On President Putin's Interview with Tucker Carlson… – The Greanville Post greanvillepost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greanvillepost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As most people are aware, the Suez Canal was blocked earlier this year for six days (March 23-29). According to the Suez Canal Authority, which maintains and operates the waterway, the canal has closed five times since it opened for navigation in 1869. Interestingly, the Panama Canal has never been blocked, and has only been closed for a day. That occurred in 1989, when U.S. military forces staged an assault in Panama to depose the country’s leader, Manuel Noriega.
A shortcut to the Orient
The idea of creating a water passage across the isthmus of Panama to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans dates back to at least the 1500s, when King Charles I of Spain (whose nation laid claim to most of Central and South America) instructed his regional governor to survey a route along the Chagres River. A shorter water route from Europe to Asia across Central America was the goal. However, engineering and other challenges of building a canal across the mountainous, jungle terrain proved much
FreightWaves Classics: Panama Canal serves shipping and commerce for more than 100 years freightwaves.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from freightwaves.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Benchmarks: October 10, 1913: Atlantic and Pacific waters meet in the Panama Canal
by Allison Mills Tuesday, September 2, 2014
On Oct. 10, 1913, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in his Washington, D.C., office. At that moment, more than 6,400 kilometers away, about seven metric tons of dynamite exploded, clearing the final obstruction in the Panama Canal. Deep within the Culebra Cut, waters from the Atlantic Ocean finally met waters from the Pacific Ocean, marking the end of major construction on the 77-kilometer-long canal.
Breaching the Isthmus of Panama a strip of land only a few tens of kilometers wide linking North and South America would save ships from having to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, thousands of kilometers out of the way. It was an achievement four centuries in the making.