Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was the first vessel to cross the Panama Canal?
SS Ancon was an American cargo and passenger ship that became the first ship to officially transit the Panama Canal in 1914. The ship was built as Shawmut for the Boston Steamship Company by the Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland and put into Pacific service operating out of Puget Sound ports for Japan, China and the Philippine Islands. Shawmut and sister ship Tremont were two of the largest United States commercial ships in service at the time and the company eventually found them too expensive to operate.
An alternative route sometimes used by "Fairsky" was to cross the Atlantic Ocean with a stop at the island of Madeira, then on to the Panama Canal via Curacao. Once into the Pacific Ocean the vessel called at the island of Tahiti, where passengers could visit the local surroundings before continuing to New Zealand. Here the ship called at Wellington, again allowing passengers to "stretch their legs", before the vessel crossed the Tasman Sea to Sydney.
By January 2016, Panama's President Varela indicated that he anticipated the expansion to be complete around May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The first ship to cross the canal using the third set of locks was a modern New Panamax vessel, the Chinese-owned container ship "Cosco Shipping Panama." The United States dispatched a navy ship to Panama to demonstrate U.S. naval power to the Chinese ship.
In 2014, "Nunavik" became the first cargo ship to make an unescorted voyage through the Northwest Passage. The vessel left Deception Bay, Canada, on 19 September and passed Point Barrow, Alaska, on 30 September. After clearing the Bering Strait, the vessel headed to Bayuquan, China, with a cargo of nickel ore. According to Fednav, the voyage reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1,300 tonnes when compared to a similar voyage through the Panama Canal.
The Northwest Passage route is forty percent shorter than the Panama Canal route.
Panama’s new Centennial Bridge, which crosses the Panama Canal, was built just north of Paraiso in the early 21st century and inaugurated hastily in 2004. Just above the town is a spot where the East Access of the Centennial Bridge highway crosses the continental divide.Panama Canal Company, The Panama Canal Review, "Your Town - Paraiso," November 4, 1955.
The maximum length of vessel currently accepted is with a beam of and a maximum draft of . By contrast the similarly sized Panama Canal, completed a few years after the Manchester Ship Canal, was able to accept ships of up to in length with a beam of . Since June 2016, the Panama Canal has been able to handle vessels of in length with a beam of and a draft of , and cargo capacity up to . Ships passing under the Runcorn Bridge have a height restriction of above normal water levels.
The Panama scandals (also known as the Panama Canal Scandal or Panama Affair) was a corruption affair that broke out in the French Third Republic in 1892, linked to the building of the Panama Canal. Close to half a billion francs were lost when the French government took bribes to keep quiet about the Panama Canal Company's financial troubles in what is regarded as the largest monetary corruption scandal of the 19th century.
Following the closure of the shipyard, the crane was sold to the Panama Canal Commission and it was transported on the semi-submersible ship "Sea Swan" () in 1996 to the Panama Canal Zone, where it currently serves as the floating crane "Titan". "Titan" retired "Ajax and Hercules" that has served the Panama Canal since construction in 1914.
The two main current competitors of the Panama Canal are the US intermodal system and the Suez Canal. The main ports and merchandise distribution centers in these routes are investing in capacity, location, and maritime and land infrastructure to serve post-Panamax container ships and their larger cargo volumes. According to the ACP, the growing usage of such ships in transcontinental routes competing with the canal is irreversible. It was estimated that by 2011 approximately 37% of the capacity of the world's container ship fleet would consist of vessels that did not fit through the current canal, and a great part of this fleet could be used on routes that compete with Panama.
The Panama Canal Authority predicts that the volume of cargo transiting the canal will grow by an average of 3% per year, doubling the 2005 tonnage by 2025. Allowing larger vessels to transit the canal will move more cargo per transit and volume of water used.
The history of attempts to build a Nicaragua canal connecting the Caribbean Sea and thus the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean goes back at least to 1825 when the Federal Republic of Central America hired surveyors to study a route via Lake Nicaragua, above sea level. Many other proposals have followed. Despite the operation of the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, interest in a Nicaragua canal has continued. With emergence of globalization, an increase in commerce and the cost of fuel, and the limitations of the Panama Canal, the concept of a second canal across the American land bridge became more attractive, and in 2006 the president of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolaños, announced an intention to proceed with such a project. Even with the Panama Canal expansion project, which began commercial operation to modern New Panamax vessels on 26 June 2016, some ships would be too big for the Panama Canal.
In 2006, the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (the Panama Canal Authority, or ACP) proposed a plan creating a third lane of locks using part of the abandoned 1940s approach canals. Following a referendum, work began in 2007 and the expanded canal began commercial operations on June 26, 2016. After a two-year delay, the new locks allow the transit of Panamax ships (which have a greater cargo capacity than the original locks can handle). The first ship to cross the canal through the third set of locks was a Panamax container ship, the Chinese-owned "Cosco Shipping Panama". The cost of the expansion was estimated at $5.25 billion.
A short film about the Panama Canal featured the "Rushville Victory" crossing was made entitled ""Ocean to Ocean: Panama Canal""; it shows the crossing of the "Rushville Victory" through the Panama canal to demonstrate how the canal worked. The film is now part of a DVD titled ""USN Oil Tankers Supply and Cargo Ships"" by Campbell films, with a running time of 8:10 min. 
