“A lighthouse is a tower with a light that gives warning of shoals to passing ships. It is often called a beacon or beacon light.”
Yesterday morning I drove to Paraiso and Corozal in an effort to continue my series of photographs of the former Panama Canal Zone. This time I was interested in the historical cemeteries of Paraiso (French Cemetery) and the American military cemetery located at Corozal.
On my way to Paraiso, I noticed a structure that I have admired since working for Texaco Antilles at La Boca. It was a classical lighthouse used by the Panama Canal as a navigational aid. This maritime structure highly resembles lighthouses I’ve seen on the East Coast during my frequent trips to New York and its immediate surroundings.
It was a perfect opportunity to capture this classical lighthouse in this blog, for the benefit of those of you who lived in the Canal Zone and saw this lighthouse on your way to work or during your visits to the Miraflores Locks.
Below are several pictures of this classical beacon located at the entrance of Miraflores Locks in the former Panama Canal Zone. Here we go.
Photograph of a Panama Canal lighthouse at the entrance of Miraflores Locks. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)
A closer look at the lighthouse which serves as a navigational aid to the Panama Canal. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)
Photograph of the upper section of the building where the lights are located. Notice the solar panels which supply energy to the beacon light. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)
I’m glad I was able to share this structure with you. Every time I passed through this area, my eyes were refreshed with the image of this classic lighthouse. Many of them are disappearing nowadays as more modern technology is taking their place. As far as I know, it’s the only lighthouse of this kind in Panama. Good Day.
Where I grew up, New England, fog is common. It’s also a seasonal thing in coastal Louisiana, too, both in the Spring and Fall. Fog horns go hand in hand with lighthouses. When the fog rolls in lighthouses are pretty much worthless. I HATE fog. I had to work in it for years when I was running crewboats in Louisiana. It completely disorients you. There’s no horizon and fog also distorts sound. Bends it so that it seems to be coming from a different direction than where it actually originates.
The author Ray Bradbury wrote this about the fog horn.
“One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold, sunless shore and said, ‘We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I’ll make one. I’ll make a voice like all of time and all the fog that ever was; I’ll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard cold shore. I’ll make a sound that’s so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their soul, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in distant towns. I’ll make me a sound and an apparatus and they’ll call it a foghorn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life.’
Hello Richard:
Wow! That was an excellent piece of literature you inserted in your comment. I remember Ray Bradbury very well. Wasn’t he the one who wrote The Martian Chronicles? I saw the movie Fahrenheit 451.
We have fog in the Panama Canal as well. Maybe they do have some kind of foghorn communication. I’m not familiar with it though.
In Panama City itself, fog is nonexistent. We don’t have that problem.
Best Regards,
Omar.-
You are correct, Bradbury did write those books. He has always been one of my favorite authors.