Panama Canal Museum

Housed in a grand nineteenth-century building on the Plaza de la Independencia in Casco Viejo, this museum tells the story of the interoceanic canal. The structure once served as the headquarters of the failed French canal company and later a hotel. Exhibits cover the French attempt, the American construction, the toll of disease, and the 1977 treaties that returned the canal to Panama. Documents, models and photographs trace one of the greatest engineering feats in history.