Opening of the Panama Canal
Next: August 15, 2027
A short cut between two oceans.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 15 August 1914, when the Panama Canal officially opened and the steamship Ancon made the first official crossing, from Cristóbal on the Atlantic side to Balboa on the Pacific. The Panama Canal Authority calls it the realisation of a dream held for four centuries. A French company began digging in 1881 but failed; the United States took over in 1904 and finished the work ten years later. The canal cut nearly 8,000 miles off the old route around Cape Horn.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but the opening is remembered in Panama, and the Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian agency that now runs the canal, marks its round-number anniversaries. The opening itself was quiet: the grand celebrations that had been planned were called off, and no foreign dignitaries came. It is a good day to find the isthmus on a map and trace the short cut that ships have taken between the oceans ever since.
Did you know
- The first complete passage by an oceangoing vessel under its own power came earlier, on 7 January 1914, by an old French crane boat, the Alexandre La Valley.
- During the Ancon's crossing all other traffic on the canal was stopped, and on board were canal officials and the President of Panama, Belisario Porras.
- The Ancon was steered by Captain John A. Constantine, the canal's first pilot, while the chief engineer, George Goethals, followed her progress from the shore by railway.
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