Panama Canal Quiz
Created by Rick Archer, 2011

Panama Canal Quiz Answers

1. Before it was built, there was an alternative route that closely rivaled the eventual Panama Canal route. The alternative route was in:

a) Costa Rica
b) Colombia
c) El Salvador
d) Nicaragua
e) all of the above

Answer: d) Nicaragua

2. What do Panama's Culebra Cut and Colorado's Eisenhower Tunnel have in common?

a) They are both tunnels
b) They both cross the Continental Divide
c) They both link continents
d) They both cross an entire mountain range
e) all of the above

Answer:  b) They both cross the Continental Divide
The Eisenhower Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel approximately 50 miles west of Denver, Colorado, United States. The tunnel carries Interstate 70 under the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains.  With an elevation of 11,158 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world.  The tunnel is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the US Interstate Highway system. Completed in 1979, it was one of the last major pieces of the Interstate Highway system to be completed.  The Culebra Cut is Panama's answer to the Eisenhower Tunnel, crossing Panama's Continental Divide at 85 feet above sea level.

3. "Panamax" is a term for what?

a) The maximum size a ship can be to enter the Panama Canal
b) A maximum security prison for dangerous Panamaniacs
c) The number of ships that can use the Canal per day
d) The maximum distance saved by the building of the canal
e) All of the above
 

Answer: a) The maximum size a ship can be to enter the Panama Canal

"Panamax" is a term for the limit on the size of a ship that can use the Panama Canal. 

The Panama Canal is currently undergoing further expansion. A new set of locks will allow transit of larger "post-Panamax" vessels and the Gatun Lake water supply will also be increased.  Slated for completion at the Canal's 100th Anniversary in 2014, the project will undoubtedly enhance one of the world's most vital trade.

4. The Panama Canal runs east and west. True or False?
 

Answer: False

Because the continents clearly go north and south, common sense has it that the canal runs east and west.

However, a simple look at the map shows the isthmus of Panama runs east and west, so the canal runs north and south.

5. The Panama Canal is what kind of canal?
a) a sea level canal
b) an eerie canal
c) a lake and lock canal
d) a root canal
e) a gondola canal
f)  an irrigation canal
g) a mountain level canal

Answer: c) a lake and lock canal

Locks are the best way to carry a waterway over uneven terrain by raising and lowering the water level in a series of step-like chambers.  There was a terrible debate in the engineering community about whether locks would work or not.

6. The distance saved from NYC to San Francisco by building the Panama Canal was:
a) 02,000 miles
b) 04,000 miles
c) 06,000 miles
d) 08,000 miles
e) 10,000 miles
 

Answer: d) 8,000 miles!

The Panama Canal has been called the Greatest Shortcut in history.  Prior to its completion, the added distance for ships sailing from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn at the lower tip of South America versus through the Panama Canal was 8,000 miles!! 

7. The Panama Canal is how long?
a) 10 miles
b) 30 miles
c) 50 miles
d) 70 miles
e) 100 miles
 

Answer: c) 50 miles

8. Which time comes closest to describing the time it takes a cruise ship to cross the Panama Canal?
a) one hour
b) three hours
c) five hours
d) seven hours
e) nine hours

Answer: e) nine hours  (somewhere between 8 and 10 hours)

9. The first country to attempt to build a Panama Canal was:
a) Panama
b) France
c) Spain
d) England
e) USA

Answer: b) France

The French worked on the canal for ten years, 1880-1890.  They didn't get very far.  They were only able to excavate 11 miles out of the 50 mile total. 

10. The European who first discovered the existence of the Pacific Ocean in 1513 was:
a) Vasco de Balboa
b) Christopher Columbus
c) Simon Bolivar
d) Francisco Pizarro
e) Hernan Cortez
f) Ferdinand Magellan
 

Answer: a) Vasco de Balboa
 

11. The book "Around the World in Eighty Days" was prompted by the completion of what canal?
a) The Suez Canal
b) The Erie Canal
c) The Grand Canal
d) The Panama Canal
e) The Danube Canal

Answer: a) The Suez Canal
 

The completion of the Suez Canal concurred with another famous event - the completion of the first US transcontinental railroad.  These two events made the entire world a much smaller place.  A famous dreamer - Jules Verne - took note and wrote his wonderful "Around the World in 80 Days", a journey that used both the Suez and the railroad developments in the fascinating saga.

12. Has anyone ever swum the entire Panama Canal?  
Yes or No?

Yes.  Richard Halliburton who crossed the Canal swimming in 1928.  He paid the lowest toll in the history of the Panama Canal at 36 cents.  Wouldn't it be interesting to know if he used the locks?   It seems unlikely, but here is a picture that shows that he did swim the locks.

