way can't you take out the locks in the panama canel and just let the water run thru?

Answer 1

There is a mountain range to go over. They raise you up into a lake and then lower you down the other side. There are strong currents at either end.

Answer 2

as was said, there is something called the Cordials..the "spine" of Central America running down the middle of Panama.

The first attempt at digging a Canal at Panama was by the same Frenchman.......Ferdinand de Lesseps....who dug the canal at Suez. Suez was dug mostly thru sand and while slow going was a piece of cake compared to Panama with its solid granite and basalt mountain in the way. The French tried to dig a sea level....straight thru..... canal and went bankrupt.

The American plan made use of a big river that also ran across the canals path. We put up a whacking huge dam
at Gatun and essentially flooded the middle of the country with huge artificial lake called ( duh) Gatun Lake. A short canal on each end and the locks raise you up to the lake and a short but difficult cut thru the spine of the mountains.....now a cut only 40 feet deep instead of 200...and there you are. The dam also provides the electricity needed to run the locks; the water is replenished by the rain into the lake, so the Panama Canal is a big machine that raises and lowers thousands of 50,000 ton ships a year using nothing but gravity and rain for power.
Pretty slick, eh?

Answer 3

Because of the change in elevation in land between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Locks are used to lift or lower a ship from one body of water to another. If the locks were removed, it couldn't be used as a waterway any longer. The Panama Canal isn't just a river between the two oceans.

Answer 4

Because the canal climbs to an altitude of 85 feet to reach the Gaillard (Culebra) Cut and then drops again as you head to the Caribbean

It isn't a CHANNEL or a RIVER connecting the Pacific and Atlantic... and digging down DEEP enough to make it so would be cost prohibitive.

Answer 5

The Pacific ocean is at a Higher level than the Atlantic., Without the locks, the Pacific ocean would flow across Panama and destroy everything in its path.

Answer 6

because to do that they would need the bottom of the canal to be the same level all the way across. the locks allow the boats to be raised or lowered

Answer 7

Because along time ago the keys were lost.

And the land is higher than BOTH oceans