The Panama Canal was officially opened in 1914.
The canal opened to commercial traffic on 15 August 1914, when the cargo and passenger ship SS Ancon made the first official transit. It crosses the Isthmus of Panama and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, allowing ships to avoid the long voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.
France began an unsuccessful construction effort in the 1880s, but disease, engineering difficulties, and financial problems halted the project. The United States resumed construction in 1904 and completed the canal ten years later. Its system of locks raises ships to Gatun Lake and then lowers them toward the opposite coast.
The canal was administered by the United States for much of the twentieth century. Under the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, control was transferred to Panama on 31 December 1999. The canal's expansion, completed in 2016, added a larger lock system for New Panamax ships.