Panama Canal
Posted
on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.
Photo by Rob Meronek.
Panama City On Route to Cuba
I didn't realize that was the Panama Canal we were flying over until later when we were actually there. Back in 1880, the French tried to dig this ditch. After nearly 22,000 deaths, they gave up and the champs of digging ditches took over. Team America started in the early 1900's and finished it up in 1914, adding another 5,000 deaths. It takes a ship about 8 to 10 hours to get through it and cuts a shipment of gay pride from SF to NY from 14,000 miles down to 6,000. Tolls are charged to get through the Canal. The most expensive was this Disney cruise ship that paid $331,200. The least expensive was some jackass that swam it in 1928 and paid 36 cents, about 80 billion in today's currency. The average toll is about $54,000 and there's only one exact change lane
