Wowed.
Be
n a t u r a l a n d m a n - m a d e w o n d e r s
ave you ever seen 5,000,000-ton vessels rise in the water, only to drop more than 50 feet as
they cross from one ocean to another? If you visit Panama, you can. The Miraflores Visitors
Center brings you up close to the Panama Canal, one of the largest and most difficult
engineering projects of our age. Completed in 1914, it took more than
a decade
and
250,000 people from all corners of the earth to build. This feat of ingenuity is currently
under expansion
to allow more and larger ships to transit and greatly reduce their travel time between oceans. Two new
sets of locks are being added: one on the Pacific and the other on the Atlantic side. Watch history being
made!—the anticipated completion is June 2015, 101 years from its original opening.
H
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