Chokepoint · Central America
Panama Canal
Open, with drought limits since September 3Updated September 29, 2026
The Panama Canal is an 80 km waterway across Panama that joins the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Locks lift ships 26 meters up to a lake and back down again. Sailing from New York to San Francisco through the canal is less than half as far as going around South America.
- Length
- 80 km
- From the Caribbean to the Pacific
- Height of the lake
- 26 m
- above the sea
- Transits, fiscal 2025
- 13,404
- $5.7 billion in revenue
- Ships a day
- 29
- 30 a day in 2023
- Country
Panama
Where is the Panama Canal?
The canal crosses the Isthmus of Panama, the narrow strip of land that joins North and South America. It runs from Colón on the Caribbean Sea to Panama City on the Pacific. Much of the route crosses Gatun Lake, a reservoir made by damming the Chagres River.
Caribbean Sea
Gulf of Panama
Gatun Lake
PANAMA
Gatun locks
Pedro Miguel andMiraflores locks Colón Panama City
Caribbean Sea
Pacific
Gatun Lake
Gatun locks
Pedro Miguel andMiraflores locks Colón Panama City
How do ships cross the Panama Canal?
Ships climb 26 meters through three locks at Gatun, cross Gatun Lake, and step back down to the Pacific through the locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores. The crossing takes about ten hours. The water that fills the locks comes from the lake, so a dry year means fewer ships.
The canal from the side
Is the Panama Canal back to normal?
Not quite. A drought in 2023 lowered Gatun Lake, and the canal authority cut the number of ships it let through each day. Traffic recovered in 2025. In September 2026 the lake fell again. From September 15 the canal offered 32 transit slots a day, down from 36 in August, and it plans to offer 33 from October 15. In the four weeks to September 20, about 29 ships a day crossed.
Ships through the canal each day
Weekly average, January 2023 to September 2026
How much shorter is the route through the canal?
From New York to San Francisco, a ship sails about 9,500 km through the canal. Around Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America, the same trip is about 22,500 km.
New York
San Francisco
Who controls the Panama Canal?
Panama. The United States built the canal and ran it until the end of 1999, when it handed the canal over under the Torrijos–Carter treaties. In 2025 President Trump said the United States should take it back. In January 2026 Panama's Supreme Court cancelled the contract of CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong company, to run the ports at both ends of the canal.
Who has run the canal
United States
Panama
The canal over the years
- 1889A French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, goes bankrupt digging a canal at sea level.
- 1914The United States opens the canal, with locks, on August 15.
- 1999Panama takes over the canal on December 31, under treaties signed in 1977.
- 2016Wider locks open for ships carrying up to about 14,000 containers, almost three times the old limit.
- 2023A drought lowers Gatun Lake, and the canal cuts the number of ships it lets through.
- Jan 2026Panama's Supreme Court cancels CK Hutchison's contract to run the ports at both ends.
