All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S20E01.Panama.Canal.Supersized.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

The Panama Canal.

It's a marvel
of the modern world.

At 50 miles long,

this man-made passage
slices through a continent

and unites the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans.

But now, a century
after its creation,

the Panama Canal is too small.

A race to expand the canal
is on.

MAN 1: With the amount
of excavation that we're doing

this is a mega-project.

MAN 2: We are literally
re-writing the book

on building lock projects.

MAN 3:
The Panama Canal expansion
will be a game changer.

WOMAN: I have to see it
to believe it.

Well, I actually saw it,
and I believe it.

Now, on a special edition
of Modern Marvels,

the Panama Canal
gets supersized.

( boat horn blows )

Every morning, the Panama Canal
opens for business.

For over 100 years,
this icon of engineering

has operated
with little change.

Crowds gather to see

one of the Seven Wonders
of the Modern World.

The giant shortcut connecting

the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

is a crossroad of global trade.

Right now, about three percent
of world commerce

comes through the Panama Canal.

We put between
38 and 42 ships per day

and we operate 24 hours,
seven days a week.

The ships carry millions
of tons of cargo...

everything from cars,

to fuel,

to food.

But as the legendary
Panama Canal

turns 100 years old,

it's facing a crisis.

A new breed of giant vessels
called post-Panamax

is threatening the future
of the Panama Canal.

Post-Panamax container vessels
are collosal transporters.

They can carry an astonishing
14,000 containers.

There's just one
gigantic problem.

They're too big to fit
through the canal.

And that is placing the canal
in jeopardy.

MIKE: The larger your vessel is,
the more efficient it is.

And post-Panamax ships,

that are the best
and most economical,

cannot go through
the existing locks.

As the post-Panamax becomes
the new standard

for global shipping,

they're bypassing
the Panama Canal,

threatening the very livelihood
of Panama.

ILYA: The Panama Canal
is a big revenue provider

for the country of Panama.

We generate $2 billion a year.

So it can provide for education,
for health, for school.

For all the things
that governments need
to provide.

If trade moves away from
the Panama Canal,

it would be a big blow
to our country.

We needed to do
something dramatic.

We needed to supersize
the canal.

To help save the canal,

one of the largest
construction projects
in history

is underway.

The creation of a supersized
Panama Canal.

One big enough to last
the next 100 years.

The plan is to build new locks

right next to
the original locks.

ILYA: When we were studying
this project,

we analyzed, "How about if we
just expand the existing canal?"

but that's a revenue provider,

so that's why we decided
we need to go

with the third set of locks.

At the Pacific entrance,

they must construct a massive,
three-step lock complex

that will raise
a post-Panamax ship

up to 90 feet.

Next, they must deepen
Lake Gatun,

at the center of the canal,

so bigger vessels
can safely cross

the Isthmus of Panama.

And finally,
on the Atlantic side,

they have to build another
set of locks

to get the ships back down
to sea level.

The task is monumental.

Fifty miles of construction
and dredging

across a continent.

And it all begins
with excavation.

On the Pacific side,

the team is hard at work

clearing a path
for the new locks.

They must dig a trench
a quarter-mile wide...

14 stories deep,

and a mile long.

Standing in their way:

30 million cubic yards
of dense basalt rock.

CHRIS: Yeah, we've got
some hard rock here, for sure.

So, uh, it requires
a lot of blasting.

The key, particularly with
blasting,

is to not excavate
too much material.

So the blasts have to be
precisely designed

so that we're not
over-excavating material.

Precision blasting requires
bore holes to be drilled

to an exact depth.

A demolition team
then moves in,

delicately placing
the explosives

and connecting the charges
to a lead wire.

Once at a safe distance,

the foreman arms
the detonator...

waiting for the "all clear,"

( indistinct radio chatter )

and turns the switch.

With the rock
and soil loosened,

it's time to dig it up
and carry it out.

The beast of the excavation
site is the Terex.

It can devour 60,000 pounds
of rock with every scoop.

LUIS: With the amount of
excavaction that
we're doing here,

it's the size
of the Central Park in New York.

This is a mega-project.

To haul out all this dirt,

the excavator loads up
heavy-duty mining trucks.

Their oversized wheels
help them shoulder tons

and tons of rock.

LUIS: I used to call
them the "Fisher Price,"

you know? Little trucks.

