Did you pay attention in your geography classes? Do you know what an isthmus is? A narrow strip of land connecting two larger landmasses, an isthmus is bordered by water on both sides. In terms of geography, it is the opposite of a strait, one of which has been dominating the headlines for much of this year. 

If we are looking at examples for isthmuses, there’s one that probably comes to mind to everyone, regardless of whether or not you paid attention in those classes. The Isthmus of Panama is a narrow, 77 km land bridge connecting North America and South America, while at the same time separating the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. 

Formed nearly 3 million years, this stretch of land historically played an important role in an evolutionary context, serving as a land bridge between the two continents. Animals and plants that had evolved in isolation over millions of years were able to migrate back and forth freely, resulting in the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). 

While the Panama Canal has a much shorter history when compared to GABI, it too has since gone on to exert its influence world over. A monumental feat of engineering bisecting the isthmus, the Panama Canal has revolutionised global shipping since it came to be in 1914. 

The failed attempt

Following the successful completion of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869 to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps set his sights on building the Panama Canal. The first attempt to build the same was spearheaded by him late in the 1870s and early 1880s by a private company financed by innumerable small investors. 

Lesseps received support despite dreaming up a sea-level canal across Panama, a proposal that was strongly protested by French engineer Adolphe Godin de Lepinay. Lepinay, who had studied the isthmus and the surface features at Panama, proposed an alternate plan for the canal in 1879. His lock-based design featured dams at Gatun and Miraflores, allowing the water to rise and form lakes. These lakes, which were supposed to cut across the continental divide, were then to be connected to the oceans using locks. 

Lepinay’s idea, however, was ignored at the time and Lesseps went ahead with his plan, despite the conditions in Panama being rather different from those at the Suez. As opposed to the arid conditions in his former workplace, Panama was a tropical jungle, serving as a hotbed for rains, heat, humidity, and tropical diseases. Yellow fever and malaria in particular wreaked havoc for the French plans, and even though the design for a sea-level canal was replaced with a high-level lock-type canal to save costs, public lost faith in the plan and its leadership and the possibility of completing the canal looked grim. 

Roosevelt’s role

The first decades of the 20th Century saw the dream of the Panama Canal become a reality with U.S. involvement. Just a couple of weeks after Panama proclaimed independence from Colombia in November 1903, the U.S. signed a treaty with the newly independent republic on November 18. The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, or Canal Treaty, gave the U.S. the rights to build the canal for an annual payment. 

Theodore Roosevelt, who was the U.S. President at the time, is widely known as the “father of the Panama Canal”. In addition to creating the Panama Canal Zone to make way for construction, he also purchased the French Canal assets. In December 1903, a little over a month after the treaty was signed, Roosevelt wrote about his hopes for the canal: “To my mind this building of the canal through Panama will rank in kind, though not of course in degree, with the Louisiana purchase and the acquisition of Texas.”

Roosevelt considered the Panama Canal as one of his greatest achievements, even before it became a reality! This is evident from the following words that he wrote in a letter in July 1902 even before negotiations with Panama started: “The great bit of work of my administration, and from the material and constructive standpoint one of the greatest bits of work that the twentieth century will see, is the Isthmian Canal.”

An engineering marvel

The decade that followed was unlike any before in terms of engineering, as thousands of people toiled hard to cut across the isthmus. The plan that the U.S. adopted was rather similar to the one proposed by Lepinay in its essential features, earning the Frenchman many accolades for conceiving it decades earlier. 

The Americans didn’t want to take any chances, and were both vigilant and proactive to ensure that they didn’t repeat the same mistakes as the French before them. This included having American medical staff, who were tasked with understanding how yellow fever and malaria were transmitted, and how they could be controlled. 

Despite these precautions, thousands of people lost their lives during the construction. In addition to diseases, the harsh working conditions too played a part in the death toll. Challenges were aplenty, but by December 1913, an unbroken waterway connected the Atlantic with the Pacific. 

The year that followed saw many firsts. On January 7, 1914, the French crane boat Alexandre La Valley completed the first passage through the Panama Canal. On June 8, S.S. Alliance became the first ocean going vessel to make lockage at the Panama Canal at Gatun Locks. Later in the same month, the Santa Clara tested the lockage through Miraflores and Pedro Miguel. On August 3, S.S. Cristobal had a near-complete run to serve as a comprehensive trial before the eyes of the entire world were on the canal. The celebrated official opening took place on August 15, with the S.S. Ancon making its passage with nearly 200 people on board, including many politicians and high ranking officials.

From 1914 until 1979, the Panama Canal was exclusively controlled by the U.S. Control was shared by Panama and the U.S. in the two decades that followed, before complete control was passed on to Panama on December 31, 1999. More than a million vessels have passed through the Panama Canal in over 110 years of operation, with each of these vessels spending an average of about 10 hours to transit through the canal as it serves as a shortcut between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Why is it important?

As early as the 16th Century, human beings recognised the importance and advantages of having a canal across the Central American isthmus. Two routes were considered in general: one through Panama, which has gone on to become the reality, and the other through Nicaragua. 

The Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world. Ships sailing from one coast of the U.S. to another save up to 15,000 km by using the canal as opposed to going around the Cape Horn in South America. Ships sailing from North American ports to the other side of South America, and those sailing from Europe to East Asia or Australia, also make considerable savings by using the canal. 

Even in the current climate, the Panama Canal has proved to be an important trade link. With the war in West Asia and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, there’s been surge in the traffic at the Panama Canal. While the canal has been operating at near maximum capacity on a daily basis to make up for this increased load, it has also resulted in an increased fare and longer wait times for the vessels involved.