Our speaker this month was retired engineer John How.  With the aid of maps, he described how events such as the Californian Gold Rush led to a demand for a route to the West Coast of America which did not involve long hazardous journeys cross-country or by sea around Cape Horn.  He then described the construction of the canal and the problems which had to be faced (not least the mountainous terrain).  Finally he talked about the 21st century expansion of the canal to increase the traffic and to enable much larger ships to pass through.  

Some of the photos from John’s talk are shown below; click on an image to see it full size.