In my review of EHM, I talked about how removing the locks wouldn’t work so that stuff Perkins was spouting about in Panama about having a lock-free canal was nonsense. Here’s the answer from the Straight Dope if anyone is interested.
Here’s the short answer:
Scientists studying the feasibility of a sea-level canal (not a mile deep, but deep enough) have found that the Pacific at Panama is about eight inches higher than the Atlantic on average due to currents and such. In addition, tidal variation on the Pacific side of Panama is much greater than on the Atlantic side—20 feet vs. 1 foot.
That means the Pacific would flow into the Atlantic through the sea-level canal, producing currents that could reach nearly 6 MPH. While that wouldn’t cause flooding, it would definitely complicate navigation.
But that’s the least of the problems a sea-level canal would present. It would also allow Pacific and Atlantic marine species to mingle, with unpredictable but probably bad consequences for the environment. Worse, constructing it would require either (1) tens of billions of dollars or (2) nuclear explosives. So don’t expect it any time soon.
If you want to watch ships go through the canal, here’s a webcam
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