The $5.4 Billion Panama Canal Expansion Opens

800px-Shipping-container_Kaohsiung_HarbourAfter more than $5 billion and almost a decade of construction, the long-delayed Panama expansion opened amid cheering crowds on Sunday.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, the first official voyage through the newly expanded waterway was completed by a Chinese ship bearing 9,472 containers and named Cosco Shipping Panama. The mammoth set sail from the Greek port of Piraeus and two weeks later entered one of the new locks, on its way to the man-made Gatun Lake and the Pacific Ocean. Continue reading