The Panama Canal, that venerable waterway, entered yet another phase of its history on Oct. 1st. 1979 when the process of handing the Canal to the Republic of Panama began, under treaties signed by Panama’s former head of Government the late Brig. Gen Omar Torrijos Herrera and U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

The process of handing over the Canal and all of its infrastructure in the former Canal Zone was finalized at the end of 1999.

The possibilities of a waterway linking the Atlantic and the Pacific in this region had been well appreciated for four centuries before anyone started to dig. Spain’s King Carlos V ordered a survey of the canal route in 1524 but it was presumably decided that cutlasses would not be adequate for the job.

The French started a canal in 1880 under de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, but after 20 years of struggle with the jungle, disease, financial problems and the sheer enormity of the project, they were forced to give up.

In 1903 Panama seceded from Colombia and the U.S.A. signed a treaty in which the concession for a public maritime transportation service across the Isthmus was granted. The following year, the U.S.A. purchased the French Canal Company’s properties for $40 million and began to dig. On August 15th, 1914 the U.S. cargo ship “Ancon” made the first transit.

The story of this gigantic task is best told in the book, “The Path Between the Seas”, by David McCullough. The story is also told dramatically in the murals of the rotunda of the Administration Building at Balboa Heights.