Saw a post about the canal, and this question popped up.
In: 9
Problem 1 – The Pacific and Atlantic oceans don’t have the same “sea level”. It wouldn’t be a flat calm channel. It would be a fast raging river.
Problem 2 – Even if they were at the same “sea level”, the land in between is higher altitude than the coasts. To keep it the same level across you’d have to dig that trench *really deep* in the middle parts.
Problem 3 – To keep an already massive expensive project down to feasible costs, the already existing lake in the middle was used as part of the route. The canal is actually two canals – one from the Pacific to the lake, and one from the Atlantic to the lake. That means you have to climb from sea level up to lake level on both sides if you want to do that – so you’re going to need locks.
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