Ashton AkerProfessor Edith MacdonaldAMH202028 March 2014The Panama CanalAccording to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Panama Canal is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. (Seven Wonders). Before the Panama Canal existed, ships wanting to travel from the east coast of the United States to the west coast had to sail around the south side of South America, while ships passing through the canal could make the same journey in less than half the time . . The Panama Canal used today is a political and engineering miracle. It required interactions and treaties between four different countries and the creation of a fifth. It can lift ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons up to 85 feet without using huge amounts of energy. King Charles I of Spain first introduced the idea of ​​a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1534, but the local Spanish governor discarded the idea. Americans then became interested in a faster travel route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the early 1800s. Unfortunately the United States and Great Britain signed the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty in 1850, which prevented both countries from controlling any canal that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Central America. During the Spanish-American War the United States realized it needed a faster way to move its naval forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When the war ended, the United States decided to find a way to start building a canal. The first thing that needed to be done was for the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty to be abrogated. The United States and Great Britain abrogated the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty in 1901 with the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which gave the United States “the only r…… middle of paper……the second flight, and the gates are then closed. The water is then allowed to flow from the third and final flight of the Gaton locks to the second, until they level. The vessel then enters Lake Gaton and proceeds to do the same process in reverse through the Pedro Miguel Lock and the Miraflores Locks. The genius behind the design is that the entire process uses gravity acting on high water to lift ships without actually having to exert force. To summarize, the completion of the Panama Canal is an epic political and engineering achievement. Interactions between four different countries and the creation of a fifth were required to begin construction of the canal. Then it took about thousands and thousands of men for ten years to build it. Finally, any mechanism capable of lifting ships weighing nearly 100,000 tons up to 85 feet is a miracle of engineering..