With the Panama Canal, where do ships never have to make a detour?

The Strait of Magellan is located at the southernmost tip of the South American continent and is surrounded by islands such as Tierra del Fuego.

The Portuguese navigator Magellan first crossed the strait into the Pacific Ocean in 1520, hence its name.

The Strait of Magellan is 563 kilometers long, only a kilometer at its narrowest point, about 32 kilometers at its widest point, and has a latitude of 71°W, 54°S.

The Strait of Magellan is the most important natural shipping route between the South Atlantic and the South Pacific, but it is difficult for ships to navigate due to long-term bad weather and narrow straits. The eastern section is open and shallow, the shallowest part of the main channel is only 20 meters, the two sides are the grassland landscape of green grass, the strait is in the west wind belt of more than 50 degrees south latitude, the strong and full of water vapor of the west wind not only brings low temperature, rain and dense fog to the strait area, but also causes strong winds and waves, it is the world-famous violent wind and wave strait, which is not conducive to the development of shipping, but before the opening of the Panama Canal, it is an important waterway between the South Atlantic Ocean and the South Pacific.

Between the South American mainland and Tierra del Fuego, there is a very winding strait. Its western section is northwest-southeast trending, the middle section is north-south, and the eastern section is bent from southwest to northeast, from west to east, turning a right-angle bend. The coast in the central and western sections is also tortuous.

Steep walls on both sides of the bank are towering, and the headlands and islands are dense. The wind in the gorge is mostly foggy, the tide is high and the current is rapid, there are many whirlpools and countercurrents, and there are ice floes at sea from time to time, which is not conducive to navigation. So this has always been an inaccessible sea, with the Atlantic and Pacific oceans separated on either side of the strait.

After the completion of the Panama Canal, ships will no longer detour through the Strait of Magellan in South America.

With the Panama Canal separating North and South America, ships did not have to go around South America to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Originally, if you take a boat from the west coast of the United States to the east coast, you need to go around South America, but with the Panama Canal, you can go directly there, saving more than half of the road.

It greatly shortened the distance between the east and west coasts of the United States, and shortened it by 14,800 kilometers compared to the angle of Horn.

The Panama Canal is a kilometer long, with a depth of 13 to 15 meters and a width of 150 to 304 meters. The water level of the entire canal is 26 meters higher than the two oceans, and there are 6 locks. It usually takes 9 hours for ships to pass through the canal, and the difference between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans is not the reason for the locks, but the fact that the water level is higher than two oceans is conducive to increasing the draft limit of ships and reducing the cost of excavation.

The Panama Canal, which was built over hundreds of years, is 10,000 meters long, 304 meters wide at its widest point, 152 meters at its narrowest point, and 13 to 15 meters deep. Most strikingly, the canal features three huge locks, two on the Pacific side and one on the Atlantic side. Each lock is paired to control the passage of the channel on both sides.

The water level of this canal formed by the isthmus is not at the same level as that of the sea at both ends, but is 26 meters higher than the two oceans, and the whole is a topographic structure with a high middle and low on both sides.

The terrain was clearly not suitable for boats, so three locks were set up in it. But what's the use? When a vessel approaches the lock from a low ocean, the lock gate closes, creating an enclosed space inside the lock.

The canal manager then activated the equipment and filled the locks with water, raising the water level by 26 meters. This allows the boat to travel on artificially created "level roads". When a ship wants to sail from a high-water canal into the ocean, it enters the last lock of the canal, which is also closed.

However, unlike the incoming canal, the water level will be lowered by 26 meters parallel to the sea level, so that the ship can only "land" safely and blindly, so as to prevent the impact of the flow velocity caused by the difference in water level from affecting the safety of navigation. That's where the locks come in.

Panamax bulk carrier: As the name suggests, this type of ship refers to the largest bulk carrier that can pass through the Panama Canal under full load, that is, it mainly meets the relevant regulations of the canal navigation with the total length of the ship not exceeding meters and the width not exceeding meters. According to the need, adjust the size, type and structure of the ship to change the load capacity, the load capacity of this type of ship is generally between 60,000 tons.

Panama was able to reclaim sovereignty over the Panama Canal for a number of reasons. First of all, this canal is located on the territory of Panama and is a national resource of Panama, so the struggle is just. There is also support for Panama's just struggle around the world.

Secondly, the Panama Canal is located on the Isthmus of Panama in the central part of the Central American Republic of Panama, which was completed and opened to navigation in 1914 and is a famous international shipping waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its navigability, which shortens the distance between the two oceans by 5,000 14,000 kilometers compared with the detour through the Strait of Magellan, is of great economic and strategic importance.

It doesn't make much sense, in fact, it's still controlled by the United States.

The Panama Canal Zone was controlled by the United States for a long time and became a de facto colony of the United States.

On November 18, 1903, the United States and the Republic of Panama signed the "Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Panama on the Construction of a Navigable River Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans" (referred to as the "Treaty of the United States and Malaysia" or the "Treaty of the United States and the Republic of Panama". The treaty stipulates that the United States guarantees the independence of Panama, Panama will hand over the 10-mile-wide, 1,432-square-kilometer Canal Zone to the United States for permanent occupation and control, and some islands in the Gulf of Panama will also be handed over to the United States for use, and the United States will pay Panama a one-time payment of $10 million, and since 1913, $250,000 per year, and Article 3 even clearly stipulates that the Republic of Panama shall not exercise national sovereignty in the Canal Zone, which has turned the Canal Zone into a country within a state. Article V provides that the United States has a permanent monopoly on all the property of the Panama Canal and the Railway Company, article 8 stipulates that all the property and rights of the French Canal Company and the Railway Company must be transferred to the United States, and Article 24 stipulates that any future changes in the political situation in the Republic of Panama shall not affect the powers granted to the United States under this treaty.

The most important point in the treaty was that the United States had the right to intervene in Panama City and Colón in order to maintain public order.

31 December 1999 Panama takes back the management and protection of the canal. The Treaty on the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal provides that Panama and the United States will guarantee the permanent neutrality of the Panama Canal after the entry into force of the new Panama Canal Treaty.