Books About Panama Canal??

[Ship's Wake]

For a fuller understanding of the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone, check out the University of Florida digital collection of primary source materials - a very fascinating trip into the past:

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/pcm/all/brief

 

Be warned: if you really have an interest in all things Panama Canal, this will be a major time suck for you :).

 

 

I really enjoyed The Official Handbook of the Panama Canal (1915 edition):

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00083277/00001/1j

[Northern Aurora]

For a fuller understanding of the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone, check out the University of Florida digital collection of primary source materials - a very fascinating trip into the past:

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/pcm/all/brief

 

Be warned: if you really have an interest in all things Panama Canal, this will be a major time suck for you :).

 

 

 

Since my husband has "an interest in all things Panama Canal" I am going to give him this UF source. But since it is a major "time -----" I may regret it. There is such a list of household tasks.....Oh well -- the house won't fall down..... I hope.....

[CleoV]

I bought Path Between the Seas for my husband before we left, but he had limited time to read it until we got on the ship. Normally he wants to see every show, visit every lounge, etc, but this time, during our Panama Canal cruise, he was ridiculously eager to return to the cabin and read each evening. He also slowed down (a miracle!) every afternoon and read for a couple of hours in the Lotus Spa.

 

Fantastic book, and riviting enough that a dedicated do-it-all cruiser decided he didn't need to do it all if it meant he could finish the book. :)

 

He is now purchasing it for family and friends who enjoy that sort of thing. Great book, well worth getting.

[Rickmer Rickmers]

I bought Path Between the Seas for my husband before we left, but he had limited time to read it until we got on the ship. Normally he wants to see every show, visit every lounge, etc, but this time, during our Panama Canal cruise, he was ridiculously eager to return to the cabin and read each evening. He also slowed down (a miracle!) every afternoon and read for a couple of hours in the Lotus Spa.

 

Fantastic book, and riviting enough that a dedicated do-it-all cruiser decided he didn't need to do it all if it meant he could finish the book. :)

 

He is now purchasing it for family and friends who enjoy that sort of thing. Great book, well worth getting.

 

For those who don't have time to read the book, the audiobook is perfect. Listened to it recently and really felt transported back to another time.:)

[Richard in Panama]

With the expansion of the Canal well underway, the 100th Anniversary coming up next year, Panama in an economic boom, and Nicaragua now considering building a competing canal - WOW! No better time to take a Panama Canal cruise than now. If it's on your bucket list or you're thinking about it, in the hallowed words of Nike, "Just Do It!" There's no more exciting time than now. This thread, if you browse past threats, has a wealth of information that will help you make your trip not only special, but educational as well. Regards, Richard

[NMLady]

"The Building of the Panama Canal in Historic Photographs" by Ulrich Keller. Really interesting photos - the ones of Teddy Roosevelt are especially good - I really like the one where he's sitting in the cab of a steam shovel. It's an 111 page 8 1/2 x 11 inch paperback so it's thin enough to take along - which I plan to do.

 

I'm glad to see this as one of the recommended books since I just ordered it from Amazon, along with Richard's centennial edition of Cruising the Panama Canal.

We cruised the full transit seven years ago but are doing it again in October (2013) so I am refreshing my memory on its history.

I might still purchase McCullough's book Path Between the Seas and take it with me since we have a ta immediately before our transit so will have plenty of sea days to read it.

[NMLady]

Glad to see this thread make a re-appearance. I just had a chance to get a look at an early edition of The Panama Canal... The Invisible Wonder of the World by Ron Armstrong. There are just so many photographs of both the construction of the Canal as well as how things looked before construction started. Over the years I have collected a number of construction photographs, but the photos Ron Armstrong has put together are almost without exception ones that I have not seen. The book will be something anyone interested in the Canal to add to their must have list. After looking at those photos, it is hard to believe that what is there today came from what looked to be at times, complete chaos.

 

I believe the book will be out in printed form sometime in March and is presently available for iPad via iBooks.

