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The canal handles more maritime traffic than its builders had ever imagined. In 1934, it was estimated that the maximum capacity of the canal would be about 80 million tons per year; [98] As previously reported, canal traffic reached 340.8 million tonnes of navigation in 2015. In 1905, a group of American engineers was commissioned to verify the design of canals in progress. The council recommended to President Roosevelt a canal at sea level, as the French attempted. But in 1906 Stevens, who had seen the Chagres in the midst of the flood, was called to Washington; He said a sea-level approach was “a totally untenable proposition.” He advocated for a canal using a lock system to lift and lower ships from a large reservoir to 85 feet (26 m) above sea level. This would create both the largest dam (Gatun Dam) and the largest artificial lake (Gatun Lake) in the world at that time. He said it would be a less insidious route for ships than bypassing the southern tip of South America, and that tropical sea currents would of course widen the canal after construction. [7] During an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina sketched plans for the construction of a canal. [8] In 1880, a French company of the Suez Canal builder began digging a canal on the Isthmus of Panama (then part of Colombia). More than 22,000 workers died at this stage of construction from tropical diseases such as yellow fever and the company eventually went bankrupt and sold its project rights in the United States in 1902 for $40 million. President Theodore Roosevelt defended the canal and considered it important to America`s economic and military interests. In 1903, during a U.S.-backed revolution, Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia and the United States and Panama signed the Hay Bunau-Varilla Treaty, in which the United States agreed to pay Panama $10 million for an indefinite lease for the canal, plus $250,000 in rent per year. The workers had to continuously widen the main cut across the mountain near Culebra and reduce the angles of the slopes to minimize landslides in the canal.
[20] Steam shovels were used for the construction of the canal purchased by Bay City Industrial Works, a company of William L. Clements in Bay City, Michigan. [21] Alphonse Couvreux and Wehyer & Richemond and Buette paddle excavators were also used. [22] Other mechanical and electrical equipment was limited in its capabilities, and steel equipment rusted rapidly in the rainy climate. [23] On January 1, 1903, the Hay Herrán Treaty was signed by U.S. Secretary of State John M. Hay and Colombian official Dr. Tomás Herrán.
For $10 million and an annual payment, he would have granted the United States a renewable lease from Colombia to the proposed country for the canal. [28] The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate on March 14, 1903, but the Colombian Senate did not ratify it. . . .