34 
responsible for changing Panama from a “fever-ridden 
pest hole” to one of the healthiest places on earth. 
Ten years after the day in 1904, when the first canal 
diggers were put ashore at Colon, the Steamship Ancon t 
on August 15, 1914, made the maiden voyage through 
the brand new Panama Canal. 
THIRD LOCKS PROJECT 
The largest individual project undertaken on the 
Isthmus since the construction of the Canal is the Third 
Locks Project, a $277,000,000 job. Work on this project 
was inaugurated on July 1, 1941, when the first dipperful 
of dirt from the by-pass channel which leads to the new 
locks was removed. Since that time the work has pro¬ 
gressed steadily, although the program has had to be 
modified since the advent of war. 
Construction of the third set of locks for the Panama 
Canal, wider, deeper and longer than the two existing sets, 
has been considered a necessity by those in authority for 
some time. Larger ships and heavier commercial traffic 
during peace time, as well as the military advantage of 
having a third set of locks located at some distance from 
the present tw r o, were the deciding factors in the decision 
to undertake the work. 
35 
DO YOU KNOW? 
% 
That the Panama Canal is 50 miles long from deep water 
to deep water? 
That air distance from Balboa to Cristobal is only 36 
miles? 
That the Pacific entrance to the Canal is 25 miles east 
of the Atlantic entrance, which means that this is the only 
place in the world where the sun rises in the Pacific and 
sets in the Atlantic? 
That it cost $380,000,000 to build the Panama Canal? 
That the average ship takes six hours to transit the 
That the locks lift ships 85 feet above sea level and then 
bring them down again? 
That to cross the Panama Canal a ship must take 3 
steps up and 3 steps down? 
That in Panama there are two kinds of mules, army and 
electric? The latter are little cars which propel vessels 
through the locks. 
That the Bremen is the biggest commercial ship that ever 
transited the Panama Canal? 
That the Panama Canal shortens the distance by water 
from San Francisco to New York 7,873 miles, or three- 
fifths of the entire distance around Cape Horn? 
