Pacific Entrance of Panama Canal Showing Islands and Breakwater
The Pacific end of the Panama Canal is shown to you here. The Canal lies just beyond the long breakwater. The breakwater is not a natural peninsula (pn-n´ s-lå). It has been built by our Government engineers who constructed the Canal. This breakwater was necessary to protect ships from the high waves which would otherwise break in from the Pacific Ocean. In other words, a sort of sheltered entrance has been made by the breakwater and the three islands which you see lying in the background. These three islands, called Naos, Perico, and Flamenco, are heavily fortified, to protect the Canal in times of war. This is a very important point, since one reason for the building of the Canal, was to enable us to bring our fleet from one ocean to the other through the Canal. The Pacific entrance to the Canal is near the city of Balboa (bäl-b´ä). The Miraflores Locks are about four miles inland from the Pacific. In Balboa, there have been constructed great shops for repairing ships and a large dry dock for the same purpose. The cities at either end of the Panama Canal will develop rapidly, due to the opening of the Canal. If you turn to your maps and notice where the cities of Panama and Balboa are located, you will see that they are almost due south of Colon (k-ln´) at the Atlantic end of the Canal. In other words, the Panama Canal is almost in a direct north and south line from Florida to Guayaquil (gw´ ä-kl´), the seaport for Lima, Peru. All the western countries of South America are therefore put in close touch with our eastern cities. Keystone ID: 21787 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.