Panama Canal – An Engineering Marvel

Panama Canal

DAY 5 – We left Puerto Limon at 4:30 p.m. Sunday to proceed in an easterly direction through the night towards the “Atlantic” (eastern) entrance of the Panama Canal, arriving at 5:00 a.m. Monday morning, January 10th. 

Both Larry and I had visited the Panama Canal before, but we had never experienced actually going through the locks on a ship…and this was a truly exciting and memorable adventure!

The Canal was completed in 1914, and it still operates in much the same way as it did in the very beginning.  The Panama Canal is a masterpiece of engineering and is considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World.  The designers skillfully utilized gravity, the 200 inches of annual rainfall in Panama, and little 25 horsepower motors to move the huge floating gates that separate each lock from the next.

We entered the first lock at 6:30 a.m. and ended our transit through the final lock 10 hours later, cruising under the Bridge of the Americas entrance into the Pacific Ocean at 4:30 p.m.

Following are a few of the photos we selected (from many!) that will help us remember some of the special highlights of this significant passage from one major ocean to another:

 We were at the bow of our ship most of the day as we traveled through the locks of the Panama  Canal, watching the process in amazement!  We approached the first lock early in the morning from the Atlantic Ocean.  The first lock brought us down to the level of Gatun Lake so we could make our way on to the rest of the locks. 

The lock gates open as our ship is lowered to the level with the water level in the lock in front of our ship. The Canal can handle 12 cruise or large cargo ships per day in each set of locks.  You can see a container ship in the next lock just in front of us.

Large, powerful engines on cog wheel tracks are attached by heavy duty wire cables to our ship.  The engines are called “mules” and they travel alongside our ship the entire way through the Canal, keeping our ship perfectly aligned within the locks, at both the front and back ends, and on the left and right sides.

 The Pacific area of the locks system is named the Miraflores Locks, and visitors to the Panama Canal can view this part of the canal system as ships are moving through the locks.

 Here are Panama Canal visitors taking photos, watching and waving to everyone on our ship as it passes through the Miraflores Locks.   (Larry and I were exactly where these folks are standing when we were visiting Panama in November and December in 2009…I’ll admit that actually going through the locks of the canal on our cruise ship really beat this view!)