The Panama Canal: A Shortcut Connecting Oceans
A canal is a gigantic piece of machinery that, quite simply, unites two geographical
points that are close together using the power of water. There’s usually a river or a
lake, and the machinery is just a set of locks or mechanical doors that allow ships
and boats to pass through.
The point of any canal is to shorten distances between places. The site where a
canal is built is commonly a narrow or elongated landmass, called an isthmus.
Those distances that a canal brings together go beyond the place where it is built.
For example, when the Eerie Canal was built in upstate New York in the XIX
century, it opened commerce from the Atlantic Ocean through the bay of New
York, allowing goods and merchandise to go all the way into the heartland of the
United States.
Panama Today: Discover More with GLP
So, the Republic of Panama, located in a narrow stretch of land connecting North
and Central America with South America, is very much and isthmus. And its
Panama Canal, built by the United States with workers from all over the world from
1904 till 1914, changed world travel and overall international commerce. Now,
ships and boats could travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans in less time
than before, saving time and money for both people and companies.
You may not get a sense of it, but the Panama Canal allows you to have imported
goods from all over the world at your disposal. Clothing, electronics, cars, furniture,
all these things that are made somewhere else can be within your reach at any
moment. Before, you would have to wait weeks or months in order to have them in
your local store or market, now it only takes a few days.
