Although your correspondent cares mostly about rail transportation, rails can't bridge the Atlantic, and so there are things that float to be interested in. Generally, they're painted haze gray, but I digress.
Today's "Oh, that's interesting" Wikipedia article is Panamax. No, that's not the less-successful recording format defeated by Betamax, but rather refers to the maximum allowable dimensions of a vessel if it is to clear the Panama Canal. This limit is not an absolute ceiling; the US Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are not capable of passing through the Panama Canal. Furthermore, large commercial vessels (supertankers and the like, I suppose) are being built that exceed the Canal's dimensions, and thus have to round Cape Horn with our carriers.
This is an example of engineering decisions made a century or more ago imposing limits on modern day commerce, which I always find interesting. This happens in railroading as well; just ask Amtrak about its attempts to improve schedules north of New York City. Decisions made during the assembly of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad system---in the late 1800s and early 1900s---are reportedly one of the major constraints for improvements.1
Other "max" classification areas include the Suez Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
I found this whilst looking up the ownership of SS United States, the now-defunct United States Lines.
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1 One unattributable story that I've read suggests that the New Haven management intended to realign some of the worst sections after World War II. The company was acquiring its new right-of-way when Patrick B. McGinnis took over management from Frederick C. DuMaine, Jr. in a 1954 proxy fight. Mr. McGinnis promptly sold all the acquired land to the State of Connecticut or other agencies, permanently dooming the idea.
Posted by Country Pundit at January 6, 2006 11:49 AM | TrackBack