Which canal links the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean?

The Panama Canal links the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.

The canal crosses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, allowing ships to avoid the long voyage around Cape Horn at South America’s southern tip. It uses locks to raise vessels to Gatun Lake, about 26 metres above sea level, and then lower them back to sea level at the opposite coast.

France began an unsuccessful construction effort in the 1880s. The United States later completed the canal, which opened on 15 August 1914. The Panama Canal Zone was administered by the United States for much of the twentieth century before control was transferred to Panama on 31 December 1999.

The canal’s Atlantic entrance is on the Caribbean Sea, which is part of the Atlantic system. This sometimes causes confusion in wording, but the route is conventionally described as connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its expansion project, completed in 2016, added larger lock chambers for newer ships.