In 1920, after some thirty nine years of problems with disease, high1. Who currently controls the Panama Canal?
costs, and politics, the Panama Canal was officially opened, finally
linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by allowing ships to pass
through the fifty-mile canal zone instead of traveling some seven
5 thousand miles around Cape Horn. It takes a ship approximately eight
hours to complete the trip through the canal and costs an average
of fifteen thousand dollars one-tenth of what it would cost an average
ship to round the Horn. More than fifteen thousand ships pass through
its locks each year.
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The French initiated the project but sold their rights to the United
States. The latter will control it until the end of the twentieth
century when Panama takes over its duties.
2. In approximately what year will a different government take control of the Panama Canal?
3. On the average, how much would it cost a ship to travel around Cape Horn?
4. In what year was construction probably begun on the canal?
5. What can be inferred from this reading?
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