The Race to Save the Panama Canal

Can the world's most important canal be saved before it runs dry?

Additional images and footage courtesy of Additional footage and images courtesy of The Panama Canal, CBS, Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz, FDV, Vessel Finder, ABC News Live, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, Bibliothèque nationale de France, NASA, teleSUR, NBC and Zergatran

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[davex_sh]

Opened Youtube hoping to have a B1M video that could watch while having a lunch break! Video published 2min ago. Perfect timing! thank you for creating such good content!

[mikkorenvall]

It seems to be forgotten that as Panama Canal was refurbised 2015, it became wider and deeper, which means it also consumes more water as ships go by. So it's not only change in rains but also consume that dries up the canal.

[MrAndrew]

Something most people won't care about: the Gatun locks were made with over 2 million cubic yards of concrete, all from Atlas Cement in a little town called Northampton, Pennsylvania, my hometown. In all, 8 million barrels of concrete were used, with not one batch failing multiple inspections. To this day, that concrete is still used in the original 6 Gatun locks.
In 2016 when bigger locks were built, they ran into multiple issues delaying construction, some of which were issues with bad concrete. Though I do not know where that concrete was from, I do know it was not from the same region in PA

[hughmungusbungusfungus]

When you get down to it, having multiple options for getting across the Isthmus would be hugely beneficial to trade. This will inevitably lower shipping costs, thereby increasing volume.

[michaelmains]

In case anyone is interested, Panama's new metro line 3 will be the first tunnel ever to pass under the canal and is currently under construction.

[philipvecchio]

Water has always been a major problem for canals. I live in New York and the struggle to find water was a major driver of expansion of the Erie Canal system with a number of large reservoirs and lakes being constructed to keep up with the need for water.

[DowntownPaco]

The biggest reason why the canal was never built through Nicaragua was because of the volcano that sits close to where the route would be. Its highly volatile and active.

[caseydamiano]

Good presentation! One thing, though: It was not the U.S. who "came up" with the idea of a lock-and-dam network for Panama. That credit goes to French Engineer Gaudin DeLepenet [I likely butchered the spelling - sorry] who presented this information way back at Ferdinand DeLesseps' pitch meeting in Paris, but his idea was dismissed as "needlessly complicated." 20, 000 deaths later, the French company gave-up trying to dig to sea level.

[Artista_Frustrado]

i'm starting to think Dumping most of the Reservoir's water into the ocean instead of back into the lake might have been a design flaw

[ChrisJones-gxfc]

It's worth noting there's a railroad that runs alongside the canal, and is used to carry containers as well as passengers from one coast to the other.

The Panama Railroad first opened in 1855, rebuilt in 1912, two years before the opening of the canal. Following WW2 it fell into disrepair until 1998, reopening as the Panama Canal Railway in 2001 to carry intermodal traffic. Since 1998 it's been jointly owned by Kansas City Southern, now Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and Mi-Jack Products, and leased to the Panama government.

Ships offload their containers on one coast, and the railroad transports them to the other coast where they're loaded onto an awaiting ship to continue their journey. Currently 10 trains operate during a 24-hour period, with potential capacity of up to 32 trains. While it doesn't solve the canal's problem, it does help provide some relief.

[AliG-iqgd]

Running dry was predicted to occur before the date of handover to Panama, due to deforrestation. They have passed that date by 23 years now

[senpaigarr]

I always enjoy learning about all these cool projects from around the world! It's very interesting stuff. Thanks.

[amcluesent]

Instead of releasing water from the two lowest locks into the sea, why not pump it back up to the lake? Expensive, but needed.

[riderchallenge]

Why does RLL release a video on a particular topic, only for other YouTubers to release videos on the same topic a day later?

[Wolky]

It's always a bit creepy when two or more YouTubers I subscribe to come out with the same topic videos a day after each other

[verw]

US engineers did not "come up with the ingenious idea" of building the canal above sea level. This was already done by French engineers in the 17th century at the famous Canal du Midi connecting the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea.

[tedjohnson]

This video, the graphics, and the many insightful reader comments are “chef’s kiss”!

[far]

Panama is going to have to build more dams. Gatun Lake is the biggest drinking water reservoir in the country, so they can't just pump sea water into the lake.

[chrisdooley]

I was not aware a vessel could skip the queue if they paid enough money lol. That’s crazy because I’ve read the regular usage toll is already high as it is

[JonathanEzor]

We visited Panama and the Canal earlier this month. It's an astonishing wonder, and must be cared for.