Jan 28, 2025 · The United States didn’t “own” the Canal Zone, but it had the authority to govern, operate and protect the zone as if it were “sovereign” territory within Panama. To create the Canal ...

President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty on September 7, 1977. This agreement relinquishes American control over the canal by the year 2000 and guarantees its neutrality.

3 days ago · Whereas, as a condition of United States Government support for Panama’s independence from Colombia, including the positioning of United States troops in the then-territory of Panama, the United States was to be assured access to construct and control a canal in perpetuity, an agreement that culminated in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed ...

It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

USS Missouri traverses the Panama Canal en route to the United States in October 1945. A total of over 75,000 people worked on the project; at the peak of construction, there were 40,000 workers. Compared to the French era, fatalities in the American era were markedly low.

5 days ago · The Panama Canal is the lock-type canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 65 km (40 miles).

4 days ago · Mr. Trump has falsely claimed that China “operates” the canal, which was built by the United States in the early 1900s and was operated by Americans for most of the 20th century.

Oct 17, 2023 · The expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016, which permits larger “New Panamax” ships to transit, has provided substantial benefits to Panama and many U.S. East Coast ports. The United States is the number one user of the Canal, with 72 percent of all transits heading to or from U.S. ports.

The United States acquired the rights to build and operate the Panama Canal during the first years of the 20th century. The Hay-Herrán Treaty, negotiated with the nation of Colombia in 1903, allowed the United States rights to the land surrounding the planned canal.

Building the Panama Canal, 1903–1914. President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal—a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.