You should definitely read about the canal’s construction if you didn’t find it “impressive” and just in case you don’t read here are some highlights:
1- the reason that the ships seem so skinny is because modern ship builders have a decision to make…and that is do they build a wider ship that cannot transit the canal that will carry more cargo but have to take the extra time to go around Tierra del Fuego (an extra approx. 18,000 miles or about 3 days) do they make a ship that can pass through the canal (Panamax vessel) and therefor carry less cargo but get it to it’s destination much quicker
2- hundreds…no thousands… of people DIED during it’s construction and whole villages were wiped off the map (they’re at the bottom of Gatun Lake)
3- our cheap Chinese goodies would be not so cheap were it not for the canal
4- it was built between the years of 1881-1914…technology wasn’t as advanced back then of course
5- they had to cut through the continental divide…in the rainforest!, I can’t find the exact numbers on the elevation there…but I do know that they had to dig it out about 3 times because of the stratigraphy of the rock there, there was an impermeable layer that was angled toward the cut and the water would sit on it until the soil got heavy enough it would all just slide off into the cut!