0:04

Hi everyone, welcome back to Explain Like I'm

0:06

Five, the podcast where we take the questions you

0:08

always wanted to ask and talk about them in

0:10

a way that's easy to understand. We are your

0:12

hosts, I'm Tim. Hi everyone,

0:14

I'm Kevin. So Kevin, do you remember

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we did an episode a few years

0:18

back about the Suez Canal when there was

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a huge boat stuck in it? Of

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course. We also asked what

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Napoleon also had to do with the Suez Canal.

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That was a pretty good episode. Yes, I

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remember that. So today we are talking

0:31

about the Panama Canal. A listener wrote

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in with a great question, which is,

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why does the Panama Canal have locks,

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but the Suez Canal does not? Great

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question. It's the other famous canal. So

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the big difference here is really all

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about geography. The Suez

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Canal essentially runs across a

0:50

pretty flat desert in Egypt, so

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they can actually just dig a straight trench and

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connect the two oceans at sea level. But

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the Panama Canal... man, it

1:00

cuts through this kind of like really

1:02

mountainous terrain in Central America. There

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are so many hills and valleys and actually

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even a huge artificial lake in the middle. It's

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just not flat at all. So

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instead of digging a deep sea level

1:14

trench all the way through, which

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really would have been super dangerous and also

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insanely expensive, what they actually did

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was they built a system of locks. And

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you can kind of think of

1:25

these locks as giant water

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elevators. for ships. And

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they literally lift the ships up and

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down to help them cross the mountains

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and reach the other side. But

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why couldn't they just keep digging

1:39

until things were flat enough, like

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make a huge trench from one ocean to

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the other? It's funny because they

1:45

actually did try. The French,

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they were the first to start building a

1:49

canal in the 1880s. And basically, yeah,

1:51

wanted it to be sea level just like the Suez.

1:54

But they ran into such a

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big nightmare. Everything from disease to

1:58

mudslides and obviously the sheer amount of

2:00

earth that needed to be moved. You

2:02

know, we're talking billions of cubic

2:04

yards of dirt. And the

2:07

jungle was an obstacle too. It was

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brutal. Workers were dying

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from malaria and yellow fever and

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alarming rates. I think about 20 ,000

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people died during the French attempt

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alone. Ah, yes, I had

2:19

forgotten. The French attempt is an important part

2:21

of history. So what happened in the

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end? Well, eventually the project collapsed

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and the French had to give

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up. And then the

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US took over in 1904

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with a different plan. Instead

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of digging deeper, they built

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the Gatun Lake in the middle

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and used a series of locks to

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raise ships up and over

2:43

the tough terrain. was

2:45

actually way safer and just more doable. Oh,

2:47

I see. So we shouldn't think about it

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as just going from point A to point

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B. It's literally going over a mountain

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in between. Exactly.

2:57

Ships are getting lifted 85

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feet up to cross

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the Catoon Lake and then lowered

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back down. And without

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the locks, I mean, the project probably

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wouldn't have been impossible. The

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canal is 48 miles long and

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crosses the narrowest part of Panama,

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But even that was a massive,

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massive engineering challenge. And you

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mentioned water levels earlier. Aren't sea

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levels all the same? Why do you

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need locks if both oceans are

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sea level? Well, fun fact, the

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Pacific and Atlantic oceans actually

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have slightly different sea levels. So

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the Pacific side is actually

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a little higher and also importantly

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has more extreme tides. Plus,

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the terrain in Panama just isn't even close

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to flat. ships would be stuck

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or grounded without the locks and the

3:45

lake system to manage those changes in

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height. You know, there's another fun

3:50

factoid. Catoon Lake doesn't

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just help ships float across the middle

3:54

of Panama. It also prevents

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marine life from the

3:58

Pacific and Atlantic from actually mixing

4:00

too much. So it acts as

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an ecological barrier too. Hmm,

4:05

interesting. And you mentioned the

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French had tried first. Who was it who

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was leading it for leading that project

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for them? So the French effort was led

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by Fernand de Lesseps, the guy

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who actually built the Suez Canal. But

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like I said, the Panama was just an

4:19

entirely different beast and the company eventually

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went bankrupt and the project was abandoned, you

4:24

know, in the 1890s. And when

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the US came to get involved,

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weren't they originally looking at

4:30

it being through Nicaragua, not

4:32

Panama? That's actually right. The

4:34

US originally wanted to build a

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canal in Nicaragua, which

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is flatter and doesn't have the

4:41

same elevation problems. But

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there were some other concerns

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around volcanoes and earthquakes. You

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know, opponents even printed Nicaraguan's

4:50

postage stamps erupting

4:52

volcanoes to scare

4:54

lawmakers. And

4:57

so eventually the US realized it was

4:59

probably cheaper and faster to take

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over the half -finished French project in

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Panama. And at that particular

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time, Panama was part of

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Colombia prior to all of this,

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right? That's right as well. So

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the US also saw an

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opportunity when Panama wanted independence

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from Colombia. They

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basically supported Panama's independence

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movement and in return got rights to

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build and control the canal. So

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that basically helped create a new country, Panama.

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They got a permanent lease over the

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canal zone and it stayed under US

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control for basically most of the 20th century.

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And so how did Panama get the

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canal back then? Well, it's all

5:38

the way in the 1970s now. There

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was some growing resentment happening

5:43

in Panama. And many

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people saw the US presence as

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colonial and unfair. After

5:49

lots of protests and negotiations,

5:52

it was actually President Jimmy Carter who

5:54

signed a treaty in 1977. agreeing

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that the canal would be handed back to

5:59

Panama by the end of 1999. And

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finally, as we wrap up, I heard that

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someone once swam across the Panama Canal. Can

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you tell us about that? Oh, yes.

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That's a fun story. This

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was all the way back in 1928. And

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there was a guy named Richard

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Halliburton, who swam the

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entire 48 mile length

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of the canal and also

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paid a toll of just 36

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cents. It took

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him 10 days. And he had to

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dodge, you know, ships and alligators and even

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sharks. And also that

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36 cent toll is still the lowest

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ever paid to use the canal. Very

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interesting. Did

6:40

you learn something new? If you did,

6:42

send us an email. We are at ELI5, the

6:44

podcast at gmail .com. We love hearing from you,

6:47

especially when you've got comments and suggestions for

6:49

us. If you are a regular

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listener of this podcast, please do leave us a

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we really appreciate it. As always,

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thanks to the community at r slash explainercom5, and

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we will see you all next week.