In order to enjoy this remarkable feat of engineering there are different options available. One of them is to watch the boats sailing along Miraflores from the restaurant in the Visitors Center or from the Gatún Floodgates. Bilingual guides will lead this tour.

Once inside the floodgates it is possible to enjoy some attractions such as a topographical model of the channel, the residential areas or stop for a while to look over the Puente de las Americas (the Americas´ Bridge).

There are companies that organize tours through the Floodgates of Miraflores as well.

The Channel of Panama is catalogued as a remarkable feat of engineering and even as one of the many wonders of the world.

It is hardly surprising that one of the main features of this construction is that it was built in a pacific way, in order to achieve the objective of linking together the two oceans.

According to historical facts, the first man who raised the possibility of building a channel that would cross directly the Panama Isthmus was Charles V of Spain.

Workers and French engineers began the construction three hundred years later, in 1880. However, efforts failed twenty years later due to illnesses and the unstable financial situation.

Time went by and in 1903 the United States and Panama agreed to sign a contract, which resulted in the building of such channel through the Isthmus.

The works were not finished until ten years later and the total costs were about three hundred and eighty seven million dollars.

Finally, on the 15th August 1914 the first crossing through the new and emblematic Panama Channel was made, in the American freighter "Ancón".

Regarding distances, the channel is about eighty kilometers long.

In order to make the crossing from one ocean to the other all the ships must be elevated, using three pairs of floodgates to reach a height of eighty-five feet.

As for the time, it takes about eight hours or more to complete the journey through the channel. However, most crafts stay between fourteen and twenty-four hours in territorial waters.

Regarding distances, the channel is about eighty kilometers long.

In order to make the crossing from one ocean to the other all the ships must be elevated, using three pairs of floodgates to reach a height of eighty-five feet.

As for the time, it takes about eight hours or more to complete the journey through the channel. However, most crafts stay between fourteen and twenty-four hours in territorial waters.