Richard Halliburton (1900 – 1939) was an American traveler, adventurer, and author. Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—thirty-six cents—Halliburton was headline news for most of his brief career.

His final and fatal adventure, an attempt to sail a Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon, across the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, made him legendary.

13. Which of the following is not a lock at the Panama Canal?
a) Miraflores Lock
b) Omar Torrijos Lock
c) Gatun Lock
d) Pedro Miguel Lock
 

Answer: b) Omar Torrijos Lock
 

14. The man who helped convince Teddy Roosevelt of the necessity of building the Panama Canal was:

a) Alfred Thayer Mahan
b) James Monroe
c) Benjamin Franklin
d) Thomas Jefferson
e) William McKinley

Answer: a) Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan was a Naval officer who won fame as a Naval historian and as the leading Naval strategist of his day.  Mahan was called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century."   His concept of "sea power" was based on the idea that countries with greater naval power will have greater worldwide impact. His ideas still permeate the U.S. Navy Doctrine.

When Mahan published his famous naval doctrine, "The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783" in 1889, Theodore Roosevelt read the newly published book over a single weekend.  Roosevelt never forgot what he learned from the book.  Roosevelt completely agreed the United States would need to protect its sea lanes of interest around the world to become a great nation.

Thanks to the ideas of Mahan, Roosevelt became obsessed with naval power.  Sea power was necessary to facilitate trade and peaceful commerce, therefore, the country with the greatest sea power would be able to wield great influence on the world stage. Therefore, long coastlines, good harbors, and power over the Suez and the soon-to-be Panama Canal was essential.

15. America's construction of the Panama Canal was in serious trouble from the start. The man who helped rescue the project was:

a) Theodore Roosevelt
b) John Frank Stevens
c) William Gorgas
d) Joseph Bishop
e) George Washington Goethals
f) all of the above

Answer: f) all of the above

The French failed miserably over the ten year period when they worked on the canal.  1904, the first year of American involvement, saw the Americans make the exact same mistakes plus some of their own.  The project was in terrible shape and seemingly doomed to failure. 

Amazingly, a series of men stepped up and took turns saving the massive project from the jaws of defeat.  To read the entire story, click History of Events.

16. Besides being the narrowest country to separate the Atlantic from the Pacific, what other feature made Panama attractive for putting the Canal there?

a) a pre-existing railroad
b) an enormous lake used for crossing
c) a deep river requiring no dam & no dredging
d) flat land that was easy to dig
e) lowest spot on the Continental Divide in Central America
f)  a long canyon that required no digging
g) all of the above

Answer: a) a pre-existing railroad

Thanks to the California Gold Rush in 1849, the Americans discovered the fastest way to get from one side of the U.S. to the other was to head straight to Panama.  The Old Panama Railroad was completed in 1855. 

When the French decided to build their canal in 1880, the presence of the railroad was a big factor in their decision to use the Panama route over the Nicaraguan route that had many advantages of its own.

Not only did the Panama Railroad run alongside the important Chagres River, the jungle had already been cleared.

17. What was the biggest obstacle to completion of the Panama Canal?

a) disease
b) need to cut a gap through a mountain
c) a highly uncooperative river
d) need to construct untested locks
e) need to construct massive dams
f)  lack of a lake for water
g) all of the above

Answer: g) all of the above

The Panama Canal was an incredibly difficult project for that day and age.  If you add the ten years the French invested, it took 20 years to complete the canal.  Whatever could go wrong did go wrong.  Its completion was quite an accomplishment.

18. The man who conquered Panama was a...

a) Spanish nobleman
b) Spanish explorer/sea captain
c) Spanish stowaway
d) Spanish map maker
e) Spanish conquistador

Answer: c) Spanish stowaway

Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475 - 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador.

Balboa is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

Balboa had very humble beginnings.  His father was a mason.

Balboa had little education and served first as a page and a squire to a Lord in Spain.  At age 26, in 1501 Balboa hired on as a crewman on a ship headed from Spain to an area around Panama.  Balboa parlayed his earnings into a farm in Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic).  He failed miserably as a planter and pig farmer.  Deeply in debt, he needed to get off the island or go to jail.  In 1509, wishing to escape his creditors in Santo Domingo, Balboa set sail as a stowaway, hiding inside a barrel together with his dog.

How Balboa went from page to pig farmer to stowaway to famous explorer is one of the great rags to riches stories of the New World.

