Future of Panama Canal - and how it works - by Patrick Dixon

[SolYSombre101]

Worst nonsense comment ever met.

[Spideymania]

My great-grandfather helped build the canal!

[angu31a]

I have been through the Canal a couple of times on large container ships, i was working on them. It was quite an experience and one I cannot wait to enjoy again. The Panama was started by the Americans and completed by the French. Oh and jlamb86 tankers are actually quite dangerous, all tools need to be earthed and even the torches need to be special, non sparking, because dependant on the type of cargo the smallest spark could ignite the cargo and blow the deck off the ship.

[terreplein]

@angu31a The French started their canal at Panama in 1880, and it was never successfully completed. The current panama canal was built between 1904 & 1914 by the U.S. I'm not sure where you got the idea that it "was started by the Americans and completed by the French".

[FuelSniffer]

It took a lot of French and American lives to build the canal. Lets face it, it probably would never have been built because Panama would never have been able to put up the capital or ingenuity to build it. Panama can thank America for this one. Operating it is easy, building it was the hard part. Panamanians can be proud for what it gives to their economy, but the only thing they did was get lucky that their country was plotted on that area of land.

[VLombardi01]

I lived in panama back it the late 70's. We drove by this several times but i learned more about it just by watching this video.

[JOHN120391]

Panamà es el mejor pais del mundo nigun panameño puede decir lo contrario este pais no han dado comida ropa estudio un buena calidad de vida bueno unos mejores que otro pero mi Panamà lo amo viva Panamà

ALCANZAMOS LA VITORIA VIVA LA PATRO ISTMO DE RAZA Y ETNIA DE CULTURA DEL MUNDO............. BENDICIONES PARA TODO LOS PANAMEÑOS

[Canalero09]

10 years of the canal in hand of the panamanians

we had proved to the world that we can and that we know how to administrate and run this modern world wonder

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

[rrmfg]

The Canal Zone was and should always be the sovereign soil of the United States of America. It was given away by the cowardly Communist traitor Jimmy Carter.

[almafuertegmailcom]

Ever thought why you have so many non-english names of places and streets on your country? Because most of it is not yours at all.

You have no right to send your troops overseas, or control any piece of land beyond your own. The channel belongs to the Panamanians, and to the whole world, since it's a major piece of modern transportation. The Panamanians are doing a great work managing the channel, and they should be left alone to do whatever they please with their rightfully owned land.

[Gvieto]

You are damn right!

[flashydick]

Tell that prick to shut the fuck up on the jack hammer patrick

[jlamb86]

...a tanker doesnt explode unless you hit it with a torpedo

[SpitfireUK2]

Its filled with gas, or something, maybe oil..... really? looks like a product tanker to me.

[rednut18]

mate learn ur ship types that was a chemical tanker and stop talking shit about the ships

[Zeamus634]

A ship of this size hit something and explode...more like leak!

[svuhelter7]

jimmy carter is an ass!!!!!we could sure use the money from the canal now!!

[MariaGabriela11]

panama going to rebuild the canal to make it faster and larger construction lasted 6 years and is a megaconstruccion the world's largest

[cadauri]

que bueno el canal de panama

[LH4YOU]

i lost my girlfriend there , she died (3years ago)

[clarkepaint]

The UPT Cape Bille tanker comes to Portland, Maine.

[cabal0092009]

good

[ilustador]

do u think that Panamenian's worked so hard to see the US government taken over panama canal again, wake up stupid morrow, we will not and u can write this on stone stand for any US intervention on out business or the Panama Canal , and next time do your homework before even talk about how does the canal works.

[ilustador]

do u think that Panamenian's worked so hard to see the US government taken over panama canal again, wake up stupid morrow, we will not and u can write this on stone stand for any US intervention on out business or the Panama Canal , and next time do your homework before even talk about how does the canal works.

[articledon]

stupid question. wouldnt it have been easier to just dig down another 80 ft rather than using locks to rasie the ship 80 feet?

[Aseuz]

This ship is not a gas carrier or oil tanker, this is a chemical carrier...

He does not know anything about ships ;)

[iceman68879]

The Muels dont pull the ships through the locks they hold you striaght in the locks because you cant use your thrusters... researches need to get information right

[jaegerarrow16]

†...............Thanks!!!!!!!!­!!!†

[jr240971]

I just came back from Panama and did a tour of the Canal. It is quite the sight. One comment I would like to add, when the rail cars are talked about in your video, they were referenced as "pulling" the ships. While on my tour, they had a live audio commentary as the ships were using the lock. They explained that the ships move forward under their own power and the rail cars provide only lateral and stopping force. I also thought that the cars pulled the ships through the locks.

