The Panama Canal

• Builders quite literally moved mountains to make this dream a reality.

• More than 60 million pounds of dynamite was used to excavate and construct the canal.

• In 1963 florescent lighting was installed, allowing the canal to begin operating 24 hours a day.

• America originally wanted to build a canal in Nicaragua, not Panama.

• The fastest transit was completed in 2 hours 41 minutes by the U.S.

Navy's Hydrofoil Pegasus in 1979. • Between 13,000 and 14,000 ships use the canal every year.

• The Canal transports 4 percent of world trade and 16 percent of total U.S.-borne trade.