On June 26, 2016, a day that Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela described as “historic for the nation,” the expansion of the Panama Canal on the Atlantic Panamanian coast was inaugurated in the capital and in several provinces amidst national flags and the sound of music played by students and bands. The Panama Canal is a man-made waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean at the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama. It has a total length of 77 miles and was originally inaugurated on August 15, 1914. For over a hundred years this short and fairly cheap key conduit has sped up the economic and commercial exchange in the region. The recently opened expansion project took around ten years to complete. Chinese vessel Cosco Shipping Panama was the first ship that sailed through the newly extended Panama Canal, thus opening traffic into the new locks at Agua Clara at the Atlantic watershed. According to the official Panama Canal website, the decision to build a third transit lane came after thorough studies and analysis and it aimed to double its capacity. The website also shows the progress of the expansion program with graphics and includes photos and videos. On Twitter, users celebrated this new phase of the canal, which has shortened distances in the American continent. Some talked about the next project, whatever that may be: Vamos Panamá ahora planeemos siguiente mega proyecto. El tren tránsistmico de Bocas a Darien y reinventar ciudades pic.twitter.com/d5sHxDWroF — Rubén Bustamante R. (@RBTax) 26 de junio de 2016 Go, Panama. Let's plan now the next mega-project. The transisthmus train from Bocas to Darien and reinvent cities. Some others compared realities from different eras: Saber que el Canal de Panamá que me tocó conocer ya es sólo un canalcito en comparación con lo que inauguran hoy pic.twitter.com/hfZjn6Wita — Cesar Olse (@cesarolse) 26 de junio de 2016 The Panama Canal I visited is now a tiny little canal compared to what's being inaugurated today. There are also images of the Cosco Shipping Panama, the first ship that went through the expanded Canal: First vessel passes through expanded Panama Canal https://t.co/7e41673zAk pic.twitter.com/67j2qdq99F — News (@orbitcollection) 26 de junio de 2016 A local outlet posted a video showing people gathered there, and the BBC recalled how the Canal changed the world: Personas en Cocolí en espera de también ser testigos del tránsito del Cosco Shipping Panama #AmpliaciondelCanal pic.twitter.com/nPKeq88RiS — Noticias 7 Días (@noticias7d) 26 de junio de 2016 People at Cocolí waiting to witness Cosco Shipping Panama sailing through the expanded Canal. 5 cosas que cambiaron en el mundo con el Canal de Panamá https://t.co/9WT5tpJ9c9 pic.twitter.com/Z9xUeIN9D1 — BBC Mundo (@bbcmundo) 26 de junio de 2016 Five things that changed in the world with the Panama Canal. During the decade the Panama Canal expansion works were taking place, more than 2,200 different archeological objects were found and classified, thus telling the commercial history of the isthmus of Panama since pre-Columbian times: Dientes, dagas, chimeneas, restos de puentes y cementerios abandonados por las compañías de Francia y Estados Unidos a principios del siglo pasado, evidencian el papel de tránsito humano que ha tenido Panamá. Teeth, daggers, chimneys, remains of bridges and cemeteries abandoned by French and American firms at the beginning of the last century show the role that Panama has had in human transit. Tomás Mendizábal, the man responsible for classifying the items found during the various stages of the expansion process, said, “I find it odd, […] incredible, to dig in a little village lost in the middle of the Panama jungle and find European products along with handicrafts from Mexico.” Since 2014, some media outlets have covered the amazing archaeological treasures that were emerging from the mountains of removed soil in the working area: Durante las excavaciones, voladura de cerros y tala de espesa vegetación, se han hallado fósiles de unos 3.000 invertebrados y 500 vertebrados, y de más de 250 plantas, como las de un bosque consumido por el fuego de una explosión volcánica, precisó Hortensia Broce [bióloga especialista en paleontología de la Autoridad del Canal]. […] también salieron fragmentos de objetos de la época precolombina, colonial, departamental […] y republicana […]. Trozos de vasijas de cerámica, puntas de flecha y parte de un ajuar funerario precolombino, una daga del siglo XVI, una chimenea de 1908, una colección de botellas, vagones y cubos para mezclar concreto de la época de construcción del Canal, aparecieron en zonas del Pacífico y el Atlántico.