1. The Locks
Each “leaf” of a pair of steel lock gates is massive. The leaves are 65 feet wide and 7 feet deep, but the height varies from 47 to 82 feet, depending on location.

2. The Locks
A Canal lock chamber can fill with water in eight minutes. To raise a ship,
fresh water is pumped with gravity.
To lower a ship, valves in the chambers release water. The locks require approximately 52 million gallons of fresh water for each ship that transits the Canal.

3. How the Panama Canal Works

4. Panama Canal: Time Lapse Video
Video Clip:
Boats of all sizes travel through the Panama Canal.
You could even take a canoe or kayak through the Canal’s lock system.
In 1928, someone SWAM the entire length of the Panama Canal!

5. Significance
The Panama Canal was one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. The project spanned from , cost $375 Million, and removed more than 230 Million cubic yards of earth.
The Panama Canal is a vital waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and providing a new route for international trade and military transport.

6. Panama Canal Facts Then Now
The Atlantic and Pacific oceans were joined on October 10, 1913, by an explosion triggered by a telegraph sent by President Woodrow Wilson from the White House.
On August 3, 1914, the SS Cristobal was the first ship to pass from one ocean to the other via the canal.
The canal had cost the U.S. about $375 million ($8.6 billion in today's money) to complete.
The highest toll ever paid by a cruise ship was $375,600, by the Norwegian Pearl on April 14,
The lowest toll ever was 36 cents, in 1928 by Richard Halliburton, the American travel writer and adventurer who swam the length of the canal.
The original locks were 94 feet wide, later widened to 110 feet. 
The U.S. held on to the Panama Canal Zone until 31 December 1999, when it was handed over to Panamanian control.
In 2013, Nicaragua awarded a Chinese group a 50-year concession to develop a rival canal through the country. Construction began in December 2014 and was projected to take five years.
In 2015, the canal handled 340 million tons of shipping, more than four times the maximum of 80 million tons, as estimated in 1934.