The Panama Canal is a canal that goes through a narrow part of Central America and makes a link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. A canal is like a river, but it is made by people and machines. Before the Panama Canal was dug, ships had to go all the way around the continent of South America, in very cold and dangerous waters, to go from one of these oceans to the other. The canal was finished and ready for ships in 1914. It is owned by the country of Panama.