Panama Canal

Introduction & Top Questions
Physical features
- The canal
- Locks
- Breakwaters
Operation
- Navigation
- Maintenance
- Canal traffic
- Panama Canal Authority
- Tolls
History
- Lesseps’s failed attempt
- American intervention
- Human costs and completion
- Treaties governing the canal’s international status
- Capital improvements
  - Effects of expansion
- Water use and the effects of climate change

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Black-and-white photo of Teddy Roosevelt over Panama Canal backdrop, flanked by Panama and U.S. flags with “or” and a question mark between them.

At a Glance

Panama Canal summary

Quizzes

(Left) Ball of predictions with answers to questions based on the Magic 8 Ball; (right): Rubik's Cube. (toys)

The Dating Game: Which Came First?

water glass on white background. (drink; clear; clean water; liquid)

Water and its Varying Forms

Panama Canal. Boat. Shipping. Ship and shipping. Container ship passing through the Panama Canal.

Canals, Straits, and More Quiz

Related Questions

How did U.S. health measures reduce malaria and yellow fever during canal construction?
How did landslides affect construction of Gaillard Cut?
How did the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty give the United States control of the Canal Zone?
How did the Madden Dam and Power Project improve canal operations?
How did the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 change control of the canal?
How did the Panama Canal change global shipping and trade?
How did the Spooner Act influence the construction of the Panama Canal?
How did the Third Set of Locks Project affect the canal's shipping capacity?
How did the new Panama Canal locks allow larger neo-Panamax ships to pass?
How did tropical disease affect the French effort to build the Panama Canal?
How do fender chains protect the Panama Canal lock gates?
How do the Panama Canal locks raise and lower ships?
How does the Panama Canal shorten voyages around South America?
How far do Gatún Locks raise ships above sea level?
How long does a ship usually take to pass through the Panama Canal?
How many lock steps are at Gatún Locks?
How many workers died during construction of the Panama Canal?
How much distance does the Panama Canal save ships traveling between the U.S. coasts?
How were steam shovels and railroads used to build the Panama Canal?
What is the Panama Canal Railway and how did it contribute to the canal's history?
What role did Theodore Roosevelt play in building the Panama Canal?
What role does Gatún Lake play in the Panama Canal route?
When did Panama take complete control of the Panama Canal?
When did construction of the Panama Canal begin and when did it open?
When was the Panama Canal expansion completed?
Where did many of the workers who built the Panama Canal come from?
Where is the Panama Canal located?
Which direction does the Panama Canal run across Panama?
Which oceans does the Panama Canal connect?
Which organization administers the Panama Canal after the 1999 transfer?
Which places mark the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the Panama Canal?
Which ship made the first official transit of the Panama Canal?
Which treaty gave the United States exclusive authority to build an isthmian canal?
Who signed the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977?
Why did many Panamanians object to the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty?
Why did the French originally plan a sea-level canal through Panama?
Why did the United States Senate debate the Panama Canal treaties for so long?
Why did the United States choose a lock canal rather than a sea-level canal in Panama?
Why does the Panama Canal use locks instead of a sea-level channel?
Why was the Chagres River a major challenge during construction of the Panama Canal?
Why was the Panama Canal expanded with the Third Set of Locks Project?
Why were environmental studies and wildlife monitoring included in the Panama Canal expansion project?
What is the Panama Canal?
Why is the Panama Canal important?
How was the Panama Canal made?
Why does the Panama Canal need locks?
Who built the Panama Canal?
Where is the Erie Canal?
Is the Erie Canal still in use?
What is the Suez Canal?
Why is the Suez Canal important?
How has the Suez Canal changed throughout history?

Geography & Travel Physical Geography of Water Rivers & Canals

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External Websites

Digital History - A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama
National Archives - The Panama Canal: Riots, Treaties, Elections, and a little Military Madness, 1959ï¿½-1973
Officla Site of the Panama Canal
ABC listen - Rear Vision - The Panama Canal

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Panama Canal - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Panama Canal - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Panama Canal

canal, Central America

Also known as: Canal de Panamá

Written by

Norman J. Padelford

Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1945–71. Author of The Panama Canal in Peace and War.

Norman J. PadelfordAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026 •History

Panama Canal, lock-type canal, owned and administered by the Republic of Panama, that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 40 miles (65 km) and from deep water in the Atlantic (more specifically, the Caribbean Sea) to deep water in the Pacific about 50 miles (82 km). The canal, which was completed in August 1914, is one of...

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