The Panama Canal Expansion Project And Its Influence In The Metropolitan Region Of Panama City

“The Panama Canal Expansion Project
and its Influence in the
Metropolitan Region of Panama City”

Jose Joaquin Lim Cardenas
PLAN 762 Metropolitan Regional Planning
Pratt Institute
May 2, 2012

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................3

The Expansion of the PanamaCanal ..........................................................................................6

Panama City Metropolitan Region .............................................................................................10

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................15

Bibliography..............................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
To set up the context, a brief overview of Panama’s history will be presented.
Panama is located on the narrowest and lowest belt of the continent. It is midway
between the landmasses of North and South America. This has made Panama a major
regional andglobal transit hub for travelers by sea, land and air. This strip of land,
which is 700 km long by 100 km wide, is made up of an isthmus that was created when
the oceans separated about three million years ago. This is quite recent in geological
terms.
The Isthmus of Panama has always served as a bridge between the two major
continental masses. Before the first Hispanic settlers, the nativepopulation was
uniformly distributed along the coast and fluvial communication routes. With the arrival
of the Spaniards, this bridge function was slightly modified as a shortcut between to
oceans. The territory was then organized along the Trans-isthmian route and on the
base of two terminal cities. Panama City and “Nombre de Dios”, both founded in 1519,
were the first terminal cities. Due tomany pirate attacks by 1597 “Portobelo”, a better
protected site, replaced “Nombre de Dios”. This route was called “Camino Real” (Royal
Route), and it was used to transport all the gold from Peru to Spain.
The history of the Panama Canal dates back to 1534. It began when Emperor
Carlos V, King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through Panama that would ea se
the voyage for ships travelingto and from Spain and Peru, as well as to give the
Spanish a tactical military edge over the Portugue se. Over the following decades many
other studies and surveys were made to indicate a possible Trans -isthmian maritime
way.
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By the mid-19th Century many people from the East Coast of the United States
used the Royal Route and the later “Camino de Cruces” to go to the West Coast. Withthe California Gold Rush, this route became more popular and by 1855. W hen the first
Trans-isthmian railroad was completed it became a vital piece of infrastructure, greatly
facilitating trade and largely determining the later canal route. In that same year W illiam
Kennish, a Manx-born engineer working for the United States government, surveyed
and issued a report on a route for a proposedPanama Canal. His report was published
in a book entitled The Practicality and Importance of a Ship Canal to Connect the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Canal’s construction was started by the French on January 1, 1880. This
first attempt to build a sea-level canal failed due to insufficient studies of the local
geology, hydrology, and many other economic and environmental facts. At thattime,
various interests in the United States were also expressing interest in building a canal
across the isthmus, with some favoring a route across Nicaragua and others advocating
the purchase of the French interests in Panama. Eventually, in June 1902, the U.S.
Senate voted in favor of pursuing the Panamanian option - provided the necessary
rights could be obtained. On January 22, 1903 the...