7000km has been reduced between India and Europe.
FIRST ANSWER: There were astounding engineering challenges due to the difference in sea level at the Atlantic vs. Pacific sides, but the thing that proved most difficult was the mosquito borne disease. Thousands of French, Panamanian and American workers dies as a result of malaria and other tropical pathogens.
'
REPLY BY NigelG: +++
The "Astounding" part of the project was NOT the difference in sea-levels (due to tides). That is no real problem at all, needing only entrance locks as on the earlier, already-successful, Suez Canal. The real engineering difficulties for the Panama Canal were those of building a series of large locks and their feeders to take the canal over the central ridge of the isthmus. ' The first attempt, by the French, failed because the designer, de Lesseps, specified a sea-level route (with tidal locks) but he under-estimated the problems and cost of cutting through the ridge.
The Panama canal shortened the trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean by two thirds, from 12,000 miles to 4,000 miles. This was a great boost for the commercial activity between the USA's east and west coast States and for the trade between Europe and the east coast States of the USA, and Asia. It also considerably shortened the trade routes between all western States and countries in the Americas and Europe.
There are three sets of locks in the canal. A two-step flight at Miraflores, and a single flight at Pedro Miguel, lift ships from the Pacific up to Lake Gatun; then a triple flight at Gatun lowers them to the Atlantic side.
== == == ==
While the canal is "always" open, there are certain times of day the major operations occur. The procession of the largest ships starts at each end in the early morning and they go through the locks in a group over about two hours. The public viewing areas at either end should be visited at about 8 AM to see the biggest ships going through the locks one after the other. The closing times of the public viewing areas is different at each end of the canal; make inquiries.
Canals were introduced during the Roman occupation of the south of Great Britain, and were used mainly for irrigation. However, the Romans did create several navigable canals, such as the Foss Dyke.
The Bridgewater Canal, can claim to be the first modern artificial canal in Britain, opened in 1761 to carry coal.
Designed by James Brindley, and built for Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.
Gate is the name given to the lower barrier of a canal lock. A Canal lock is used to lower and raise the water to move boats along a waterway.
It wasn't originally built for the Suez Canal, but it was originally conceived for the Suez Canal. I have read accounts that range from the original concept being meant to resemble an Arab peasant woman, to her being meant to resemble the goddess Isis. As Bartholdi was working on the concept, he realized that he would never get the funding from Egypt, he later traveled to New York and reconceived his plans. The statue now most closely resembes the Greek Goddess Hera.
It is a system of gates to allow ships to move up or down from 1 level to another. The vessel moves into the lock & water is allowed to either leave or enter the lock to change the level, when the water equalizes to the new level, either up or down, then the next gate can be opned to allow the vessel to move on. Because the levels in the Red Sea & the Meditteranean are the same there was no need for a lock system in the Suez canal.
It is commonly held that the first canal built in Britain was the Bridgewater Canal, commissioned by Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his mines at Worsley in Lancashire into the industrial areas of the city of Manchester. The engineer was James Brindley and it was seen as a miracle of the early industrial age. It opened in July 1761 and has its place in history as the first true canal to be built in Britain in that it did not follow an existing natural watercourse.
There are counter claims that the Sankey Canal, which was also built primarily to transport coal to serve the growing Liverpool chemical industry, was actually the first but there is no doubt that it was the Bridgewater Canal, or the "Duke's Cut", was the one that inspired an era of canal building that continued until the 1830s.
Egypt.
If you go to Egypt today, you can still see the Nile River.
There are many canals and remnants of canals in Suriname. The Surinamese capital city at Paramaribo alone has over a dozen canals and sluices dating from plantation days. Canals and sluices were used extensively on Suriname's plantations to control the drainage of water. Specifically, Paramaribo was surrounded by plantations that took care of their drainage through canals and sluices.
Horrible. hot and it rained a lot. Humid all around... its a nightmare. A lot of workers died.
ADDED. They did not die from those conditions, but from malaria and other tropical diseases.
the water level would sink. Anything that sinks into the water would cause the water level to sink
Panama is located in Central America between Colombia and Costa Rica. It is the only country in North America to border South America.