PANAMA CANAL STATISTICS

THE WASHINGTON POST, Thursday, August 11, 1977

The Canal by the Numbers: A Saga Told in Statistics

Length: 50.4 miles

Cost: $387 million for initial construction, roughly $330 million in capital investment since 1914

Military investment in Canal Zone: $5.3 billion (source: Center för Defense Information)

Number of U.S. bases in zone: 14 Size of zone: 648 square miles U.S. personnel: 9,500 military, 3,500 zone employees, 25,000 dependents

Population of Panama: 2 million

U.S. Payments to Panama: $10 million initially and $250,000 annualy until 1936; $430,000 annually to 1955; $1.9 million annually to 1974; $2.3 million annually since 1974. Total: about $70 million. Another $25 million paid to Colombia as compensation for Panama's loss. Canal Zone organization: selfsupporting agency of the U.S. government

Zone revenue: $250 million in FY 1976, a deficit of $7.6 million under operating costs. A $24 million deficit is projected for FY 1977.

Annual canal usage: 14,734 transits in FY 1975, 70 per cent of them bound for U.S. ports, carrying cargo that is 1 per cent of U.S. gross national product

Ship transit time: 8 to 14 hours Savings over Cape Horn route: 30 days, 8,000 miles, about 10 times canal toll fee

The Washington Post

Largest user: Tokyo Bay, 950 feet by 106 feet, 1972

Largest toll: $40,396.50 by German container ship Hamburg Express, 1972

Average toll: $7,175

Smallest toll: 36 cents, by explorer Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1928.

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