But, let me tell you,
they move a lot of dirt.

When they are finished,
the new excavation

will accomplish a feat

similar in scale to the
building of the original canal.

Over a hundred years ago,

the original French
canal builders

planned to dig a 50-mile,
sea-level passage

across Panama.

But their plan failed.

Over 20,000 workers died
trying to build that passage.

When America took over
the canal,

engineers took
a different path.

Instead of digging a trench
across Panama,

they flooded the entire middle
of the country,

creating Lake Gatun.

And built locks
that raised ships

to the higher level
of the lake.

In 1914, surmounting
seemingly impossible odds,

the Panama Canal
opened for business.

Today, on the Atlantic side,

crews are excavating
a mile-long trench

for the new locks.

CHRIS: The rock here is much
softer than the Pacific side,

so we don't have to do
any blasting here at all.

Precision excavators
slice through

the Atlantic soil
like butter,

digging almost straight down,

creating sheer cliffs
in their path.

CHRIS: Some of the steepest cuts
that we have here

at the Atlantic site,
are over 350-feet high.

And those are near vertical.

But softer rock doesn't mean
the job here is any easier.

This region has a seven-month
rainy season.

And when the rains mix
with the Atlantic soils,

things can get messy.

CHRIS:
If it gets wet,
it turns to mush, more or less,

and it's a sloppy soup
of material.

We've had several machines
that have sunk above the axles

in the muck.

Despite these punishing
conditions,

crews press on
with their mission.

To reach their goal,

men and machine will dig
for 9 years.

MIKE: We have an entire army
of dump trucks and excavators.

It's a tremendous activity.

But their struggle is only a
prelude to the big show.

Once excavation is finished,

massive machines will perform
Herculean tasks,

to build the largest
set of locks on the planet.

In Panama, the upgrade
to the world's biggest shortcut

is underway.

Construction teams are carving
a wider passage

across the country

to create a supersized
Panama Canal.

In order to complete
their mission,

crews must build
two lock structures

in each side of the country.

One on the Atlantic
and one on the Pacific,

to raise ships from the ocean
to Lake Gatun.

But the challenge
is monumental.

At a mile long
and 10-stories tall,

these are the largest lock
structures in the world.

To build this colossus,

they turn to one of
the most powerful forces
on Earth:

People.

LUIS: Right now,
we have about 2,500 people
working on the site.

At full capacity,
you want to see 4,500 people

working in this place.

This army of builders

raised the locks
one foot at a time.

But working at this scale
demands a relentless flow

of raw materials.

To get the job done,

workers rely on tower cranes
for support.

LUIS: At this moment we have
14 towers working

and giving support
to different areas.

The tower cranes
can lift concrete,

steel, anything that is heavy,

to 14-stories high.

One of the key elements
they move is steel,

the structural core
of the lock complex.

LUIS: Right now we're using
about 200,000 tons

of reinforcing steel.

With that amount of steel
we can build about 18 times

the Eiffel Tower in France.

The forest of steel
inside the locks

is the skeleton of the complex.

But before the steel can be
installed, it must be shaped.

JOHN: We have a big facility
where all the bar
is detailed, cut,

and bended,
transported in trucks,

and then placed at the site.

But steel has an enemy:

Saltwater.

If saltwater comes into contact
with steel,

it will corrode and fail.

A potential catastrophe.

That's where concrete comes in.

Concrete is used to wrap
the steel skeleton

in a watertight
protective layer.

JOHN: I have been
in this field for 25 years

and this is the hardest concrete
I have ever worked with.

It is designed
to withstand seawater

for a period of a 100 years.

To make enough of this
100-year concrete,

the Panama Canal
expansion project,

built a concrete plant
right on the job site.

MIKE: There's twice
as much concrete

being placed in the Atlantic
and Pacific locks

as in the Hoover Dam.
It's a tremendous volume.

The process begins
at the grinding plant.

Trucks dump freshly excavated
rock into the crushing system.

Giant tumblers break down
the rock into aggregate,

the first ingredient
in the concrete recipe.

Concrete is part aggregate,
sand, cement and water.

In concrete making,
temperature is key.

It must be kept
in the 50 to 60 degree range.

But in the scorching hot
climate of Panama,

they need one
secret ingredient:

Ice.

Ice keeps the concrete
at the right temperature

when it's poured.

