The port of Colon is on the northern or Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It has a large duty free port and is close to the canal locks leading to Gatun Lake. Every year, over 13,000 cargo vessels transit the canal under the flags of over 84 nations.
The Panama Canal is a forty-mile-long scenic ship canal (51 miles between channel entrances) with six pairs of gravity-fed locks built in a southeast direction across the isthmus of Panama from Colon on the Caribbean to Balboa on the Pacific. Controlling width varies from 100 to 300 feet and minimum depth is 41 feet setting the maximum dimensions of the so-called PANAMAX vessel. Locks raise the canal to a level of 85-ft above sea level. The Atlantic entrance is 27 miles west of the Pacific entrance.
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