The Panama Canal was the first to use a lock-and-lake system on a massive scale.

Watch the Panama Canal's lock system lift a ship 85 feet above sea level to cross between two oceans.

The original canal had 83 different hand-operated locks

Locks are gated chambers that raise and lower boats between stretches of water at different levels. On the Erie Canal, 83 such locks managed a 565-foot elevation change from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.

The century of the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through a 51-mile route that transformed global shipping when it opened in 1914. This breakdown covers how it was built, the workers behind its construction, and why its future may be challenged by climate and competition.

The Panama Canal boosted the US as a world power in trade, engineering, and finance

The effort proved the US could achieve grand engineering projects while granting it influence over (and benefitting economically from) a major interoceanic channel and its host country, Panama.

Working conditions on the Panama Canal, built between 1904 and 1914, were abysmal, with thousands of workers dying on the job.

Before the Panama Canal, there was the Panama railroad

The first ship to cross the isthmus of Panama went not by sea but by land: The paddlewheel steamship Explorer was taken apart and transported by rail, an effort that generated “more trouble than profit,” according to one account.

The canal project required the forced removal of local inhabitants

The canal displaced Panamanian communities, with towns like Gatun and Gorgona dismantled and farmlands lost, reshaping the region forever.

The Soo Locks raise and lower 1,000-foot freighters 21 feet between Lake Superior and Lake Huron using only gravity, water pressure, and no pumps.

Travel the 363-mile Erie Canal, the waterway that cut freight costs by 90% and opened the American frontier.

Roughly 25,000 workers died building the canal

For each mile of canal that was built, 500 workers lost their lives. The threats came from multiple fronts: mudslides, floods, earthquakes and disease-carrying mosquitoes. Workplace accidents became so common that artificial limb manufacturers competed for contracts with the canal builders.

The US handed control of the canal back to Panama in 1999

This was the result of two treaties signed during President Jimmy Carter's presidency, one shifting control to Panama and the other declaring the canal zone neutral. In recent years, US officials have suggested the US may retake control. Experts agree that the only viable way would be through military force.

The US finished what the French had started with Panama's canal

For about two decades, Suez Canal-builder and Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps led the project, but financial troubles forced it into the hands of the US, who completed it in 1914. This timeline, made to accompany the definitive PBS American Experience documentary about the canal, highlights major moments in its construction.

Drought conditions force fewer ships to sail the Panama Canal daily

In 2023, canal authorities reduced traffic in the canal amid severely dry conditions. These seven infographics from the Woodwell Climate Research Center explain exactly what happened that historically dry October, and how it affected global supply chains.

Explore the technical side of the Erie Canal

Listen to this podcast from Northwestern University exploring the canal’s groundbreaking infrastructure—from locks and aqueducts to its role as America’s first large-scale engineered waterway.

Niagara's flow is changed artificially to accommodate tourists and power generation

The natural wonder is also the site of great engineering feats, from the Welland Dam that first allowed ships to travel from the upper lakes to the St. Lawrence Seaway, to one of the first hydroelectric dams.

Local limestone made waterproof cement for the Erie Canal

In 1818, engineer Canvass White discovered that limestone near Chittenango, New York, could be processed into hydraulic (or waterproof) cement. This breakthrough replaced costly European imports, enabling watertight locks and aqueducts and revolutionizing American construction.

Dr. William Gorgas eradicated yellow fever in Panama, crucial to canal construction

The disease was one of the factors hampering the French effort to build the canal. Gorgas' experience elsewhere in the Caribbean had taught him that good drainage and quaranting patients were essential, and he would eventually apply mosquito prevention tactics on a mass scale.

The National Mall's oldest building is the Lockkeeper's House

Built in 1837, the Lockkeeper's House is the oldest structure on the National Mall. It once served the lockkeeper of the Washington City Canal and of an extension of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, part of early plans to bring commercial waterways into the capital.

Erie Canal builders invented the “stump puller” to clear forests

One ingenious device created for the Erie Canal was the stump puller—a horse-powered machine using levers and chains to rip tree stumps from the ground.

Container ships are just a fraction of total traffic via the canal

While more container ships traverse the canal than any other type of ship, vessels carrying dry bulk goods, vehicle carriers, chemical tankers, passenger ships, and more also pass through the Central American passageway.

The Erie Canal was opened Oct. 25, 1825, with a group of boats from Buffalo to NYC

The unlikely engineering project connecting the Midwest to the Atlantic saw a ceremonious opening as Governor Dewitt Clinton rode with a flotilla of boats from Buffalo on Lake Erie to New York City.

The Erie Canal runs 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo

Mostly using the low elevations of the Mohawk River Valley, the canal project connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard for the first time. This site has a series of old and new maps of the canal.

The Alhambra’s medieval water system powered a palace-city

Built over centuries by Islamic rulers in medieval Spain, the Alhambra used canals and pressurized tanks to move water throughout the complex. Its sophisticated system supplied fountains, baths, and gardens, showcasing advanced medieval engineering.

Thomas Jefferson dismissed the Erie Canal as 'little short of madness'

When first proposed, President Jefferson scoffed at the idea of carving a 363-mile waterway through wilderness and rock. With no precedent in American engineering, the canal seemed impossible.

Before dynamite was invented, Erie Canal builders blasted rock with gunpowder

Constructed decades before the invention of dynamite, the Erie Canal’s toughest obstacles were blasted through using black powder charges.

