Hotels on Panama Canal

Hotels on Panama Canal

Numerous tourists like to take vacations near the Panama Canal. Some may want to see the culture, entertainment and tourist attractions of the Panama Canal region. Some tourists may want to see the culture, entertainment, history, sports and tourist attractions of the region. Some may want stay at luxury hotels or cheap hotels. Some tourists may want to stay at a hotel that is large or small. Numerous tourists may want to stay at a hotel that has luxury facilities. Many sailors and travelers on boats may need to stay at a hotel while they ship docks at the Panama canal region.

The Panama Canal is a man-made canal in Panama which joins the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels 9,500 km, well under half the 22,500 km (14,000 miles) route around Cape Horn. Although the concept of a canal near Panama dates back to the early 16th century, the first attempt to construct a canal began in 1880 under French leadership. After this attempt failed and saw 21,900 workers die, the project of building a canal was attempted and completed by the United States in the early 1900s, with the canal opening in 1914. The building of the 77 km canal was plagued by problems, including disease (particularly malaria and yellow fever) and landslides. By the time the canal was completed, a total of 27,500 workmen are estimated to have died in the French and American efforts.

Since opening, the canal has been enormously successful, and continues to be a key conduit for international maritime trade. The canal can accommodate vessels from small private yachts up to large commercial vessels. The maximum size of vessel that can use the canal is known as Panamax; an increasing number of modern ships exceed this limit, and are known as post-Panamax or super-Panamax vessels. A typical passage through the canal by a cargo ship takes around nine hours.

While the Pacific Ocean is west of the isthmus and the Atlantic to the east, the journey through the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic is one from southeast to northwest. This is a result of a the isthmus's "curving back on itself" in the region of the canal. The Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific end is about a third of a degree of longitude east of the end near Colon on the Atlantic.

The earliest mention of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama dates back to c.1524, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain ordered a survey for a route through Panama that would ease the voyage for ships traveling to and from Spain and Peru. During his expedition of 1788–1793 Alessandro Malaspina demonstrated the feasibility of a canal and outlined plans for its construction.

Given the strategic situation of Panama and its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other forms of trade links were attempted over the years. The ill-fated Darien scheme was an attempt launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up an overland trade route, but was defeated by the generally inhospitable conditions, and abandoned two years later in 1700. Finally, the Panama Railway was built across the isthmus, opening in 1855. This overland link greatly facilitated trade and this vital piece of infrastructure was a key factor in the selection of the later canal route.
Construction work on the Gaillard Cut is shown in this photograph from 1907

An all-water route between the oceans was still seen as the ideal solution, and the idea of a canal was enhanced by the success of the Suez Canal. The French, under Ferdinand de Lesseps, began construction on a sea-level canal (i.e., without locks) through what was then Colombia's province of Panama, on January 1, 1880. The French began work in a rush with insufficient prior study of the geology and hydrology of the region. Among other problems, sea level on the Caribbean side of Panama is lower than on the Pacific side. In addition, disease, particularly malaria and yellow fever, sickened and killed vast numbers of employees, ranging from laborers to top directors of the French company. Public health measures were ineffective because the role of the mosquito as a disease vector was then unknown. These conditions made it impossible to maintain an experienced work force as fearful technical employees quickly returned to France. Even the hospitals contributed to the problem, unwittingly providing breeding places for mosquitoes inside the unscreened wards. Actual conditions were hushed-up in France to avoid recruitment problems. In 1893, after a great deal of work, the French scheme was abandoned due to disease and the sheer difficulty of building a sea-level canal, as well as lack of French field experience, such as downpours causing steel equipment to rust. The high toll from disease was one of the major factors in the failure; as many as 21,900 workers are estimated to have died during the main period of French construction (1881–1889).

According to Stephen Kinzer's 2006 book Overthrow, in 1898 the chief of the French Canal Syndicate (a group that owned large swathes of land across Panama), Philippe Bunau-Varilla, hired William Nelson Cromwell (of the US law firm Sullivan & Cromwell) to lobby the US Congress to build a canal across Panama, and not across Nicaragua.

