The canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, offering ships a shortcut to avoid going around the tip of South America. The canal revolutionized shipping traffic in the region.

The U.S. helped engineer Panama's independence from Colombia to build the canal, which opened in 1914. But it ceded control to Panama in 1999.

Before the creation of the Panama Canal, ships had to sail around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, a journey that could take months.

Since its completion by the United States in 1914, the canal has played a critical role in global supply chains by saving container ships weeks of travel around South America. The Panama Canal’s ...

Before the canal’s completion, ships traveling between the east and west coasts of the Americas would have to sail around Cape Horn, on the southern tip of South America, adding thousands of ...

It spares ships having to go an additional roughly 7,000 miles to sail around Cape Horn at South America’s southern tip. ... And, above all, China is operating the Panama Canal." ...

The U.S. helped engineer Panama's independence from Colombia to build the canal, which opened in 1914. But it ceded control to Panama in 1999.