Considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world, the Panama Canal stretches 80km from Panama City on the Pacific side of the country, to Colón on the Atlantic and allows around 14,500 vessels to pass through each year, cutting down travel time by a fraction and hugely aiding international maritime trade.
Construction of the canal began in 1881 by France, but engineering problems and a high number of disease-related deaths caused construction to stop until the US took over in 1904. They took 10 years to complete the canal and kept control until December 31st 1999 when the Panama/US agreement ended and the Panamanian government took full control of the canal.
Regardless of how engineer-minded you are, there’s no arguing that seeing a ship – at times carrying more than 50,000 tonnes – nudge its way through the narrow pass, with large tracts of jungle on both its sides really is quite a sight.