Let’s pick up our globe🌍 and do some serious Globe-trotting!!!
Locate: North America, USA, Panama (Between Mexico and Colombia), Argentina, Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Now imagine💭 you have to send something from Los Angeles to London. You will either take this to New York (by road) and then ship to London, or your ship🚢 will have to travel all the way below around Argentina and then reach Europe.
That will be one long, tiring and costly💰 journey. Now imagine a short cut, which connects Pacific to Atlantic. Yes!!! Panama Canal is one such shortcut (locate this is country named Panama) which has cut short this journey by thousands of miles.🤩
But it has come at a cost, and it costed a lot of not just money, but human lives. 😧
The Panama Canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It is a 48-mile canal that is important for international maritime trade. Construction of the canal began in 1881 by France,
but there were engineering problems and too many people were dying due to diseases.
Malaria and Yellow fever caused by Mosquitos very nearly stopped its construction. It was only after mosquitoes were controlled by sanitation that Canal could be completed.😱
Over 1 Million Vessels have transited the canal since it opened. Today, the canal transports around 4% of the entire world’s trade and approximately 16% of the U.S. trade.😳
$2 Billion in Tolls are Collected Annually
The average toll for passing through the canal is US $50 000 (that’s 34,60,500 rupees). The most expensive toll paid was by the Norwegian Pearl cruise liner, it was $375,600! (that’s 2,60,02,975 rupees).🤯
You can refer to the video