Today, 111 years ago, on June 7, 1914 (Lunar Calendar, May 14, 1914), the first cargo ship passed through the Panama Canal. The canal opened on June 7, 1914, a giant American ship "Alliance" today became the first of many ships to pass through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This completed canal is 50 miles long, 100 to 300 yards wide, and the ship must pass through 3 gates to compensate for the change in height. The Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had built the Suez Canal in Egypt, began building the Panama Canal in 1879. In 1903, the U.S. government bought the right to rebuild the canal from a French company.