-The Panama Canal is one of the Modern Wonders of the World. Some other Modern Wonders are the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge.

-It takes about 15 hours for a ship to pass through the Panama Canal’s three locks. That’s because of traffic. Without traffic, it would take half the time.

-The United States spent $375 million on the Panama Canal project. No government had ever spent that much money at that time.

-Building the Panama Canal was hard for everyone. Not just French workers died. About 5,600 Americans died, too.

-The Panama Canal opened in April of 1914. World War I started in Europe that same month.

-Everyone who travels the Panama Canal has to pay. The price depends on the size of the ship. The most expensive journey was made by a Norwegian cruise ship. That passage cost $483,000. The cheapest crossing? Adventurer Richard Halliburton paid 36 cents. He swam the length of the Canal.

-Workers moved a lot of dirt to build the canal. They moved enough dirt to build 63 pyramids the size of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Cheops.