But it can only do its job
for so long.

LUIS: Whenever we leave
the plant, we place the concrete

into the dump trucks.

We need to take the concrete
into the pouring site,

we only have 22 minutes.

That's when the race starts.

To ensure the concrete gets
to where it's needed,

as fast as possible,
an army of specialized

concrete pouring machines
stands at the ready.

One of the workhorses
of the site is the telebelt.

LUIS: It looks like
a fire truck.

The telebelt is just a big truck
with a long conveyer belt

that will deliver the concrete
into the pouring area.

A steady supply allows
the telebelt to dump

over 25,000 gallons of concrete
per hour.

Because each pour requires

over half a million
gallons of concrete.

For pours at the very top
of the locks,

crews turn to a specialized
machine called the putzmeister.

LUIS: The putzmeister is a pump

where you can move the arm
to reach the hard places

where you're pouring.

The 200 foot arm is controlled
by an operator,

guiding the nozzle
to exactly the right place.

The critical last step:

construction teams sink
industrial vibrators

into the mix,
stirring out any air bubbles.

Together, the concrete
and steel

create a super strong
lock structure.

And that structure has to be
extra tough,

because it lies
within an earthquake zone.

MIKE: On the Pacific side,

we have faults that are passing
within 50 meters

of the third set of locks.

The new locks must withstand
a catastrophic 7.1 earthquake.

To withstand these
intense forces,

engineers designed the
new canal to a higher standard

than ever before.

MIKE: We've used state
of the practice techniques

that have been built
and developed specifically
for this project.

But have general applications
throughout the industry.

We are literally
rewriting the book

on how to design
large lock projects.

The new lock design
raises the bar

for the next generation
of mega-projects.

But their challenges
have just begun.

They still must build
the world's biggest gates.

Coming up, on Modern Mar

After years of hard work,

the Panama Canal
is showing signs of progress.

Excavation is complete.

And the lock walls
are nearly finished.

But the construction team
still has to tackle

the most critical piece of the
new expansion: The Gates.

We have the very large
rolling gates.

Four are currently onsite
here at the Atlantic,

twelve more will be coming
over the course
of the next year.

These gates are like
the Swiss Army knives

of the system.

They perform so many different
important functions

for the locks.

They open and close the chambers

to allow the passages
of the ships.

They must withstand
seismic loads.

It's a very active earthquake
situation here in Panama.

They also must be able to
withstand ship impact.

With all these requirements,

building the tallest gates in
the world is a mega challenge.

Half a world away from Panama,

in a town north of
Venice, Italy,

master technicians
are rising to the challenge.

NICK: The gates are fabricated
in a shipyard

because for all
intents and purposes

they are designed and built
like a large ship.

Workers begin by building
the internal superstructure

of the gate.

Starting with steel I-beams
for strength.

These open beams are designed
to withstand

tremendous water pressure.

Workers then weld the
outer plating

to the superstructure,

creating a single module

the size of
two large school buses.

The last step:

Gantry cranes
stack modules together,

to form a single mega-gate.

A finished gate stands 100 feet
tall and weighs 3,000 tons.

SERGI: They are heavy.
But they cannot be that
heavy for the operation.

So in order to move the gates,
we need buoyancy.

In the lower part of the gate,
you see a closed area.

Like ships,
the gates are hollow with
sealed compartments inside,

so they float.

This reduces their operating
weight in water.

So they can be quickly opened
and closed.

In operation, the real weight of
the gates is only 10 percent
of the weight in dry conditions.

Now that these colossal
gates are finished,
it's time to move them.

from Italy to Panama.

Because the gates
are so heavy and so unwieldy,

they really can't be lifted
conveniently or feasibly
with a crane.

And so they have
to be handled with these large
multi-wheeled vehicles

that carry them from the bottom
like a large caterpillar.

Their journey begins
on the back of a unique
vehicle called an SPMT.

LORE: SPMT stands for
"self-propelled
modular trailer."

The pieces with the wheels
underneath are connected
to one engine,

and that can carry
more than 5,000 tonnes.

It takes four SPMTs
to carry one gate.

Everything is operated
by a worker with
a joy stick control,

who walks alongside
as the giant gates are taken
to a waiting barge.

LORE: When the gate
is on the barge,

we tow the barge
to the next port

where a big heavy transport
vessel is moored,

and there we roll over
the gate onto the vessel.

