A canal that joined two oceans
Before 1914, a ship sailing from New York to San Francisco had to go all the way round the southern tip of South America, a voyage of over 20,000 kilometres. Cutting through the narrow isthmus of PANAMA would shorten it by more than half. A French company tried first, in the 1880s, and gave up after years of landslides, bankruptcy and diseases carried by mosquitoes, which killed more than twenty thousand workers. The United States took over, controlled the mosquitoes, and finished the canal in 1914.
The canal is about 80 kilometres long, and it does not cut straight through at sea level. Instead, giant locks lift ships about 26 metres up to a large artificial lake in the middle of the country, then lower them back down on the other side. A ship takes around eight to ten hours to cross, and it pays a toll based on its size; the lowest ever paid was 36 cents, by an American adventurer who swam the canal in 1928.
Three big countries and a lot of islands
North America has twenty-three countries. CANADA, the USA and MEXICO take up most of the land, and the rest are the seven small nations of Central America and the island nations of the CARIBBEAN. Canada is the second-largest country in the world, and ice hockey is its official winter sport; our ice hockey page covers the game it gave the world. Canada also produces around seven tenths of the world's maple syrup, most of it in the province of Quebec, and the MAPLE leaf is on its flag.
Mexico has the most Spanish speakers of any country in the world, and our Cinco de Mayo page covers one of its famous battles. GREENLAND, the world's largest island, belongs geographically to North America but is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Firsts and oddities
HAITI became independent in 1804 after a revolution led by formerly enslaved people, making it the first country founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery and the first Black-led republic. COSTA RICA abolished its army in 1948 and spent the money on schools and hospitals instead. Lake NICARAGUA, the largest lake in Central America, is home to bull sharks, which swim up a river from the Caribbean Sea, making it one of the few freshwater lakes with sharks.
Off the coast of BELIZE is the Great Blue Hole, a perfectly round sinkhole in the reef over 300 metres across and 120 metres deep, a cave that flooded when the sea rose at the end of the last Ice Age. DOMINICA and the Dominican Republic are two different countries. BERMUDA, famous for the made-up mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, is a British territory rather than a country. CUBA is the largest island in the Caribbean, and JAMAICA takes its name from a Taíno word often translated as land of wood and water. Trinidad has Pitch Lake, a natural lake of thick black asphalt that people can walk across. Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world put together. The BAHAMAS, BARBADOS, GRENADA, TRINIDAD, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS and EL SALVADOR complete the grid.