 

 

The book is available now for purchase. The timing of publication is fortunate since, even though the author did his most recent book signing on June 8, he was weakly ill from brain cancer. Sadly he succumbed to it less than two weeks later on June 21.

[BillB48]

The book is available now for purchase. The timing of publication is fortunate since, even though the author did his most recent book signing on June 8, he was weakly ill from brain cancer. Sadly he succumbed to it less than two weeks later on June 21.

 

Thank you for sending this along and I am truly saddened by the news. I did not personally know Ron, just a few exchanges here on Cruise Critic and some private emails.

 

I received an autographed copy from him in April and it truly is an amazing collection of photographs. The title of the book, The Panama Canal, The Invisible Wonder of the World so captures the images of what was and is now no longer visible, covered by water. Even though I have viewed many photographs of the construction era, this book is just filled with ones I have never seen. The photo on the cover is amazing by itself, to see all the material, equipment and workers threading their way through what looks like utter chaos that probably would give an OSHA inspector a lifetime of work. What we see today is this marvelous piece of engineering, quite magnificent.

 

The 100th anniversary of the Canal just a little more than a year away, Ron's book is makes a very fitting accompaniment for the occasion.

 

Thanks Again,

 

Bill

[vbmom87]

With the expansion of the Canal well underway, the 100th Anniversary coming up next year, Panama in an economic boom, and Nicaragua now considering building a competing canal - WOW! No better time to take a Panama Canal cruise than now. If it's on your bucket list or you're thinking about it, in the hallowed words of Nike, "Just Do It!" There's no more exciting time than now. This thread, if you browse past threats, has a wealth of information that will help you make your trip not only special, but educational as well. Regards, Richard

 

This cruise is on my bucket list, but not immediately. What is the latest you think a first timer should book this cruise in order to experience the "old" canal?

[BillB48]

This cruise is on my bucket list, but not immediately. What is the latest you think a first timer should book this cruise in order to experience the "old" canal?

 

I don't think there is any mad dash by any of the cruise lines to commit to scheduling one of their post-Panamax ships for a transit of the Canal. By post-Panamax ship I mean a ship that is too big to pass through the present locks. The new expansion locks are not schedule to be opened until April 2015 and I have seen some rumblings about July 2015. With that in mind I would not think there would be much cruise line traffic through the new locks until at least the winter season of 2015/16. Since most cruise lines do not even have their 2015 ship deployments publically available, 2016/17 would not be a stretch. Also after the opening of the new locks, the present locks will still be in use. So ships that presently use the Canal will in all probability continue to use the existing locks. Of course there is the possibility that once the new locks are opened they could be used for the present Panamax ships in a combining of both the old locks and new locks.... whichever would the most expeditious and efficient. Probably the biggest difference in the new locks will be the absence of the locomotives or "mules" that assist ships through the present locks. The mules are being unceremoniously replaced by tug boats! I guess that's progress.

 

The new locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides are basically within sight of each other, so the route through the majority of the Canal will be the same when the new locks open as it is today. You still will glide across Gatun Lake with it's tree topped islands which were formerly hill tops. The trip across the Continental Divide via the Gaillard Cut will remain as it is presently.

 

Besides, every time a Canal cruise gets removed from my bucket list... there are usually a couple more Canal cruises floating around in that bucket!

[vbmom87]

Bill: thanks for the info.

[swedish weave]

One thing that is not mentioned often is that the new locks will bypass Miraflores lake.

[BillB48]

You are absolutely correct, the bypass is called the Pacific Access Channel (PAC) and will run parallel to the west side Miraflores Lake. The PAC will be created by the construction of the Borinqen Dam which will allow the new locks on the Pacific side to be connected to Gaillard Cut. This will allow the ships on the Pacific side to be lifted up to Gatun Lake level all at one lock complex, instead of the two lock complexes (Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks) that are currently used. If you using the new locks you will certainly get a good view of Miraflores Lake and you will sail very close to the Pedro Miguel Locks as enter or exit Gaillard Cut.

 

Here is a link to a rendering of what it is all supposed to look like I posted a couple of years ago.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1413601&highlight=borinquen