The Panama Canal opened to traffic
On this day · 15 August 1914
A 48-mile cut through the isthmus joined two oceans, and the world's shipping routes were never the same.
On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened to traffic, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the Isthmus of Panama. The honor of the first official transit went to the American steamship SS Ancon, a cargo and passenger vessel that threaded the new locks while Colonel George Goethals watched from a railcar.
The waterway was one of the largest construction projects ever attempted. U.S. engineers moved nearly 240 million cubic yards of earth and spent close to $400 million, building a lock system that lifts ships up and over the continental divide rather than cutting through at sea level.
The human cost was staggering: roughly 25,000 workers died across the French and American construction eras, many from disease.
A waterway meant to celebrate an engineering triumph opened almost in silence — World War I had begun two weeks earlier.
With Europe at war, the grand opening was a muted affair, but the canal’s effect on global shipping was immediate and permanent.
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