At the Port of Trieste,
a special vessel is waiting.

There are only five ships
in the world capable
of transporting the gates.

They are called heavy load,
semi-submersible vessels.

Just the simple maneuver
of getting it on the vessel,

requires the semi-submersible.
It's able to sink itself to get
in underneath the gate itself,

and then it raises itself
back up to pick up the load
of the gate.

Once the four gates are loaded
and secured onto the
semi-submersible vessel,

the 6,000-mile journey
to Panama can begin.

It's the first time
in history

that such big and heavy
equipment has been sailing
the Atlantic Sea.

If you were transiting
the gates across the ocean
and you hit a storm,

well, the nightmare scenario
is that one or more of the gates
could topple into the ocean,

or the entire thing
could turn over and sink.

Getting the gates across
the Atlantic is a daunting task.

But an even tougher one
looms ahead:

placing these giants at the
bottom of the Panama Canal.

More than a century after
the Panama Canal opened
for business,

its mega-upgrade
is nearing completion.

In the punishing heat
of Panama,

construction teams have been
working around the clock...

for seven years.

The canal locks: the most
complicated pieces of the
new upgrade are taking shape.

But there's still one important
part of the puzzle left:

installing the jumbo-sized
lock gates.

After a month at sea,
a shipment of gates has
finally arrived from Italy.

SERGI: Here you can see
the first four gates,
and we need 16 for our project.

Eight in the Atlantic side,
eight in the Pacific side.

But getting the gates from
the ship into the canal zone
poses a new set of challenges.

( helicopter hovering )

The 3,000-ton gates
were too heavy for the soft
Atlantic soil.

Solution? Build a special
row for the one-way trip.

NICK: It's basically like
an airport runway.

It can carry the weight
of the gates when they're
being installed,

but it is a temporary work,
and so it has to be demolished
after the fact.

Workers move the gate along
this mile-long highway,

one inch at a time.

After a careful trip,
they finally arrive
at the lock gate recess,

but maneuvering the gate into
its new home will be the
trickiest part of the journey.

NICK: The challenge
of installing these gates
into their designated recess,

is not too dissimilar from
trying to move a couch

into your apartment
through a narrow doorway.

I think if you get halfway in,
you're home, but it's a very
tight tolerance.

Inches.

The team depends on the
self-propelled modular trailer

to negotiate the hairpin turn.

Its wheels can turn
individually,

or all in unison.

NICK: The tight tolerances
and the very close quarters
make it very difficult,

and it has to be done very
carefully and very slowly

in order to ensure
that there's no damage
to the gates themselves

or to the structures
that they're being housed in.

Once the gates are settled
into their recesses, it's time
to build the drive system.

It will move them.

NICK: There's a large
machinery room that sits
right behind the gates,

and that's where the motors
and the winches,

and the cable equipment
that move the gates are housed.

Workers install powerful
electric motors.

that will be the engine
of the drive system.

Steel rails at the top of
the lock walls will guide the
gate in and out of the recess.

The drive wagon is lifted
onto the rails,

and connected to the gate,
readying the system
for operation.

NICK: The rolling gates move
in and out of the lock chamber.
It's a bit like a cable car.

It grabs onto the cable,
and then moves back and forth
in the recess.

As the gate starts to roll,
a wheel at the bottom guides
the gate across the lock.

But with so many moving parts,
the rolling gates could become

the Achilles heel
of the canal system.

The original canal
has 750-ton swinging gates.

that open and close
like a pair of doors.

These gates, which have
operated for 100 years,

are the canal's weak point.

NICK: If the gate gets
damaged on the old canal,

they have to basically shut
that lane down,

do a complete investigation
as to the extent
of the damage of the gate,

if it's more serious, they have
to schedule it to be removed
and taken out of service.

To compensate
for the gate's limitations,

the original locks
are designed for two lanes
of traffic.

If one lane closes,
the second lane keeps
the canal open.

But the new locks
are just one lane,
no backup.

NICK: With only a single lane
for transit,

if there's any problem with
the gate that can't be managed,

then it is down and traffic
stops completely.

It's a serious issue.

The challenge is to design
a gate system that
is completely reliable.

SERGI: All the gate's
design concept is to
provide easy maintenance.

There are 12 compartments.

