An engineering masterpiece that forever changed ocean travel.

The Panama Canal was a romantic tourist destination even before its opening. Reporters, photojournalists, adventurers and the curious came from around the world. What they found was almost too big for words. One early reporter wired, "This canal is both a first and a last… man will never again build with such scope, such imagination."

Early efforts

As early as the days of Columbus, man was set on finding a sea level shortcut through the Americas landmass. But the first to make a serious attempt was Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, fresh from his triumph of building the Suez Canal in 1869. The project was poorly managed, underfinanced and in 1889, the French company went bankrupt. Clearly, an engineering project of this magnitude was too much for a private company. It was a job for a nation.

Enter the United States

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt revived the dream. The United States purchased the French holdings in Panama. Colonel George Washington Goethals of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was put in charge. And the construction of the Canal proceeded with unprecedented speed.

Against all odds

Despite malaria and 130°F days, the work went on across 50 miles of jungle. Laborers dug an enormous trench, dammed rivers and constructed six immense locks. On August 15, 1914, the steamer ss Ancon made the inaugural transit in nine hours and 40 minutes – shaving some 9,000 miles from the usual trip around Cape Horn. Join Holland America Line to discover why this 50-mile channel has become one of the quintessential travel experiences in the world.

The Big Ditch gets bigger

For years, major shipping and cruise companies built vessels designed to fit the Canal's lock chambers. (The largest chips the locks can handle are Panamax size, maximum width 106 feet, maximum length 965 feet.) Increasingly, however, global shippers are super-sizing their vessels in order to carry more cargo and they cannot fit into the locks.

To accommodate today's post-Panamax ships, Panama officials will construct two enormous sets of single-lane, three-step locks – one set on the Atlantic side, the other on the Pacific side. Another colossal undertaking with lock chambers, 1,400 feet long and 180 feet wide – the longest lock complex in the world.