In 1902, after having run into a 10-cent Nicaraguan postal stamp produced in the US by the American Bank Note Company erroneously depicting a fuming Momotombo volcano (which was nearly dormant and stands more than 160 km from the proposed Nicaraguan canal path) and taking advantage of a particularly volcanic year in the Caribbean, Cromwell planted a story in the New York Sun reporting that the Momotombo volcano had erupted and caused a series of seismic shocks. He thereafter sent leaflets with the above stamps pasted on them to all U.S. Senators as witness to the volcanic activity in Nicaragua. On June 19, 1902, three days after senators received the stamps, they voted for the Panama route for the canal. For his lobbying efforts, Cromwell received the sum of $800,000.

In November 1903, Phillipe Bunau-Varilla, Panama's ambassador to the United States, signed the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, granting rights to the USA to build and indefinitely administer the Panama Canal. Bunau-Varilla, although serving as Panama's ambassador, was a French citizen, and was not authorized to sign treaties on behalf of Panama without the review of the Panamanians. This treaty became a contentious diplomatic issue between the two countries, culminating in riots in which 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers were killed on Martyr's Day, January 9, 1964. The issues were resolved with the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1977, returning the former Canal Zone territories to Panama.

The United States, under President Theodore Roosevelt (with John Frank Stevens as Chief Engineer from 1905–1907), bought out the French equipment and excavations for US$40 million, and began work on May 4, 1904, after helping Panama achieve the separation from Colombia by deploying troops and naval forces to prevent Colombia from suppressing the rebellion against Colombian governance, created by the USA. The US paid Colombia $25,000,000 in 1921, seven years after completion of the canal, for redress of President Roosevelt's role in the creation of Panama, and Colombia recognized Panama under the terms of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty.

Chief Engineer (1905–1907), John Frank Stevens', primary achievement in Panama was in building the infrastructure necessary to complete the canal. He rebuilt the Panama Railway and devised a system for disposing of soil from the excavations by rail. He also built proper housing for canal workers and oversaw extensive sanitation and mosquito-control programmes that eliminated yellow fever and other diseases from the Isthmus. Stevens argued the case against a sea level canal like the French had tried to build. He successfully convinced Theodore Roosevelt of the necessity of a canal built with dams and locks.

A significant investment was made in eliminating disease from the area, particularly yellow fever and malaria, the causes of which had originally been theorized by Cuban physician/scientist Dr. Carlos Finlay in 1881 who had identified the mosquito as the vector that causes the disease. Finlay's theory and investigative work had recently been confirmed by Dr. Walter Reed while in Cuba with US Army motivation during the Spanish-American War (see Health measures during the construction of the Panama Canal). With the diseases under control, and after significant work on preparing the infrastructure, construction of an elevated canal with locks began in earnest and was finally possible. The Americans also gradually replaced the old French equipment with machinery designed for a larger scale of work (such as the giant hydraulic crushers supplied by the Joshua Hendy Iron Works), quickening the pace of construction. President Roosevelt had the former French machinery minted into medals for all workers who spent at least two years on the construction to commemorate their contribution to the building of the canal. These medals featured Roosevelt's likeness on the front, the name of the recipient on one side, and the worker's years of service, as well as a picture of the Culebra Cut on the back.

In 1907 Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals as Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal. The building of the canal was completed in 1914, two years ahead of the target date of June 1, 1916. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914 with the passage of the cargo ship Ancon. Coincidentally, this was also the same month that fighting in World War I (the Great War) began in Europe. The advances in hygiene resulted in a relatively low death toll during the American construction; still, 5,609 workers died during this period (1904–1914). This brought the total death toll for the construction of the canal to around 27,500.

The Gaillard Cut, or Culebra Cut, is a man-made valley cutting through the continental divide in Panama. The cut forms part of the Panama Canal, linking Lake Gatún, and thereby the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gulf of Panama and the Pacific Ocean. It is 12.6 km (7.8 miles) long from the Pedro Miguel lock on the Pacific side to the Chagres River arm of Lake Gatun, with a water level 26 m (85 ft) above sea level.

Construction of the cut was one of the greatest engineering feats to have been undertaken in its time; the immense effort required to complete it was justified by the great significance of the canal to shipping, and in particular the strategic interests of the United States.

