THE Panama Canal and US Subic Naval Base were constructed around the same time the US was rising as an imperial naval power in the early 1900s. The Americans built an 82-kilometer canal that cuts through the middle of Panama as the major waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It reduced the distance sailing between the two oceans by 15,000 kilometers in just 8 to 10 hours of passage, instead of navigating the South American continent for 22 days. The Panama Canal is the largest public work project in US history and an engineering marvel. There is a system of locks that lifts the vessels and pushes them by gravity using the force of a water reservoir. More than 27,000 people died building the Panama Canal with billions of cement, metal and dredging materials used on the project.
For almost a century, the US controlled the canal, which was crucial to its global trade and national security. The passage allowed thousands of cargo freighters and American battleships to pass through it each year. The US sealed off the canal zone from Panama's citizens, which boiled over into a violent protest in 1964 and resulted in the death of 28 people. In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter and Panama dictator Omar Torrijos signed two treaties to phase out US control over the canal.
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