34 | SUNRAYS MAY 2014
ONLINE:
SCTXCA.ORG
I
t was the biggest financial failure in
history to that point—a project that
brought down a government and
killed 30,000 or more people dedicated
to its completion. The final accomplish-
ment used technology and science de-
veloped just in time by its creative de-
signers and visionaries. Now, 100 years
after its completion, the Panama Canal
still stands as a lasting monument to
the perseverance, innovation, and gutsy
fortitude of its creators.
Recently, my husband, Nick Martinez,
and I were passengers with 52 others on
a small ship that embarked on a com-
memorative passage during this 100th
anniversary year. We met our ship, the
M.Y. Variety Voyager, in Cartagena, Co-
lumbia, a 500-year-old Caribbean port
whose riches consistently attracted loot-
hunting pirates like Henry Morgan and
Sir Francis Drake. Although a city of
glass and skyscrapers these days, it is
the colonial old town, with its Caribbean
colors, cool plazas, and flower-bedecked
balconies that draws the tourist crowds.
A rough sea passage from Cartagena
brought us to Colon, at the Atlantic en-
trance to the Panama Canal, and gave us
the opportunity to see the construction
of a new set of locks (which were about
70 percent complete when we saw them).
The new locks will increase not only the
capacity of the current canal, which can
only serve 35-40 ships in a 24-hour pe-
riod, but will also enable larger ships to
use the canal. Also, the construction of
the new locks will incorporate a water
conservation system that will reduce by
60 percent the current 52 million gal-
lons now used for the transit of each ship
through the canal.
That evening in Colon, just at twilight,
we began our nine-hour passage of the
Canal by entering the Gatun Locks, a
three-step series that raised the ship to
Lake Gatun, 85 feet above sea level. The
lake, created by damming the Chagres
River, is the largest man-made lake in
the world. This watershed river, and the
200 inches of rain it gets each year, are
what drive the locks of the canal and the
dam that provides all the electricity for
canal operations and Panama City on
the Pacific side of the canal.
The Panama Canal:
100 Years Young
By Sandy Nielsen
Sun City Texas resident Sandy Nielsen captures the moment of her ship exiting the first set of locks of the Panama Canal and
entering Gatun Lake at twilight.
Photos by Sandy Nielsen
