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The Story of The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a vital place for ships to pass through Panama. It connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Oceans and turned down the long and risky route via Drake Passage and Cape Horn and gave birth to new shipping route. Moreover, it made traveling easy between Spain and Peru.

In 1880, French took the decision to make the Canal which was failed when a huge number of workers died in the construction process. The creation of the canal in Panama was beset by problems like disease and landslides. In 1900s the United States completed this construction. At the end of the construction, total number of dead workers reached 27500.

International shipping was the only motive that let the US and France to create a canal here. Every year around 14,000 ships passes through this canal. 2002 was the time when about 800,000 ships had used the canal altogether.

The Canal can contain vessels from little yachts to large commercial ships. It takes around nine hours for a cargo ship to cross from one ocean to another through the canal. Statistics show that caring total 278.8 million tons, around 14,011 vessels passed through the Canal in 2005. That makes 40 ships average every day.

The tolls for passing through the canal are controlled by the Panama Canal Authority. They calculate the amount of toll basing on vessel types, sizes, and the types of cargo carried. The container ships pay US$ 54 for each container and it must be a standard 20 feet equivalent size. Other ships pay toll for per tons they carry through. As for the small vessels, tolls are based on their length size.

The Canal in Panama is ninety years of age and it is continues to enjoy great achievement. The revolutions of ships are much rapid comparing to the actual way The Panama Canal was build. At the beginning the rush and the amount of ships were less but throughout the time it changed along with the types of ships. It is true that, no matter what The Panama Canal remained it is the same vital gateway for world trade. However, The Panama Canal faces a number of problems due to the growth in ship numbers.

When the U.S. left the maintenance of The Panama Canal the competence of The Panama Canal Authority to maintain the Canal was questioned by the people. But they showed their efficiency in a promising way and day by day it improved. They got ahead of their problems and still creating possibilities to engage more ships every day. The Panama Canal Authority alleges that the possibilities of accidents in seaway are less than any other way of transportation.

The market share of The Panama Canal depends on these ships and to maintain a sound condition in the share market, it needs to be capable of meeting the demands. It is considered that by 2011, 37% of the size of world's ships will be too large and will make the current Panama Canal useless. So if the Panama Canal wants to do more and stay with the current share market, upgrade is the only solution.

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