expensive project ever undertaken by the United States at a cost of $375 million, four times the price of the Suez Canal. France had started building the waterway in the 19th century but gave up after its project went bankrupt.
* France's Paul Gauguin, one of the leading painters of the post-impressionist period, helped to dig the Panama Canal as a laborer briefly. But he found the work tough and he left the country after he was arrested for urinating in public. From 1891 he lived in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South Pacific.
* The planned expansion entails building new locks that will measure 1,400 feet (427 meters) long and 180 feet (55 meters) wide -- 40 percent longer and 64 percent wider than existing ones. If laid on end, these canal chambers would stand taller than the 102-floor Empire State Building in New York.
* With the expansion, the Panama Canal Authority that runs the waterway says contributions to federal government coffers will skyrocket. By 2025, the canal will provide $4.25 billion per year to the government, an almost tenfold increase from current levels.
* Ships passing through the canal pay tolls. Canal authorities even charged U.S. adventurer Richard Halliburton to swim the 50-mile-long (80-km) canal in 1928. It was the lowest ever toll charged at $0.36.
* When opened in 1914, the canal was the single most expensive project ever undertaken by the United States at a cost of $375 million, four times the price of the Suez Canal. France had started building the waterway in the 19th century but gave up after its project went bankrupt.
* France's Paul Gauguin, one of the leading painters of the post-impressionist period, helped to dig the Panama Canal as a laborer briefly. But he found the work tough and he left the country after he was arrested for urinating in public. From 1891 he lived in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South Pacific.
* The planned expansion entails building new locks that will measure 1,400 feet (427 meters) long and 180 feet (55 meters) wide -- 40 percent longer and 64 percent wider than existing ones. If laid on end, these canal chambers would stand taller than the 102-floor Empire State Building in New York.
* With the expansion, the Panama Canal Authority that runs the waterway says contributions to federal government coffers will skyrocket. By 2025, the canal will provide $4.25 billion per year to the government, an almost tenfold increase from current levels.
posted by Bram Fiebelkorn at
12:05 AM
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