Panama Canal Cruises and Information.

The Completion of the Panama Canal

Since it opened, the canal has served as a U.S. shipping facility for vessels of all countries. Most ships and cargo traveling through the canal belong to U.S. companies, although a majority of the ships are registered in Panama or Liberia, countries that have low fees and less restrictive regulations.

Starting in the 1930s Gaillard Cut was widened to improve navigation, and in the 1990s it was expanded again. Madden Dam was built in the 1930s to control the flow of water into Gatún Lake and generate electricity. In 1962 a high-level bridge was built over the Pacific entrance to the canal. Known as the Bridge of the Americas or Thatcher Ferry Bridge, this structure carries the Pan-American Highway into Panama City.

For much of its history, the canal and the surrounding Panama Canal Zone were run as a colony of the United States. The U.S. Department of the Army administered the canal, the Panama Railroad, and many businesses run by the railroad company. It also built 14 military bases in the area. The governor of the canal region was appointed by the secretary of the Army and was usually a retired general from the Corps of Engineers who had served in Panama. U.S. civilian employees supervised canal operations, while Panamanians and West Indians formed the labor force.

In 1950 the U.S. government reorganized management of the area into two agencies: the Panama Canal Company, which ran the canal’s commercial operations and the railroad, and the Canal Zone government, which handled courts, police, and other functions. The governor headed both agencies. A separate military structure controlled the military bases in the Canal Zone and operated independently of the civilian authorities.

The U.S. control of the area caused decades of conflict with Panamanians, who felt excluded from the economic benefits of the canal and from territory they regarded as rightfully belonging to Panama. Before negotiating the 1977 treaties, the United States and Panama modified the 1903 treaty twice. In 1936 they signed an agreement by which the United States raised Panama’s annual payment from the canal and prevented shipments of untaxed goods from the canal zone into Panama, which Panamanian merchants regarded as unfair competition. The United States also gave up the rights to intervene militarily in Panama and to take over more land for canal operations. In 1955 another treaty raised the annuity again, made Panamanians who worked in the canal zone subject to Panamanian taxes, and promised to end a wage system that paid American employees at a higher rate than Panamanians.

But these concessions did not end tensions between the United States and Panamanians, who staged demonstrations and protests in the late 1950s and 1960s. Anti-American riots in 1964 caused the two countries to suspend diplomatic relations briefly. After they were restored, the United States and Panama began negotiating new treaties, a process that lasted more than 12 years. In 1977 U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian leader, General Omar Torrijos Herrera, signed treaties that gave control of the canal and all its operations to Panama in 1999. The agreements were ratified by Panama immediately and by the United States the following year.

The treaties went into effect in 1979. More than 60 percent of the U.S.-held Panama Canal Zone was returned to Panama. The Panama Canal Commission was established to run the canal during the transition to Panamanian control, and Panama took over operation of ship repairs, piers, and railroad operations. In 1994 the government of Panama created an agency, the Interoceanic Regional Authority, to administer the non-canal facilities of the former zone. The Panama Canal Authority, a public corporation, took possession of the canal from the Panama Canal Commission on December 14, 1999. That day the United States transferred the canal to Panama at a ceremony attended by Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso de Gruber and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Cruise Agency Specializing in Cruises through the Panama Canal.

Panama Canal cruises have become one of the most popular ways to visit the Panama Canal. Cruises feature great food, entertainment, interesting ports of call and fascinating tours of canal and history leading up to its completion. There are a number of different cruises and itineraries for the Panama Canal offered by most of the major lines.

• Carnival Cruises

• Princess Cruises

• Norwegian Cruises

  Panama Canal Cruises