Panama: The Middlings

I told you in Panama: The Beginnings that I would come back to the subject of the Canal for the bottom line.  Ok, here it is.  The bottom line that is.  Wow!  I saw it by being on it in a passenger ship transiting the system of locks.  I saw it from a small outboard as we looked for monkeys and birds, and I saw it from the air as we flew back and forth to the highlands.  It defines Panama more than the pyramids defines Egypt.  It defines Panama more than the Great Wall defines China, and the Leaning Tower in Pisa and the Colosseum are mere dots on the culture of Italy compared to what the Canal is to Panama.  There is no other country that is defined so much...