Panama Canal

I often tell people I did not know anything about Panama, other than it has a canal, but what a beautiful country. . . and interesting canal. France began construction in the 1880's, then over 20,000 dead later (disease mostly) the United States took over and completed the job with a over 5,000 dead. The Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific is considered one of the most ambitious construction projects in the world. And the canal more than haves the distance between the oceans. The possibility of this shortcut was first mentioned in 1534 by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain. And today is one of the most important trade routes.
The three biggest customers are the United States, China, and Chile, in that order. However, when you look at these huge ships built to Panamax specifications, meaning they are the maximum size the canal will allow, you have no idea what they are carrying. The boats are just big piles of tractor trailer size containers with very little crew evident on board. Docks are collections of immense cranes designed specifically to lift the containers and are equally vacant of people.



I have seen many working ports starting from Mobile, Alabama on the Gulf of Mexico to the Panama Canal and they all look pretty similar - very industrial and not many people around. If you want the gritty humanity of Steinbeck's, Cannery Row, you need to look at local waterfronts - but brace yourself for the gritty. This is the result of containerization.
We have always shipped goods in boxes but in the late 1960's and early 1970's a series of international conventions were developed to standardize shipping containers. Now they are the same world wide, moving easily from boat to truck to train facilitating world trade. Conversely, the lower shipping cost meant domestic production of goods moved overseas. A correlation is the real wage of the middle class in the United States has steadily declined since the early 1970's. But then again nations that did not have a middle class now do. Hard to not consider these things as the freighters line up to pass through the locks at a cost of hundred's of thousands of dollars each, depending on their cargo.