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By GLENN MOLLETTE

The United States spent nearly $500 million (roughly equivalent to $15.2 billion in 2023) to complete the Panama Canal project. This was by far the largest American engineering project at the time. The canal was formally opened on Aug. 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

French diplomat and entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps was the driving force behind French attempts to construct the Panama Canal (1881–1889). De Lesseps had made his name by successfully constructing the Suez Canal (1859–1869), a route that quickly proved its value in international commerce.

The United States acquired the rights to build and operate the Panama Canal during the early 20th century. The Hay-Herrán Treaty, negotiated with Colombia in 1903, granted the United States rights to the land surrounding the planned canal.

From 1903 to 1914, President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-standing U.S. goal—a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen sought a faster, cheaper way to ship goods between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Politically, the canal remained under U.S. control until 1977, when the Torrijos-Carter Treaties began the process of transferring control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. This process was completed on Dec. 31, 1999.

The treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999, ending the U.S. control that had been in place since 1903. The treaties are named after the two signatories: U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the commander of Panama’s National Guard, Gen. Omar Torrijos.

The Panama Canal was one of the largest public investments of its time. In its first decade of operation, the canal produced significant social returns for the United States, largely due to the transportation of petroleum from California to the East Coast. In 2024, the canal’s revenue stood at nearly $5 billion, which represents about 4% of Panama’s GDP. The net present economic value of the canal to the world is estimated at approximately $6 billion, with the value to the United States estimated at around $1.6 billion (Aug. 16, 2024, Quora).

Following riots by Panamanians protesting U.S. control of the canal in 1964, the United States and Panama renegotiated the treaty. In September 1977, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera signed two treaties.

President Trump believes treaties made between the United States and Panama were broken due to China’s growing involvement in the canal. The president has stated that the U.S. gave the canal to Panama, not to China. China has denied any control over the canal.

“The accusations that China is running the canal are unfounded,” Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, the head of the Panama Canal Authority, recently told The Wall Street Journal. Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, has also denied the presence of Chinese forces. “There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal, for the love of God,” he said in December 2024 (The Wall Street Journal).

My wife and I made the 12-hour, 51-mile canal voyage. We saw nothing disturbing but were in awe of one of the greatest engineering feats ever accomplished.

The most amusing part of our trip was that it generally took four to five Panama federal workers, with one supervisor looking on, to tie and untie one rope attached to our ship as we made our way in and out of the locks. It all looked like typical federal money and manpower at work.

Yes, it would be nice if we owned and controlled the Panama Canal. We did, but we gave it up. There’s probably a better chance of people in hell getting ice water than of us getting the canal back. However, I would never count our president out at this stage of the deal.

(Dr. Glenn Mollette is a graduate of numerous schools, including Georgetown College and Lexington and Southern seminaries in Kentucky. His column is published in over 600 publications in all 50 states.)