The trip on Gatun lake was very interesting; this is the largest artificial lake in the world! It provides 33km of the waterway's total of 77km length with the ships (still) following the original course of the Rio Chagres. But works are underway to expand the canal, cutting away (with explosives, of course) large amounts of rocks, almost mountains, in order to make the new waterway ¨straight¨.  The ships passing through will be larger than the current ones...for technical updates and pictures, this link should give you exact information and graphs!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_expansion_project