19. The ships rise in the locks by pumping water in to raise the water level. True or false?

Answer: False

Using water primarily from Lake Gatun, no water is pumped upwards at the Panama Canal.  The locks work strictly by gravity... all ships are raised and lowered using water draining into the Atlantic or the Pacific from the locks. 

For a thorough understanding of the operation, please visit How the Locks Work.

20. The Panama Canal has been described as the Eighth Wonder of the World and the greatest engineering achievement since the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Which of the following is NOT one of the Seven New Wonders of the World?

a)	Chichen Itza
b)	Christ the Redeemer
c)	Roman Colosseum
d)	Great Wall of China
e)	Machu Picchu
f)	Panama Canal
g)	Petra
h)	Taj Mahal

Answer: f)  Panama Canal

Hard as it is to believe, the Panama Canal is the odd man out.  You would think 50,000 workers and 20 years to finish plus the remarkable ingenuity required would all count for something. 

Some people would add that digging is a lot harder than building.  Nonetheless, the Panama Canal was overlooked.  In fact, it was not even one of the other 13 finalists!!

21. Central America is defined as the part of the Americas that links North and South America together. Which of the following countries is not considered part of Central America?

a) Belize
b) Mexico
c) Guatemala
d) El Salvador
e) Honduras
f)  Nicaragua
g) Costa Rica
h) Panama
i) all the above countries are part of Central America
 

Answer: b) Mexico

For various reasons, Mexico is considered part of North America along with Canada and the USA.

 

22. The Chagres River is the backbone of the Panama Canal. This river is unusual because:

a) It required little dredging to form the Panama Canal
b) It is the only river in the world that flows in two directions
c) It is the only river in the world that empties into two oceans
d) It is the only river in the world in the shape of the letter "T"
e) It has two dams
f) All of the above

Answer: f) All of the above

The origin of the Chagres goes way back into the mountains and jungles of Panama.  You can see the path of the Chagres lightly traced in red.  As you can see, up in the mountains there are about five different rivers that combine to create the mighty Chagres River.

Culebra is a town at the top of the Continental Divide that is underlined on the map.  Culbra was about 300 feet higher than the Chagres before the Canal was built, so the Chagres was blocked from flowing towards to Pacific Ocean.  It made its way to Atlantic instead.

However, once a huge gap was cut through the large hill at Culebra (aka the Culebra Gap), suddenly the gap was no higher than the Chagres River.

From this point on, half of the waters from Chagres flowed towards the Atlantic and half of the waters flowed to the Pacific. 

23. The opening of the Panama Canal was almost completely ignored.
Why was that?

a) the construction had taken so long no one cared any more
b) World War I had just started
c) President Woodrow Wilson suffered a major stroke that left him partially paralyzed
d) It was wiped off the front pages by the infamous Black Sox baseball scandal
e) all of the above

Answer: b) World War I had just started

World War I started on July 28, 1914.  The Panama Canal opened two weeks later. 

The world was far too stunned to care about anything but the intense conflict.  They figured this war might just mean the end of all civilization.

24. Including the building of the Panama Railroad from 1850-1855, the French canal attempt of 1880-1890 and the American canal effort, roughly how many men are said to have died building the railroad and the canal?

a) less than 10,000
b) 15,000-20,000
c) 25,000-30,000
d) 35,000-40,000
e) more

Answer: d) 35,000-40,000

Anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 men died from cholera, malaria, and yellow fever building the railroad.

The French are said to have lost 22,000 men in their futile ten years on the project.

The Americans are said to have lost 5,600 men.  So that puts us somewhere close to 40,000.

By contrast, the infamous Spanish-American War of 1898 that preceded the building of the Panama Canal had about 20,000 combined casualties from both sides.

Apparently mosquitoes are twice as dangerous as bullets. 

Dr. William Gorgas is the man given credit for reducing the American casualty rate dramatically.

25. The Panama Canal has one weakness in particular that worries everyone.
That would be:

a) the size of modern ships exceeds the size of the locks
b) the rainfall of Panama could easily become insufficient
c) the Canal is far too vulnerable to sabotage and terrorism
d) Panama lies on the San Andreas fault line
e) the nearby volcano Baru is no longer dormant

Answer: b) the rainfall of Panama could easily become insufficient
 

Damming the Chagres River in 1913 created what was then the world’s largest man-made lake. Gatun Lake sees Panama and its Canal through the dry season between January and March. The surrounding rain forests act as sponges and help conserve water. However, in passing years, El Nino, climate changes, and massive deforestation has increased the nation’s challenge to maintain enough water to service the Canal.