Lift up your brows, your locks
Your waters from North to South
Lift up your locks that empty
Your waters into the great oceans
(The Atlantic and Pacific)
Lift up your brows, and allow
The ships of the world to come in
To cross your mighty opened winds
You are America's engineering feat
The greatest of the 20th Century;
You are the Panama Canal...!
Notes: Written at the Panama Canal (afternoon), during lunch at the site cafe, Miraflores Locks. 5/22/06. #1351. I arrived here, at the Canal, one hour after getting off the plane in Panama City. I viewed the canal from the top of a building, looking down upon it. Built: 1904-1914. Overview: The Panama Canal one of the world's most impressive achievements, with three locks, a long canal. The city of Panama, old city dates back to 1673 AD (and some structures to 1519 AD); it was once burned down (the old city), I walked among its ruins, on a Monday afternoon, it is a UNESCO site; or World Heritage Site. [7:00 PM: 5/22/06] What is the Panama Canal? It is a 51-mile waterway, linking the Atlantic with the Pacific oceans. That is it in a nutshell. I saw large and small ships going through the canal. In the 1880s, France tried to build this waterway, fighting yellow fever and malaria, killing 22,000-people. There was a canal treaty in 1903, and in 1904, the building started for the Americans. |