It's like a submarine.

In fact,
if a ship is impacting
the gate,

and water is coming
inside the gate,

we still will have enough
buoyancy to bring the gate
inside the recess.

The giant gate recess
doubles as a repair bay
for a damaged gate.

Okay, you see over there,
like a window?

In this part of the gate,
underneath this window,

we will have some structure
to support the gate,
you need maintentance.

So the gate will come
into the recess,

and it will be standing
on these four windows.

One safely on its supports,
crews can drain the water
from the recess,

and begin repairs.

But even with one gate down,
canal operations will continue
without interruption.

That's because the upgraded
canal is being fitted
with pairs of gates.

NICK: With the redundant gate
system, with two gates
in each lock head,

this allows for continuous
operation with the other gate.

while vessel operations
continue unabated.

The paired gate design
is remarkably reliable.

Built to last
for the next 50 years,

they will keep the canal open
over 99 percent of the time.

NICK: And then finally,
as if there weren't enough
constraints on these gates,

they have to be designed
so that when they're
in the closed position,

you can drive emergency
and maintenance vehicles
across them like a bridge.

The gates are only one part
of the lock system that must
be failsafe.

The other piece of the canal
that is critical is the filling
and emptying of the locks...

with water.

The pieces of the new Panama
Canal are coming together.

The lock structures
are complete.

and the gates are moving
into their recesses.

But soon, these pieces will
have to face one of the most
powerful elements on Earth...

water.

MIKE: Water drives
the whole operation.

Without water,
the Panama Canal would
not be possible.

When a ship enters the locks,
water from a higher level

flows into the lower level
of the lock chamber.

This raises the ship.

When the ship gets
to the other side,

the process reverses.

But with the new canal,
engineers will have to
take their design

to the next level.

MIKE: Our big challenge with the
third set of locks is to move
a lot of water extremely fast.

Each lock chamber is long enough
to take the entire Empire
State Building inside of it.

And yet, at the same time,
we have to be able to fill
it up in 11 minutes.

That is very fast
for a lock of this size.

With water filling the lock
chamber this fast, there could
be problems. Big problems.

MIKE: These ships are
so much larger,

that if you have a small
variation in the elevation
of the water,

the ship could be damaged.

How do you fill a lock
fast and do it safely?

The secret lies deep
within the bowels
of the lock's complex.

Engineers have designed
a network of
underground tunnels

called culverts
to tame the raging waters.

We are inside one of the very
large culverts that take
the water into the locks.

What I'm doing with the water
here is making sure that as it
goes into the lock chamber,

it's very smooth.

When they open the valves,
water surges
into the culvert system.

MIKE: As the water actually
comes out the valves,
it's almost 40 miles an hour.

It's very fast. You wouldn't
want to be in these culverts
when they open the valves.

The enormous size of the
main culvert helps to slow
down the speeding water.

But because it's still
moving too fast to be safe,

engineers built a specially
designed hairpin turn.

The water is coming from
behind me in this direction.

It will take a turn
to the right and then
go through this port here,

out into the lock chamber
at a nice, slow speed.

The water enters the chamber
through 40 ports at the bottom
of the lock walls.

40 smaller openings instead
of one large one delivers
the water slowly and evenly.

MIKE: These ports are nice
and low, well below
the underside of the ships.

As the water rises up
in the lock chamber,
it should be like a mill pond,

very smooth at the surface.

With such a large volume
of water pouring
into the chamber,

controlling the water level
is critical.

MIKE: A ship will be raised
25 to 30 feet
in the lower chamber.

As soon as it's raised
to the same elevation
as the middle chamber,

the lock gates can then open,
and they have to be almost
exactly the same level,

within four inches,
otherwise the gates cannot open.

To get the water levels
to match, engineers had
to design a control system.

one that surpasses
the original.

When the canal opened in 1914,

its water control system
was cutting-edge.

Analog water gauges helped
canal operators see the water
levels in the lock chambers.

Built-in safeties made it
impossible to open gates
out of sequence.

Today, a new canal
is taking the control room
into the 21st century.

Right now, we are starting
to build the infrastructure

for the central nervous system
of the Panama Canal locks.

Workers start
by installing the backbone
of the electronic system.

Heavy duty tubes,
packed with fiber optic cables.

