Henry Morgan and 1,200 fierce, dirty, scruffy and desperate pirates are here, smelly from a nine-day trek through jungle, sweating under summer sun.

Morgan had thought his men would be able to live off land on their way across isthmus from Caribbean. He was wrong. Villages were deserted, their crops burned. Morgan had thought he could take city now known as Panama Viejo by surprise. He was wrong again. The Spanish knew of impending attack three weeks before it came.

With a relatively small defensive force, they could easily have wiped out Morgan’s half-starved and exhausted crew at any number of ideal ambush points along route through jungle. That they did not even try can be blamed on Don Juan de Guzman, governor of Panama, who died with city he considered invincible.

After nine days of unimpeded passage through jungle, Morgan’s men staggered to top of a small hill and saw Pacific in distance. Below them, fat cattle grazed on lush grass, and trees were laden with fruit. Another Spanish act of stupidity.

The pirates fell on cattle, hacking off great chunks of raw meat almost before animals were dead. As you imagine them fighting next day in Panama Viejo, also think of blood that stained their beards, hands, faces and clothing that had been reduced to rags in jungle. Think of them brandishing their weapons and screaming like banshees, and you can imagine terror they struck in local population.

Guzman made another error that led to death of Panama Viejo: on plains outside city, he ranged 4,000 troops, well-armed, smartly dressed: infantry, cavalry and artillery. There should have been no contest, faced with a disorganized rabble of a little more than 1,000. What Spanish did not reckon on was fear of jungle. These men would rather die quickly fighting than again face horrors of jungle and a likely slow death there.

The defenders placed their largest guns on road leading to Panama Viejo. Morgan’s men simply skirted a small hill and came toward city from another direction, making fixed guns useless.

Spanish fighting discipline worked against them, as well. As two forces approached each other, pirates leaped into a long ditch protected by underbrush. The Spanish cavalry, 400 of finest mounted troops in Americas, under orders to charge, trotted forward in close formation toward 200 specially selected marksmen with orders to wait until horsemen were almost upon them.

The slaughter was ghastly. What was left of cavalry retreated, reformed, and challenged pirate wall of death a second time with same result. They never broke line. The tactic was repeated with diminishing numbers until cavalry was wiped out. Morgan’s men were left virtually unscathed.

Now it was infantry’s turn to be sacrificed. Fighting in Spanish block formation, close together and in open, they were mowed down under deadly fire of an opponent they could not even see. The pirates fought from behind trees, hummocks, anything that would provide shelter; Spanish remained in formation out in open.

Seeing his army being routed, Guzman sprang what he thought would be master strategy of battle, he loosed 2,000 wild bulls that had been brought into city just days before. Driven by yelling cowboys, maddened bulls were driven across field to trample pirates. The pirates simply shot cowboys and a few lead animals, and bulls, bellowing in terror, headed for hills.

Hopelessly outnumbered, defenders fled for Panama Viejo with attackers hot on their heels. The defenders tried to make a stand in city itself, but their morale was broken and they gave up less than eight hours after first shot had been fired.

By shortening route and reducing cost of transportation between two oceans, Panama Canal allows for lower-cost imported goods and commodities in many part of world. (It saves almost 8,000 miles on a trip from New York to San Francisco.) By eliminating for majority of shipping treacherous route around tip of Argentina, it has no doubt saved countless lives and millions of dollars in lost vessels. However, it is estimated to have cost some 30,000 lives in two attempts – French and American – to build it between 1880 and 1914.

Reducing distance between two oceans provides Panama with a major share of its gross domestic product. Some 13,500 ships transit canal each year, almost 40 a day.

Not commonly known is fact that two oceans have different sea levels, and different levels of high tide. At entrance to Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean can rise as much as 20 feet, but 45 miles away, difference between high tide and low in Atlantic is just three feet.

The longest part of canal, sandwiched between gigantic sets of locks at either end, is manmade Gatun Lake and Gaillard Cut. Gaillard Cut actually rips through a low point in mountain chain that runs all way from Alaska to tip of Argentina.

The Panama Canal has six locks, three near either end. From Pacific Ocean, near Panama City, Miraflores Locks' two chambers each raise vessels 27 feet. A short distance away, Pedro Miguel Lock lifts shipping a further 31 feet. Most of passage through canal is at 85 feet above sea level.

The Gaillard Cut is followed by town of Gamboa, where Chagres River enters canal. Without Chagres and immense amount of water that flows from it, there could be no Panama Canal.

The three steps of Gatun Locks each lower ships about 28 feet, to level of Atlantic Ocean.