CANAL LOCKS IN USE SINCE 1914
By Bob Van Leer

  (PANAMA CANAL, Monday, Feb. 3, 1997) - We arrived at Colon harbor at 6:30 a.m. to begin the transit of the Panama Canal.

  The basic procedure is ships are lifted up 85 feet to Gatun Lake. Ships sail across the isthmus on the lake and through a cut, and are lowered down the 85 feet to the Pacific Ocean.

  The geography is turned around in this part of the world. The country of Panama is narrow and runs roughly east and west. At the site of the canal, the country runs a little to the north.
We arrived on the Atlantic side as dawn was breaking. The sun was rising from behind the isthmus on the Pacific side. We are used to seeing the sun setting in the Pacific, not rising.

  The Colon harbor, actually the Port of Cristobal, was crowded with all manner of ships and several were anchored outside. Transit fees are based on displacement and whether the ship is carrying passengers and cargo, or whether it is in ballast.

  Our ship pays $140,000 for the transit. This is based on the size of the ship and also there is a surcharge for having a guaranteed time to go through the canal. Other ships wait until they are called, but a cruise liner does not want to go through the canal at night.

  Since its opening in 1914 more than 700,000 vessels have passed through the canal, according to a publication of the Panama Canal Commission.

  A short canal leads to the Gatun lock. On the right side of the ship we can see a remnant of the sea-level canal the French were trying to build. Ships are raised or lowered a total of 85 feet in three chambers. The ship is towed by electric "mules" into a lock and the lock doors are closed behind the ship.

  A rowboat brings the towing cable from the mule to the ship. We were told this is a process that has resisted all attempts at modernization. Shooting lines to the ship was tried, but abandoned as too dangerous to the crew. Outboard motors were tried but would sometimes stall out in the torrential rains. So one man in a rowboat is still an essential part of the canal lockage.

  There are two parallel sets of three locks. The first lock is filled to the level of the middle lock and the ship is towed into that one. The middle lock is filled to the level of the top lock and the ship towed into the top lock. After that lock is filled to lake level, the lock doors open and the ship is free to proceed across Gatun Lake.

  The locks have been in use since 1914 and are still in good shape. The original steel lock doors are still in use. Construction was started on a third set of locks in World War II, but abandoned after the war with dredging 60% complete.

  The canal cost $352 million to build, but literally billions of dollars have been spent since then on the canal in maintenance and modernizing. The original project was brought in under budget. The Gaillard (originally Culebra) cut was 300 feet wide and was widened to 500 feet. It is now being widened to 650 feet to allow unlimited two-way traffic of PANAMAX vessels, the largest able to transit the canal.

  The lake was formed by building a dam across the Chagres River. Everything about the canal is superlatives. At the time the dam was built, it was the largest earth dam in the world. The base of the dam is a half-mile wide.

  After leaving Gatun locks, we proceeded through the lake and through the cut to Pedro Miguel lock. On the Atlantic side the three locks are together. On the Pacific side there is the one lock at Pedro Miguel which lowers the ship to Miraflores Lake. A mile across the lake are the two Miraflores locks which lower the ship to the Pacific. 

  A couple of miles down the Miraflores River from the locks is the Bridge of the Americas, a high, graceful bridge that is part of the Pan-American highway. Beyond that, our ship heads into open sea. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are the same level, but the tide on the Atlantic side is 8 inches and on the Pacific side, 22 feet.

  On the Pacific end there is no harbor, just an anchorage. And at least a dozen ships are anchored waiting their turn to go through the canal.

  To the south of the canal we can see Panama City, a large city in Panama with a population of 650,000 in 1981. There are more high-rise buildings in the city than when we were there last. At that time we were on land. We watched ships go through the canal, but did not go through ourselves.

  The canal transit was nine or 10 hours, depending on at what stage you started to time it. Our ship has no stop in Panama. So far, I can't find anyone in the crew who knows why there is no stop in Panama.

  We are now on our way to Caldera, Costa Rica, 1013 nautical miles to the northwest.