GABRIEL: We have over 1,000
miles of electrical cable,
60, 000 terminations,

all the elements that will allow
us to control our monitor
the Panama Canal locks.

Today, with ships so massive,
the new locks have to be
failsafe.

preventing even
the most unlikely event.

( steamboat honks )

( shouting over PA system )

The new canal's control
system alerts operators
of any problems,

switching to a backup system
if needed.

GABRIEL: Everything in this
project is duplicated.

From the sensors to the wires
to the routes, so you can
actually lose one system

and you can continue
to operate the locks.

When completed, the Panama
Canal expansion will have
the digital infrastructure

of an entire city.

All of this is coming together
to create a collosal shortcut
that will change the world.

But there is still one big
hurdle left to overcome,

one that could jeopardize
the entire canal operation.

A new chapter
of the Panama Canal
is about to begin

with the opening
of the new locks.

Getting to this moment required
the skill and determination
of thousands of workers.

Together,
they had moved mountains...

( dynamite )

poured miles of concrete,
and assembled components
from across the globe.

But engineers still have
to overcome one final hurdle.

how the new canal uses
the water from Lake Gatun.

At the mouth
of the lock complex,

intakes suck in 120 million
gallons of water
with each passage.

MIKE: The third set of locks
requires a tremendous amount
of water.

Moving that water
is a major design challenge.

A network
of underground passages
channel the flow of water

between the lake
and the lock chamber.

But if you thought pumps
were pushing water through
these tunnels, think again.

The entire system of the new
canal relies on gravity alone.

Two-story-high gate valves
are the heart
of the gravity system.

When a valve opens, water moves
from the higher level to the
lower level of the lock.

GREG: It's really amazing that
we're moving approximately
120 million gallons

through the lock chamber
in 10 minutes.

This is all done just
by opening gates
and closing gates.

But with the new locks,
there is a big challenge.

With so much water swallowed up
with each passage,

they will empty Lake Gatun,

the sole source of fresh water
for Panama's largest city.

To solve this problem,
engineers will have to cut
the lock's water use by 60%.

This is the Atlantic lock's
upper chamber water saving
basin you see, behind me.

That's the area that will
allow for the 60% savings
of water for the project itself.

Water saving basins are a new
approach to canal design.

They are essentially
giant reservoirs that
collect and reuse water

in the locking process.

And how the water gets moved
from lock to basin

is truly a marvel
of hydraulic engineering.

With the water saving basin,
we're able to transfer
that water to these basins

and that water is saved
and filled back up
into the chamber

for future use
for the next ship.

So we actually can save
about 60% of that water
that would normally be lost

by just reusing it
back and forth through
the lock chamber.

With the addition
of the water saving basins,

the new canal will consume less
water than the existing canal,

even though
it is three times larger,

making it one of the great
achievements of this
supersized upgrade.

GREG: You know,
this is just one example

of how we've made
something bigger than
it's ever been done before.

We've done this
in the lock walls, the gates.

This whole project's been
a series of biggests and bests,

and it sets the standard
for going forward on lots
of different other projects.

And if everything goes
as planned,

the Panama Canal expansion
will transform global commerce.

LUIS: I think it's gonna be
great for everyone, not just
for the Panamanians,

because by expanding our canal,
we are solving a problem
to the whole world.

ALAN: Today, container ships
that are significantly
larger go to the West Coast

and then they use rail
to go to the East Coast,

and that's a cost issue.
It's a time issue.

Once the canal is done,
the container fleet can transfer
through to the Atlantic side.

You're gonna change world trade.

The effects of the new set
of locks will ripple
across America.

Ports in Miami,
Virginia, Baltimore,

and New York are all
modifying their facilities
for these larger ships.

Panama Canal expansion
will be a game changer
for global commerce.

Some people will try to take
as much advantage as they can.

Some people will
feel threatened by it,

but everyone will have
to rethink their entire
business model

once this project
goes into operation.

IYLA: So you never know
what the market is gonna
do in the future.

The locks are supposed
to last 100 years.

But we also left
some real estate

for the fourth set of locks
if we ever have to build one.

Over 100 years ago,
the opening of the Panama Canal
made the world a smaller place.

Today, the new supersized
canal is doing the same.

A giant shortcut between
two oceans remains a powerful
symbol of human achievement.

And when the water
begins to flow,

a new modern marvel
will take its rightful
place in history.