Every Day Is Special: Panama Canal

Showing posts with label Panama Canal. Show all posts

August 15 - Panama Canal!

Posted on August 15, 2021

This is an update of my post published on August 15, 2010:

After ten years of work, the 48-mile (77-km) Panama Canal was finally completed.

And, on this date in 1914, the Panama Canal was officially opened.

It linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and cut in half the trip from the East Coast of the U.S. to the West Coast.

That's huge!

You know what else was huge? Digging the canal! It was a huge and difficult engineering project. The French tried to build a canal in the same location in the late 1800s, and 21,900 workers died (mostly from tropical diseases) before they finally gave up the effort. The U.S. canal construction wasn't as deadly, but 5,600 workers lost their lives before the canal was finished.

Did you know...?

It takes from eight to ten hours to travel the canal.

At each elevation, a ship has to wait in each lock until the
water level has been raised or lowered to the level of the next lock.

The maximum size of ship that can use the canal is called Panamax.

Although the Pacific Ocean is west of the Atlantic, crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic involves going the opposite you would think: from (south)east to (north)west. This is because the narrow chunk of land where the canal is built is a sort of “S” curve.

Word Play

Do you know what a palindrome is? It is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards or forwards. The words “mom” and “level” are both palindromes.

The Panama Canal is the subject of one of the longest and most famous palindromes:

A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL – PANAMA

Also on this date:

India's Independence Day

Bon in August

Mycologist Elias Fries's birthday

National Honey Bee Day

Princely Celebrations in Liechtenstein

Restoration of Light Day in South Korea

Independence Day in the Republic of the Congo

Chauvin Day

International Homeless Animals Day

The Flooding of the Nile

Palindrome Day 8-15-18

Anniversary of Arequipa, Peru

Birthday of author Edith Nesbit

Acadian Day in Canada

Constitution Day in Equatorial Guinea

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

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November 3 – Dominica and Panama Celebrate Today

Posted on November 3, 2013

Dominica is not the Dominican Republic.

And Panama is not just a canal.

Dominica is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. It is almost the size in land area of New York City—but not even quite that big. (NYC is the largest city in the U.S. by population, but only the 24^th largest by land area.)

Panama is that skinny nation where South America meets North America. Its location and its narrow shape made it inevitable that Panama would play an important role as people explored and traded and traveled. In 1881 France began to build a canal across the narrowest part but had to stop because of engineering difficulties and because the workers were dropping like flies from disease. In 1904 the U.S. started work on the canal and met with the same sorts of disasters; however, in 1914 the canal was finally complete and the world got a lot smaller.

Today Dominica celebrates its 1978 independence from the United Kingdom, and Panama celebrates Separation Day, its 1903 declaration of independence from Colombia.

Cool stuff...

Even though the nation of Dominica is so tiny, it is home to the second largest hot spring. Boiling Lake is what is called a flooded fumarole. (A fumarole is an opening in the earth's crust that emits steam and gases.) The gray-blue water is always bubbling and boiling away, so there is always grayish steam enveloping the area. Because the lake has been formed from volcanic activity, it is always changing in size and depth. For example, in 1880 the lake disappeared, and instead there was a geyser-like fountain of hot water and steam.

You can see that, because the top part of
the map represents north and therefore east
is to the right and west is to the left, there
are parts of Panama that have the Pacific
to the east and the Atlantic (the
Caribbean) to the west.

Panama is the only place in the world where you can see the sun rise on the Pacific and set on the Atlantic. That's because the land bends around in an S shape so that, in one spot, there is a bay of the Pacific to the east and a bay of the Atlantic to the west.

Panama has a lot of diversity of plants and animals, with species from North as well as South America and more than 1,200 varieties of orchids.

In 1838 Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a legislature controlled by an African majority. In 1999 Panama elected the second female head of state in Central America, Mireya Moscoso.

Panama has one of the stronger economies in Central America and arguably the best per capita. (Per capita means “for each person.” When talking per capita, you're talking percentages—it's a way of comparing economies of large, populous nations with smaller, less populous nations. Panama has the second lowest population in Central America but the second largest Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. It has the highest GDP per capita.)

Dominica has a slightly higher GDP per capita than Panama—but only the sixth highest among Caribbean nations. I know that Panama gets a lot of tourism, especially with all the cruise ships going through that canal! But maybe tourists in the Caribbean stay a little longer and spend a little more money on lodging, food, and entertainment.

Also on this date:

Cliché Day

National Double-Talk Week

Sandwich Day

Culture Day in Japan

Chemist Jakichi Takamine's birthday

Daylight Savings Time ends

Plan Ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

January 9, 2013 - Martyrs' Day in Panama

This is a sad commemoration—as you can tell from the word “martyrs” in the holiday name—but I learned an interesting new term in relation to this day: Zonians.

Back at the beginning of the 20^th Century, Panama gained its independence from Colombia with the assistance of the U.S. But the U.S. didn't help Panama unselfishly—it wanted to control the Panama Canal Zone. This strip of land running from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, on either side of the canal, had its own police, post offices, courts, schools, and TV and radio stations. The zone became U.S. territory, pretty much.

You may have guessed that the people who lived in that zone were called Zonians. These Zonians were, for the most part, very patriotic U.S. citizens.

Many Panamanians resented the 1903 treaty that gave the U.S. control of the Canal Zone. (I do want to point out that the treaty included cash payments from the U.S. to Panama for the rights—one large start-up payment plus yearly payments.)

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy listened to Panamanians' concerns, and he agreed to fly Panama's flag alongside the U.S. flag, wherever the U.S. flag was flown. But Kennedy was assassinated before this order was carried out. An overly patriotic U.S. citizen had sued in court so that he wouldn't have to fly Panama's flag, and the Panama Canal Zone Governor—trying to soothe everyone's feelings, both Zonians' and Panamanians'— declared that NO flag would be flown outside schools, police stations, or post offices.

He was trying to placate everybody—but even more people were now upset about this latest decision.

On January 7, 1964, Zonian high school students held a protest and raised a U.S. flag on the school's empty flagpole. When officials tried to carry out the governor's decree and lower the flag, the students posted guards and wouldn't allow it.

Two days later, having heard about the Zonian students' actions, Panamanian high school students decided to hold their own peaceful protest. From 150 to 200 students marched to the Zonian high school with a Panamanian flag, ready to raise it according to Kennedy's order. They were met by a large crowd of Zonian students, adults, and police officers. And in the not-so-peaceful meeting of the two groups, the Panamanian flag was torn.

The peaceful protest became a riot, and 25 people died.

You got that right: 25 people died—over flags!

However, this event was a turning point, and with the world condemning the U.S. handling of the affair, the notion that the Canal Zone should be returned to Panama began to take hold in the U.S. In 1977, a treaty transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.

Also on this date:

National Static Electricity Day

Balloon Ascension Day

Anniversary of Columbus spotting mermaids (supposedly!)

August 15, 2010

Panama Canal officially opened – 1914

After ten years of work, the 48-mile (77 km) canal was completed, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and cutting in half the trip from the East Coast of the U.S. to the West Coast.

Digging the canal was a huge and difficult engineering project. The French tried to build a canal in the late 1800s, and 21,900 workers died (mostly from tropical diseases) before they finally gave up the effort. The U.S. canal construction wasn't as deadly, but 5,600 workers lost their lives before the canal was finished.