The canal that allows ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Panama is the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal crosses the Isthmus of Panama and uses locks to raise ships to Gatun Lake, then lower them again toward the opposite coast. It is about 80 kilometers long and avoids the far longer voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.
France began the first major construction effort in the 1880s under Ferdinand de Lesseps, but disease, difficult terrain, engineering problems, and financial collapse ended that attempt. The United States took over construction in 1904, and the canal officially opened to commercial traffic on August 15, 1914.
The canal is not a simple sea-level trench like the Suez Canal. Its lock system moves vessels through different elevations, with Gatun Lake forming a central part of the route. The canal was transferred from U.S. control to Panama on December 31, 1999. Corinth Canal and Kiel Canal are important waterways, but they connect different seas; the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean and Red seas.