Why is the panama canal so small?

Question

Ships barely fit it.

In: 1

Answer 1

Panama canal was opened in 1914. First container ships appeared in 1956 with capacity around 500-800 TEU (1TEU = 1 container).

Modern container ships are build with capacity of up to 25000 TEU.

Max capacity for a Panama canal was 4500 TEU. Ships with this capacity have appeared in 1985. Which is about 70 years after the canal was done.

Now they completed expansion trials for up to 15000 TEU. They originally expected this expansion to only be capable of 12500TEU.

TLDR: Ships have gotten much bigger since the canal was constructed.