[diegotutiven]

@jr240971 you are right, they dont pull the ship, they help the ship to stay straight, in order to move ahead, that way it wont hit the walls.

[castr0j0rmar]

A Panama Canal lock chamber fills up in 8 minutes. 101,000 cubic meters of water are needed to fill a Panama Canal lock chamber. An average of 52 million gallons of fresh water are used in each transit. All water used in any lock chamber comes from Gatun Lake. This lake covers 163.38 square miles and was created when Madden Dam was built. At one time, Gatun Lake was the largest artificial lake in the world. Ships are raised 85 feet over sea level. This is the level of Gatun Lake.

[Barriolaclemencia]

i have a question i do not know much of the Panama Canal but is it like an elevator ?

[annebreal]

You are probably refering to how it lowers and raises in some parts

[thadutchguy]

no, not really, it is exacly how this guy is telling you, a ship is going in that 2 doors, then they fill it up with water so the ship raises to the same level as the water on the otherside of the door, than the doors are going open, ship is leaving, othership is going in than they pump the level away doors open ship out ship in and so on, maybe a bit easy but it is going like that.

(sorry for bad english i am from holland...)

[munnasaab]

Yes it is a series of aquatic elevators which lift a ship 85 feet and then bring it down to sea level . The credit for this brilliant concept goes to Maj. General George Washington Goethal of theUS Army Engineers . The US has erected a monument in his honor .

[cabal0092009]

It works pretty much as a water elevator, raising ships from one ocean to gatún Lake and then lowering them to the other.

[baseballboy725]

Some what sence the water lv is higher in one lake then the other the have to make the water in the locks rise...other reason is that boats needed to get to north america quicker than just going around south america.

[precoz22]

Panamá, con dos Torrijos en el poder y una historia de sublimación a los americanos pretende establecer una monarquía de pendejos y no saben ni como establecer el linaje.

[kuntsavage]

i heard the russians were going tot visit ther.

[cosette2193]

A sea-level canal would be an ecological disaster: species of Atlantic and Pacific fish, warm and cold water varieties, would mix for the first time and destroy the food chain on either side.

[pjvdixon]

Thanks - yes indeed building Panama Canal was a dangerous and had process - many died.

[floatncoffee]

everytime they tryed to dig deeper, storms would wash earth back into canal.. so they had to build locks...

watch "7 Wonders Of The Industrial World"

will tell you everything...great dvd

[pjvdixon]

They had to build locks so that ships could steam up the river and down the other side right across the country in navigable waters.

[hukeeaboo]

@floatncoffee sorry but you are wrong,, storms would wash but you need the locks for the different levels of terrain.... for the lake gatun was flooded to store water for the canal..been there done that many times

[limited06]

bit of a stupid question but I've never known why locks are needed, I know its to get boats higher up, does that mean one side of the canals is shallower? Why cant the ships just keep going along wiping out the need of the canals?

[BuffaloBill23]

I'd imagine it's because the lake has to be deep enough for the ships to travel through it and this means being higher than the ocean.

[pjvdixon]

Locks enable boats to climb big hills up and down the other side, the "lift" for the boat happens as each lock floods, bringing the boat up to the level of the next stretch of water. But only works so long as small river somewhere feeding water into the highest point.

[pjvdixon]

Rivers flow downhill.... and are usually too shallow for boats. Answer: dam them up to make them deaper. You then create stretches of river which are relatively deep, slow moving, like long thin lakes, but at different heights. You have to create gates to allow boats to enter one stretch and leave another without emptying the upper stretch and flooding the lower one. By using two sets of gates (locks) you can create a small section between them which can fill and empty with water.

[agnosis66]

The canal is never made on the river but next to it. So the river is just a source of water for a deeper but narrow canal. Canals are just easier to maintain and you can run them up the hill or through a tunnel in a hill. It is a great fun to drive a narrow boat through a picturesque England.