In 1948, the SS "Rutland Victory" was sold to the American President Lines of San Francisco and renamed the SS "President Fillmore. In 1962, the boat was sold to Victory Shipping Enterprises Inc. from Wilmington, Delaware and renamed SS "Smith Victory. In 1965, Victory Shipping Enterprises renamed it the SS "US Victory. The vessel was later sold to Transpacific Container Services of Liberia in 1969 and renamed the SS "Oriental Arrow. In 1969, Transpacific Container Services converted it to a 7,511 g.t. container ship and in 1972, it was sold to Universal Enterprise Inc. of Monrovia, Liberia, and renamed the SS "Oriental Ace".
The Panama Railway also operated a significant shipping line, connecting its service with New York and San Francisco. It ran a Central American line of steamships linking Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador, and Guatemala to Panama City. The shipping service was greatly expanded when canal construction began. Ships included the SS "Salvador", SS "Guatemala", SS "Cristobel", and , which became the first of the ships to cross the completed canal in 1914.
In 1904 the United States took over the license to build and operate the canal. The choice to use locks and an artificial lake (Gatun) meant that the old railway route from 1855 had to be changed because it followed the Chagres River valley, which would be flooded by the lake. Also, the railway would be extended and altered continuously for the building process. The stock of the Panama Railway Company, vital in canal construction, was entirely controlled by the United States Secretary of War.
Then-Panamanian President Martín Torrijos formally proposed the project on 24 April 2006, saying it would transform Panama into a First World country. A national referendum approved the proposal by a 76.8 percent majority on 22 October, and the Cabinet and National Assembly followed suit. The project formally began in 2007.
It was initially announced that the Canal expansion would be completed by August 2014 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal but various setbacks, including strikes and disputes with the construction consortium over cost overruns, pushed the completion date several times. Following additional difficulties including seepage from the new locks, the expansion was opened on 26 June 2016. The expansion doubled the Canal’s capacity. On March 2nd 2018, the Panama Canal Authority announced that 3,000 New Panamax ships had crossed the canal expansion during its first 20 months of operation.
Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal.[2] It takes 11.38 hours to pass through the Panama Canal[3]. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.[4]
The new locks opened for commercial traffic on 26 June 2016, and the first ship to cross the canal using the third set of locks was a modern New Panamax vessel, the Chinese-owned container ship Cosco Shipping Panama.[1] The original locks, now over 100 years old, allow engineers greater access for maintenance, and are projected to continue operating indefinitely.[105]
Since the bridge represented a major bottleneck in the Pan-American Highway, Panama's Ministry of Public Works requested tenders for a second canal crossing in October 2000. The contract to build a replacement bridge was awarded in March 2002. An ambitious schedule of just 29 months was set for construction, so that the bridge could open on the 90th anniversary of the first ship transit of the Panama Canal by the cargo ship "Ancon," on 15 August 1914. The bridge was named for Panama's centennial, which occurred on 3 November 2003.
The original Panama Canal has a limited capacity determined by operational times and cycles of the existing locks and further constrained by the current trend towards larger (close to Panamax-sized) vessels transiting the canal, requiring more transit time in the locks and channels. Also, periodic maintenance on the aging canal requires shutdowns of this waterway. Demand is growing due to the growth of international trade, and many users require a guaranteed level of service. Despite the gains which have been made in efficiency, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) estimated that the canal would reach its maximum sustainable capacity between 2009 and 2012. The long-term solution for the congestion was the expansion of the canal with a third set of locks.
The first attempt to construct a canal through what was then Colombia's province of Panama began on January 1, 1881. The project was inspired by the diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was able to raise considerable funds in France as a result of the huge profits generated by his successful construction of the Suez Canal.[16] Although the Panama Canal needed to be only 40 percent as long as the Suez Canal, it was much more of an engineering challenge due to the combination of tropical rain forests, debilitating climate, the need for canal locks, and the lack of any ancient route to follow.
The idea of the Panama canal dates back to 1513, when Vasco Núñez de Balboa first crossed the isthmus. The narrow land bridge between North and South America houses the Panama Canal, a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The earliest European colonists recognized this potential, and several proposals for a canal were made.
The main purpose of the canal expansion program is to increase Panama's ability to benefit from the growing traffic demand. This growing demand is manifested in both the increased cargo volumes and the size of vessels that will use the Panama route. In this sense, with a third set of locks, the canal will be able to manage the traffic demand forecast beyond 2025; total inflation-adjusted revenues for that year are predicted to amount to over USD $6.2 billion.
Panama's Centennial Bridge () is a major bridge crossing the Panama Canal. It was built to supplement the overcrowded Bridge of the Americas and to replace it as the carrier of the Pan-American Highway. Upon its opening in 2004, it became the second permanent crossing of the canal.
As with a toll road, vessels transiting the canal must pay tolls. Tolls for the canal are set by the Panama Canal Authority and are based on vessel type, size, and the type of cargo.[71]
Miraflores is the name of one of the three locks that form part of the Panama Canal, and the name of the small lake that separates these locks from the Pedro Miguel Locks upstream. In the Miraflores locks, vessels are lifted (or lowered) in two stages, allowing them to transit to or from the Pacific Ocean port of Balboa in Panama City. Ships cross below the Bridge of the Americas, which connects North and South America.