What do you know about the Panama Canal?

Today Huia 1 learnt about the Panama Canal, which opened 99 years ago on the 15th August 1914.

We learnt King Charles V of Spain decided there must be an easier way to get from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. This is when they decided to make a canal through Panama. The project was delayed for 300 years due to wars in Europe. This project would make a 2,000km trip only 80km.

In 1819,  the government announced the official construction of the canal. The French started the official construction, but failed due to the tropical disease known as malaria.

    In 1904, the USA helped Panama gain independence from Colombia; in return Panama let the USA take over the project. Ten years of American construction led up to the official opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. The project overall cost US$327 million (a lot of money in the time).

    In 1999, the USA gave the control to Panama again,  and in 2007 the construction for the expansion of the Panama Canal began.  

 Unfortunately, the building of this great canal came at a horrible cost. About 26,000 of the 40,000 workers died due to malaria and landslides.

Written by:
Mwaniki, Mason and Karmveer

• We learnt what an isthmus is: Panama is an isthmus and so is Auckland. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land between two larger areas of land, and has water on two sides. Auckland isthmus is between the Manukau Habour and the Waitemata Harbour.
• We learnt that malaria is a disease spread by mosquitos.
• We learnt that there is another major canal in the world; the Suez Canal is between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.