Description of the attraction
The Panama Canal Museum is a non-profit public museum located in Panama City, in a building in Plaza de la Independencia. It is dedicated to the history of the construction of the Panama Canal - perhaps the most famous landmark of Panama and the most important navigable passage between the Americas.
The idea to create the Panama Canal Museum originated in 1996, when the people who control the activities of the canal decided to renovate the building that previously housed the office of the management company that was building the canal. The building was built in 1874 by Alsatian businessman George Lowe. He wanted to open a fashionable hotel here, for which he made an attic, gas lighting and an advanced fire protection system. In 1881, this mansion was acquired by the French General Interoceanic Canal Company, which was involved in the construction of the Panama Canal. Then the building was taken over by the American company, which replaced the French. The Americans were in charge of the building from 1904 to 1910. After that, until the early 1990s, a post office was located here. The Panama Canal Museum received its first visitors on September 9, 1997.
The museum consists of ten exhibition halls reserved for the permanent exhibition. It contains documentary evidence of the emergence and history of the route laid across the isthmus in Panama, and the subsequent construction of a waterway from ocean to ocean. The evolution of the canal's activities and its transfer to the Panamanian government are also reflected in the museum's exposition.
A comprehensive ticket to the Panama Canal Museum includes a tour of the museum itself and a film about one of the most famous waterways in the world, as well as a visit to the observation deck organized at the Miraflores lock.
