The World's Shortcut: How the Panama Canal Works
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- Published: 02 July 2019
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Animation by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther (Haerther.net)
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Special thanks to Patreon supporters Adam Chelminski, Arkadiy Kulev, Charles Zilinski, Chris Allen, Connor J Smith, Daddy Donald, Etienne Dechamps, Eyal Matsliah, Hank Green, John & Becki Johnston, Kyle, MyNameIsKir, Plinio Correa, Qui Le, Remi_Scarlet, Tom Dooner, Tyler Hamm, and Vaughn Mudrick
Music by epidemicsound.com
Select footage courtesy the AP Archive
References:
[1] maritime-connector.com/wiki/panamax/
[2] pancanal.com/eng/general/canal-faqs/index.html
[3] inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/neo-panamax-era-arrives-why-shippers-should-take-notice/
[4] maritime-executive.com/article/evergreen-container-ship-makes-record-transit-through-panama-canal
[5] maritime-executive.com/article/oocl-hong-kong-achieves-guinness-world-record
[6] emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/MABR-07-2017-0014
[7] pancanal.com/eng/op/tariff/1010-0000-Rev20180802.pdf
[8] asia.nikkei.com/Business/Suez-becoming-canal-of-choice-for-Asia-US-shipments
[9] economist.com/united-states/2012/01/28/the-fickle-asian-container
[10] reuters.com/article/us-panama-canal/panama-opens-canal-extension-amid-growth-risks-cost-battle-idUSKCN0ZC0Q9
[11] constructiondive.com/news/njs-bayonne-bridge-project-over-budget-raising-cost-to-17b/512646/; wsp.com/en-US/insights/bayonne-bridge-raising-opens-ports-to-worlds-largest-ships
[12] economist.com/business/2016/06/18/wider-impact
[13] americanshipper.com/news/?autonumber=64566&source=redirected-from-old-site-link
[14] en.caucedo.com
[15] economist.com/americas-view/2014/02/28/ripple-effects
[16] nytimes.com/2019/05/17/climate/drought-water-shortage-panama-canal.html
Comments • 1 921
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I hope you found this video interesting! If you're looking for more Wendover Productions content, we recently started a podcast called Extremities. It's all about the world's most isolated places with the first season focusing on Pitcairn--the tiny British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific with a population of 50. You can listen to that on any major podcasting app or all the links are here: http://ExtremitiesPodcast.com
Can you please do one on how ships get to states like Minnesota
What about goung North og Canada egen the ice melts
Do a video about HAARP and weather modification as well. It appears you are really interested in the weather and weather modification is 100 percent proven. Ever heard of seeding clouds for rain? That's just the start.
Look how small Trinidad and Tobago looking
"Dubious land deals"? They might have added "fomented a revolution", three important little words.
Cute graphic at 1:30 showing the "operation" of the locks, except....the boundary gates of the locks don't actually rise straight up out of the bedrock as the graphic shows, they work more like saloon doors. If any lock gates anywhere in the world DO indeed move up and down ( vertically), I'd be very impressed.
What a weird white-washed opening.
The U.S. actually funded an independence war so that Panama would separate from Colombia (which was planning to build the canal in their territory - panama was part of Colombia). After the separation of panama from Colombia, the u.s. forced panama to give up control of the route till the year 2000
Victor Vizcaino this be a bruh moment frankly if your interested in the Panama Canal you probably went to 6th grade so you should know about the history behind it
I appreciated the $90/TEU figure for the Panama canal, but it would have been awesome to see similar figures for the Suez and for cross-coast trains. You said the first is lower and the second is higher, but not by how much.
Everybody gangsta until global warming comes along and submerges the whole of Panama
You see
That's hilarious! So they rebuild the Panama Canal from 5000 container ships up to 15,000, only to unload them back onto 5000 container ships once they pass through the canal. Why couldn't they just move the contents BEFORE going through the canal with the old smaller standards? Progress is funny that way!
3:03
Thats Japan,
Not Hong Kong.
Divide 2 continents to unite the world
You new a new narrator. This guy is horrible!!!
I hate people of colour
Can anyone recommend a good book on this topic?
5600 worker fatalities????? holy SHIT..... feel like there could be a video on that.
Great video! I was today old when I learnt about locks and Panama Canal ❤
🇵🇦🇵🇦🇵🇦🇵🇦😍😍😍😍😍
So I guess what happens in Panama doesn't stay in Panama..?