Colón is a sea port on the Caribbean Sea coast of Panama. The city lies near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It is capital of Panama's Colón Province and has traditionally been known as Panama's second city. Colón was traditionally located entirely on Manzanillo Island, surrounded by Limon Bay, Manzanillo Bay and the Folks River. Since the disestablishment of the Canal Zone, the city's limits have been redefined to include the former Canal Zone towns of Cristobal, Rainbow City, Margarita, and Coco Solo, as well as the former US Army base of Fort Gulick. The city was founded by Americans in 1850 as the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railroad, then under construction to meet the gold rush demand for a fast route to California. For a number of years early in its history, the sizable United States émigré community called the town Aspinwall while the city's Hispanic community called it Colón, in honor of Christopher Columbus. The city was founded on the western end of a treacherously marshy islet known as Manzanillo Island. As part of the Panama Railroad's construction, the island was connected to the Panamanian mainland by a causeway and part of the island was drained to allow the erection of permanent buildings.

Panama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama, located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.Panama is the political and administrative center of the country. Juan Carlos Navarro is Panama's current mayor. Panama has a dense skyline, including mostly apartment buildings, but office complexes and hotels as well. Panama is an important hub for international banking and commerce. It has an advanced communications service, Internet use is widespread; and Panama's Tocumen International Airport offers daily flights to international destinations. The city was founded on August 15, 1519, by Pedro Arias de Ávila. Within years of its founding, the city became a launching point for the exploration and conquest of Peru and a transit point for gold and silver headed towards Spain. In 1671, the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan, with the help of a band of 1400 men, attacked and looted the city, which was subsequently destroyed by fire. The ruins of the old city still remain and are a popular tourist attraction known as Panamá la Vieja (Old Panama). It was rebuilt in 1673 in a new location approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of the orignal city. This location is now known as the Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) of the city. Two years after the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848, the Panama Railroad Company was formed, but the railroad did not begin operation until 1855. Between 1848 and 1869, the year the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States, about 375,000 persons crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 225,000 in the opposite direction. That traffic greatly increased the prosperity of the city during that period. The construction of the Panama Canal was of great benefit to the infrastructure and economy. Of particular note are the improvements in health and sanitation brought about by the American presence in the Canal Zone. These include the eradication of yellow fever and malaria and the introduction of a first-rate water supply system. However, most of the workers involved in the construction of the canal were brought in from the West Indies, which created unprecedented racial and social tensions in the city.

Partial list of Canal Zone townships and military installations:

Pacific Side

Townships
Ancón - built on the lower slopes of Ancon Hill, adjacent to Panama City. Also home to Gorgas Hospital.
Balboa - Administrative capital, as well as location of the harbor and main Pacific Side high school
Balboa Heights
Cardenas - as the Canal Zone was gradually handed over to Panamanian control, Cardenas was one of the last Zonian holdouts.
Cocoli
Corozal
Curundu: on military base, but housed civilian military workers
Curundu Heights
Diablo
Diablo Heights
Gamboa - headquarters of dredging division, located on Gatun Lake. Many new arrivals to the Canal Zone were assigned here.
La Boca: home of the Panama Canal College
Los Ríos
Paraíso
Pedro Miguel
Red Tank: was abandoned and allowed to be overgrown sometime around 1950.
Rosseau: built as a naval hospital during WWII, housed FAA personnel until Cardenas was built. Torn down after about 20 years

Military Installations
Fort Amador - on the coast, partly built on land extended into the sea using excavation materials from the canal construction
Fort Clayton
Corozal Army Post (close to, but separate from the civilian township)
Fort Kobbe
Rodman Marine Barracks
Albrook Air Force Base
Howard Air Force Base
Quarry Heights: Headquarters, US Southern Command

Atlantic Side

Townships
Brazos Heights: privately owned housing (by United Brands and other, mostly shipping companies) where employees/owners of shipping agencies, lawyers and the head of the YMCA lived
Coco Solo: main hospital and only Atlantic Side high school (called Cristobal High School)
Cristóbal: main harbor and port
Gatún
Margarita
Mount Hope: site of the only Atlantic side cemetery and the only drydock
Rainbow City

Military Installations
Fort Gulick: home to School of the Americas
Galeta Island
Fort Randolph: abandoned military base
Fort Davis
Fort Sherman: home to Jungle Operations Training Center

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