Interesting facts about the Panama Canal
Concrete Cheltenham companies such as www.monstermixconcrete.co.uk/concrete-cheltenham/ deliver large quantities of concrete to lots of different customers on a daily basis. It is a much more efficient delivery method than has been used in the past. Concrete has been used to build some incredible structures across the world and the Panama Canal is one of them. If you were looking to sail from Portsmouth to Tokyo before 15th August 1914 you were faced with a very long journey.
Not only that, but it was also a very dangerous one. You had to go around the tip of South America and the storm-ridden Cape Horn. The alternative was to go North and not freeze in the Arctic Ocean or crash in the choppy Bering Strait.
The answer was simple. Build a big canal through one of the small Central American countries and link them. Panama was chosen as there was an existing isthmus that was already eroding a pathway. All that the authorities had to do was widen and expand it. This idea had been mooted since the mid-1500s. However, there simply wasn’t the skill of engineering to accomplish it.
Over the next 500 years, all major powers attempted to do it. The French had tried, and the British Empire had made a bold claim that they’d get it done in 5 years but nothing happened. A botched Scottish-led endeavour failed and even Spain tried so that they could gain the upper hand over Portugal.
Eventually, a collaboration between the US Government and the Government of Panama got the canal built.
