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8 August 2014
15 August 2014 Last updated at 01:04 BST
An official ceremony is being held on Friday to celebrate the Panama Canal's 100th anniversary.
The US-built waterway, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans across the Panama isthmus, opened to traffic precisely 100 years ago.
The American vessel Ancon was the first to travel through the canal.
South America Business Correspondent Katy Watson got a close-up look at the canal in the 21st century.