The Erie Canal fueled a surge in westward settlement

By providing cheap, reliable transport to the interior, the canal made western lands more accessible. Farmers, traders, and immigrants moved into the Great Lakes region, accelerating population growth.

The Maya built their cities with advanced engineering

Maya cities featured pyramids, palaces, causeways, ball courts, and water-management systems that were engineered to support large populations—often tens of thousands—without the use of metal tools, draft animals, or wheeled transport.

The Erie Canal reduced freight costs by 90%

Before the canal, shipping goods overland cost about $100 per ton. After its completion in 1825, rates fell to just $10—making western farm products competitive in eastern markets for the first time.

The Appalachian Mountains blocked east–west boat travel until the Erie Canal

The Appalachian Mountains, spanning from Alabama to Canada, long hindered inland commerce. The Erie Canal created the first reliable water route through the range by leveraging the natural valley of the Mohawk River, revolutionizing trade and migration.

Infrastructure projects in New York are much more difficult today

The Erie Canal was one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in American history. Many have said such an effort would be impossible today. This article explores why that is the case and ponders the future of large-scale American infrastructure development.

The ancient Egyptians built prototypes of the modern Suez Canal

The idea to facilitate trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and connect the Eurasian continent was apparent even to pharaohs in the second millennium BCE. Though no physical traces remain, contemporary accounts attest to early, shorter versions of the canal, including from Herodotus.

The canal carried germs as well as goods

In 1832, North America’s first cholera epidemic spread inland by way of the Erie Canal, carried by immigrants arriving on ships. Fearful towns barred passengers from disembarking, yet cholera, smallpox, and other diseases still traveled the waterway.

The US Army Corps of Engineers once stopped water from flowing into Niagara Falls to prevent long-term erosion.

The Erie Canal transformed New York City into America’s banking capital

By redirecting western trade through New York Harbor, the canal turned New York into the nation’s commercial hub. This surge in commerce shifted financial power from Philadelphia to Wall Street, establishing the city as America’s banking capital.

The canal became a highway for American reform movements

Beyond goods, the canal carried ideas. Its corridor hosted Second Great Awakening revivals and became a center for activism—fueling abolitionist networks, women’s suffrage organizing, and other reform movements.

Amateur engineers built America’s first great infrastructure project

With no engineering schools in the US, the Erie Canal was designed and built by self-taught amateurs who improvised new methods and became known as the “Erie School of Engineering.”

The National Mall once had canals and rail lines

In the 1800s, the National Mall looked nothing like it does today. Canals, rail lines, markets, and industrial uses crisscrossed the Mall before later redesigns cleared it into a unified civic landscape.

The Great Lakes hold almost 20% of the world's surface freshwater

Formed by retreating glaciers, the Great Lakes system feeds Niagara Falls through the Niagara River. Together, the lakes contain about 23 quadrillion liters (5,400 cubic miles) of water, enough to cover the land portion of the continental US to a depth of 3 meters (9.84 feet).

DeWitt Clinton’s “Big Ditch” gamble transformed New York

Mocked as “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton championed the Erie Canal against skeptics. His political drive secured funding for the project in 1817.

The simplicity of immersed tube tunnels

Tunnels have traditionally bored holes through the earth below the water. On the other hand, immersed tube tunnels connect hollow, massive sections in trenches along the floor of the body of water. Each section is built on land, floated to the site, submerged, and connected. This method saves money by reducing expensive underground work, and it preserves an area's aesthetic appearance.

How the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is one of America's most iconic structures and is considered to be an engineering marvel. Built in 1930's, before the advent of modern construction technology, the structure was considered impossible by contemporary standards.

How LA brought water to its booming population

By the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles had grown from a dusty, crime-ridden pueblo into a thriving metropolis. The only problem was that it was growing too fast. Here's the story of how the booming town created a massive water infrastructure to redirect area rivers to its residents.

A bankrupt flour merchant in debtor's prison helped inspire the Erie Canal.

Recovering the USS Oklahoma was the largest naval salvage operation ever attempted

In 1943, engineers spent three months using 21 giant winches and an intricate cable system to right the capsized USS Oklahoma. It was the largest naval salvage effort ever attempted at the time and remains one of the most complex in history.

Engineers shut off Niagara's American Falls for six months in 1969

In June 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Niagara River to halt flow over the American Falls. The dry riverbed allowed geologists to study erosion and remove dangerous rock buildup.

The Erie Canal was built without a single dollar of federal funding

After President Madison and Congress rejected the project, New York State financed the 363-mile Erie Canal entirely on its own—authorizing $7M in bonds in 1817.

Modern landfills use layered liners, leachate systems, and gas monitors to safely contain waste

Today, landfill engineering is far more complex than a hole in the ground, which was largely the system cities used less than a century ago. This video explains how it actually works.

Water from four Great Lakes feeds Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is powered by water from Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. The Great Lakes basin spans over 260,000 square miles and holds nearly 20% of the world's surface freshwater—about two-thirds of which passes over the falls.

Reflections on the Erie Canal’s 200-year history

Reflections on the Erie Canal traces the waterway from its 1825 opening to its evolving role today. Each short video in this 10-part series explores a different aspect of the canal and its legacy today.

See the real-time numbers of ships traversing the canal each day

This platform uses satellite data to track chokepoints and trade disruptions along the shipping lanes that crisscross the globe. Search for data from more than 1,600 ports, or run the climate scenario simulator.