This is the 27th geocache from Team Family Affair. This is the site of the 8th wonder of the World- the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. The construction of the Panama Canal began with the French in 1879, but even with the considerable skill of the French engineers and two bankrupted companies- they gave up 15 years later in 1894. Then in 1903, after Panama declared independence from Colombia, a treaty was signed with the United States by which the U.S. undertook the construction of the canal across the Isthmus. It took 10 years and the labor of 75,000 men and women to complete the job. Some of the best remembered Canal builders were Colonel William Crawford Gorgas and his medical team, who are credited with eradicating yellow fever and bringing malaria under control in the area. Then there was early Chief Engineer John F. Stevens and all the railroad men who set up the towns, the supply system and the all important train system to haul excavated material out of the Gaillard Cut and for the construction of the Gatun Locks. Thousands of people contributed in a myriad of ways to the realization of the Panama Canal, and while their names may have been forgotten, their legacy lives on in the Canal.
The Panama Canal opened to traffic on August 15th, 1914 and was maintained and run by the United States as a government agency (The Canal Zone) until it was handed over to Panama on December 31st 1999. The locks are all original with only maintenance and some equipment upgrades being completed on them over the last 100 years
To log this cache as a find you must:
- Find the location and take a selfie picture of yourself and your team members with a view of the locks in the background. Then upload and post it to your “found log” on this geocache page, .
We hope you enjoy this cache as much as we did creating it!
-Team Family Affair