07-12-1920 The Panama Canal Offically Opens
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Ocean Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Community - Blog |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Ronald Yeung |
| Description: | Engineering Pathway's blog for July 12. Blog contains original photos and videos that are not available elsewhere. Excerpt: "Today in History - July 12, 1920 - Official opening of the Panama Canal by Woodrow Wilson; although used since August 15, 1914. Ever since Europeans discovered the new world, sailors dreamed of linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Panama, a narrow neck of land connecting North and South America in what is now the country of Panama. The construction of the Panama Canal meant that ships no longer needed to take the long and arduous route around the tip of South America and could shorten that voyage by weeks and thousands of miles. The Panama Canal is an amazing feat of engineering and is sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the World. The canal operates as a ship elevator using three sets of water-filled chambers (locks) to raise and lower ships from one level to another. The ships must move between sea level (the Pacific or the Atlantic) to the level of Gatun Lake in Panama (26 meters above sea level) and then sail the channel through the Continental Divide. Per command of the canal authority, ships move through the locks slowly. Since the clearance between the ship and lock walls are very small, ships are tethered-pulled and controlled by locomotives on the port (below left) and starboard (below right) sides of the ship in a highly synchronized manner." |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Panama Canal Ocean Engineering Marine Engineering |
| Is Component of: |
"Today in History" Blog of the Engineering Pathway Digital Library |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
Good example of "extreme engineering". "In recent times, ships have been designed with a beam (width) restriction of ?Panamax? (that is, it cannot exceed the maximum width of the canal locks). Now larger container ships cannot pass through and in July 2006 Panama voted to widen its Canal. This large-scale expansion project will have many challenges and will definitely be a feat of Extreme Engineering." |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | July 2009 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.k-grayengineeringeducation.com/blog/index.php/2012/07/ |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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