…a man, a plan, a canal, Panama… A palindrome – spelled backwards it says the same thing.
I was assigned as the USAF member of the Panama Canal Treaty Implementation Planning Agency from 1993-1996. Our agency was responsible to oversee and assist in the transfer of all U.S. government owned property in Panama to the Panamanian government. That property included various military installations as well as the canal zone.
The Carter-Torrijos treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1977 mandated that all U.S. government owned
property be transferred no later than midnight, 31 December,1999.
A widely held misconception concerning the transfer was that the U.S. was “returning” the canal to Panama. In fact the United States was the owner of the canal and all the other property being gifted to Panama. The land was purchased and the canal was built with U.S. money.
The Carter-Torrijos treaty actually consisted of two treaties. The treaty generally referred to in canal
discussions is the treaty transferring the canal to Panama. The second treaty referred to as the “treaty of
permanently neutrality” states that the canal must remain neutral with access by all nations with non-
discriminatory tolls. That treaty also gives the U.S. the unilateral right to again take control of the canal
by military force in the event the canal is threatened.
Some canal trivia:
The U.S. congress had determined that the canal would go through Nicaragua, not Panama. It was only
through the power of Theodore Roosevelt that the canal was constructed through Panama. Roosevelt
never visited the canal after it was finished in 1914.
There are no pumps supplying the water to operate the canal. Fresh water is gravity fed from Lake Gatun
in the highlands to operate the locks. After being used to raise and lower ships the necessary 85 feet to
pass over the continental divide, that water then flows into the Caribbean on the north and the Pacific on
the south.
The smallest toll ever charged was 36 cents to a man who swam the 50 mile length of the canal over a 14
day period. Today, large cargo ships pay as much as $450,000 to transit the canal. Even with the
completion of a third set of larger locks in 2016, the world’s largest ships – aircraft carriers and
supertankers – can not fit into the canal.
Ships do not pass through the locks under their own power. They are towed by electric “mules” on
railroad tracks along each side of the locks.
During World War II, the U.S. constructed a B-24 bomber base on Baltra island in the Galapagos with
the mission of protecting the Panama canal. Difficult to understand as the Panama canal is 1000 miles
from the Galapagos. At the end of the war, the Ecuadorian government offered to allow the U.S. to
retain the base. A war weary U.S. declined the offer.
Author: Staff
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