They charged me 2000 USD for my 31 ft boat and 2000 USD for 4 deckhands for the transit, next time l go thrue the magelan street
For ocean overland route, I am pretty sure more cargo goes into Huntington than LA. (Source, my uncle who is a Huntington dockhand)
"The single most important and influential waterways in the world"
Suez canal: hold my water
@Lewis Charles it was meant to be a roast, not a personal attack just because he doesn't know the best english. There is a difference between the two. It is arbitrary and subjective, but i think it was pretty obvious.
@Puff 'n' sting enthusiast so should you. You're attacking him for not using the right English when you know nothing about him.
@Lewis Charles 1. I don't t live in the USA 2. I can speak Romanian, English and quite a bit of French.
Maybe you shouldn't attack other people if you don't know everything about them.
@Puff 'n' sting enthusiast and how well do you learn Russian in the US? Stop attacking someone for speaking more languages than you.
@Rodion Makovskiy North ocean? i guess they teach geography in Russia as bad as they do English.
5600 people died making the canal? Thats wild.
I saw my house in this video
Stupid question; "26M above sea level" why this elevator system? digging 26M canal is more simple and low cost?
are you saying sea has to float up to 26 meters above its sea level?
Seems like a vulnerable spot to be sabotaged by some doomsday terror cult.
Bringing down the world economy into depression.
Well my country might be fucked
5:44 Trains, with their relatively low cost...
Sees Wendover Productions video in the sidebar on why Trains are so Expensive.
Ok...
The Panama canal was made to fit the largest ship of the time: the titanic.
You see!!!!
cool...
That Nicaragua thing is really complicated because the land is kinda rough... especially at the "shorter" western section... costs would probably be enormous
Why did you call the 1903 treaty "dubious"? Sounds like liberal bias to me!
#TLC
Sweet video.
global warming will make it rain more in panama.
"5600 workers fatality later" you sounds like only American lives matter.
>^. .^< A non planned and un regulated Cannabalistic Capatolism planet like Earth may just one day eat it self out of house, home and a good future. I sure honestly hope I am wrong.......
False information
Why is the train route more expensive?
Its the best solution, but apparently pricier. Why?
Wait! There was a limit in width and length for the ships. What about height? Technically you can expand in height. Both above and below see level!
Okay, width and length are mentioned in the beginning while height & weight only get mentioned at the end. No wonder I got surprised it wasnt mentioned together.
New Jersyans enter the chat *thats why my taxes are so highhhhhh*
You see
He says that so much
Do canal here in the Philippines, i expect it to be full of plastic
Why would they use fresh water from the lake when they have two oceans on either side of the canal that "global warming" should supply with plenty of water in the future..and at present for that matter .
@Metal Jacket True, there is probably a point where it would make more sense to pump in ocean water.
@theralfinator well yeah , but at those prices they charge to move the ships through the canal , pumping water or simply letting the water in from both oceans when the levels of the oceans rise, seems more logical than waiting for fresh water to replenish in a lake that lacks water , wasting that fresh water to simply float a ship from one compartment to another through the locks . ..Using the global warming excuse of lack of fresh water , doesn't justify the cost , or the lack of technology , when the ocean levels increase ..its ridiculous to not see the benefits of using ocean water in large supply with the aid of pumps vs wasting fresh water that is small supply.
My guess is that it's easier and cheaper to let gravity move water down from the lake than it is to use pumps to move water up from the ocean.
Perhaps Trump should build a 200 to 300 foot wide canal along the US Mexico border. That would solve multiple problems. It would stem the influx of illegal aliens while providing a huge passageway for future shipping. The terrain for the most part is lower than the Panama Canal and contains the Rio Grande, so much of the digging is already done. While the initial cost would be high due to the length required for the canal, the future benefits would outweigh the costs. Both Mexico and the USA would reap tremendous profits from managing the canal.
Well researched and interesting videos on this channel. You have 2m+ subscribers so should employ a voice actor to present this hard work in a less monotonous way.
The amount of times you say "You see.." almost makes me go crazy lol
Yes, I do see!
But it's more risky to go through the Suez canal because of pirates
Why don't they just dig deeper until the 2 oceans connect directly?
its amazing how Western technology really *peacefully* or *forcefully* opened up world trade like this