What purpose of the Panama Canal Zone and what do they do?

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Cool

The Panama Canal Zone was military a military zone.
The US used the Panama Canal Zone to protect the Panama Canal and the zone was mainly for military purposes,

Sammy H

it used to be a USA controlled area. I think its part of Panama now, It was like a part of America in Central America, They had American schools large American Population, many Panamanians were jealous because the Americans lived nicely while most Panamanians were dirt poor. We should have never given it up, How is Panama going to upgrade it now? they don't have the money and they will come back begging the USA to help them make it larger

Anakin

Is an easier access from the Atlantic to the Pacific and vice-versa.

jake

Mercy, surely you must know that the Canal was cut from the Atlantic to the Pacific in order to shorten sailing time around South America.
The Atlantic Ocean is lower than the Pacific.

This is the procedure to move from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
The locks are used by allowing one ship to enter the first lock.
The lock is flooded with water to raise the level along with the ship.
The lock is then sealed so as to hold the water.

The second lock is flooded to the same level as the first.
The first lock is opened and the ship moves into the second lock.

The first lock is opened and allowed to drain and another ship can enter. Procedure is repeated.

The third lock is flooded to the level of the second lock.
The second lock is opened and the ship moves into the third lock,

The second lock is flooded again to the level of the first lock.
The second ship enters the second lock.

This process is repeated until the ship is in the last lock and then sails through a long canal several miles and eventually into Pacific.

This process is reversed in an adjoining lock from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

The entire process moving a ship from one ocean to the other takes about 12-24 hours. It's just takes longer in some cases.

The size of ships is limited at present. They are in the process of widening the locks in order for larger ships to pass through.

The largest ship in the world is a Chinese freighter, but it can only travel Trans Pacific, and to California.
It will never be able to pass through the Panama Canal.

Sorry, I do not know off hand how many individual locks there are.

Morphious

The Panama canal was forcibly built by USA to allow ships to pass through Panama rather than having to go all the way around the Americas. It uses a lock system that allows it to move through 51 miles of hills rather than moving much farther around the whole continent. Hope this helps.

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