[pjvdixon]

Life not that simple as some rivers turned into canals.... Parts of Panama canal are in fact an existint river. OK technically you can say it is not a canal but a section of river made navigable with locks. Patrick

[ViceroyofINDIA]

The Canal Actually connect Atlantic ocean and Pacific Ocean but the water levels are different on both sides thats why there are many locks they raise or lower the ships to one side to the other side by opening and closing these locks. Water always comes from the higher side by gravity any more questions call me 7734071139

[munnasaab]

that's not correct . Both Pacific and Atlantic ( actually Carribean sea ) are at same level . Panam canal was built so that a way could be found through the mountains . Gatun lake is at 85 feet . That's why ships are raised and lowered to this height .

[hitssquad]

@munnasaab "Both Pacific and Atlantic ( actually Carribean sea ) are at same level ."

en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Panama_Canal#Water_is­sues

"The Pacific side sea level is about 20 centimeters (8 inches) higher than that of the Atlantic side due to differences in ocean conditions such as water densities and weather conditions."

[cabal0092009]

Sea level is sea level and it is used as a reference, however there is a nine inches difference between caribbean and pacific, this difference can be increased by the range tide of the pacific in the panamanian coast. A sea level would have created a current which force would had depended upon different factors.

[EASYTIGER10]

Fascinating video, but with it being titled "Future of Panama Canal", I thought you were going to explain about the expansion and the "Third Set of Locks Project". Still, very interesting, thankyou.

[piriyuyus]

americans?? come back??........i hope not.=(

[cabhappygaz]

do the tug trains run on steel rails? and if they do how do they manage to climb the gradients? i would have thouht the wheels wouldn;t grip

[pjvdixon]

As far as I rememember it is a rack and pinion - in other words the track has a third rail with teeth and this fits into a cog under the train for extra grip. Patrick Dixon

[monkeybike]

I'd heard of the Panama Canal before but never really knew the vast size of them! Thanks for the information.

[antychy]

por favor en español

[elder205]

thank you for the video, i would love to import the cement for the canal project, let me know if you know any builders there in need of portland cement type 1, or e-mail me at globalexchangep at a.o.l. dot c.o.m. thank you again.

[Gvieto]

Thank you for the video of that amazing Panama Canal and the country that it is.

[morphix007]

good job

[pjvdixon]

Thanks - enjoy all the other videos and my site globalchange dot com

[sumehkrishna]

its very useful...cheers Mr Dixon

[ExodusPaddy]

Very imformative, excellent job old boy. :)

[pjvdixon]

Thanks - glad you found the panama canal video helpful. Enjoy the others! Patrick Dixon

[bobbymoney23]

thanks for the video,my friend who work on N.C.L told me about the panama canal an the operations,so i decided to check it out,very interesting

[spartancroft]

Amazing video. Thanks so much for the upload. Its a wonder that the ships don't just opt to go around cape horn. It seems the canal is more trouble than it's worth at the moment, especially with it being only JUST big enough. And what about all the fresh water flooding into the sea, doesn't that cause all sorts of environmental issues?

[spartancroft]

P.s. I like the comment at the end about the americans returning. I have no doubt that would be true!

[pjvdixon]

Cape Horn is a long long way south into all kinds of bad weather and risks. The fresh water is just rain water which would anyway flow into the sea at some stage. Patrick Dixon

[brandonbenjamin12]

amazing how this canal works

[KitCatpanama]

Great video, Went to the canal once, but never understood it , Really great work keep it up, Have a wonderful 2008

[pjvdixon]

Thanks for your kind words. Patrick Dixon

[HKMoo]

well, about oil tankers, isn't that the more oil it has, the more it floats?

cuz oil's lighter than water, and when it's in the oil tanker, it decreases the 'total mass' of the whole ship =]

[svanelas]

Sorry mate, but that's not how it works. It's the ship's empty spaces that make it float, and as oil fills up empty spaces, the ship's get's a bigger draught.

[pjvdixon]

No because the more oil in tanksers, the less air.

Patrick Dixon

[restalez]

Fascinating! Amazing to see the locks working close up. Thanks.

[djmaxliving]

hope your ok are you still doing videos and i forgot to say happy 50 video really 51 dom .

[pjvdixon]

yes made more videos. patrick

[nazgul49]

Amazing how it all works.

[djmaxliving]

pretty cool

[pjvdixon]

Thanks - glad you enjoyed it.  Made in just a few minutes using a hand held camera, talking as recording and edited in an airport lounge a couple of hours later. The Panama Canal really is an extraordinary engineering feat. Patrick Dixon