The Rebuilding of the Panama Canal, in Pictures

The Pacific lock complex, looking into the interior of the isthmus. The camera is planted on the bit of dirt that keeps the ocean out of the canal-in-progress. Workers call it el tapon, which is Spanish for "cork" or "stopper."

The Pacific lock complex under construction. With the work nearly complete, cranes have started to be dismantled.

The scale of the construction project means many parts of the canal look like sets from a big-budget movie. This cavernous space is a culvert in the Atlantic lock complex. When the canal is operational, it will be full of water.

On the Atlantic side, two doors rest in their recesses, in the open position. The recesses can be sealed and pumped out to form a dry-dock for repairs.

Three of the massive metal doors that will seal the lock chambers sit in a staging area on the Atlantic side of the canal. The doors were shipped from Italy, where they were manufactured, in sets of four.

Workers gather to watch as waters from the Atlantic Ocean first enter the new lock complex.

Four of the canal's 10,000 workers celebrate the beginning of the flooding of the Atlantic lock complex.

Three canal doors journey through the lock complex to where they'll be installed. In the background, the staging area can be seen. The bulk of the doors makes for a slow journey—it takes them about two days to get from the staging area to the canal.

Building locks isn't the whole project. The canal also must be made deeper and wider to accommodate larger ships. On the deck of the Quibian 1 dredger, a worker stands aside one of the head and teeth units that chew up the bed or walls of the canal.

The control room of the Quibian 1.

A barge carries a lock door through the current Panama Canal. The diagonal walls in the water in front of the barge are the much smaller doors of the existing canal.

More of the giant cranes involved in the construction, this time on the Atlantic side. The water in the canal is from rainfall. On the canal's area Atlantic coast, it rains nearly every day.

A lock door awaits installation.

Construction on the Atlantic lock complex.

A ship approaches a Y intersection at the Atlantic lock complex. To the left are the new locks, under construction. To the right is the existing Gatun lock complex. In April 2016, ships will be able to use either.

The Gatun Lake side of the new Atlantic lock complex. In June, pipes fed through the earthen plug began letting water into the locks.

The Port of Balboa, on the Pacific side of the canal, helps break down ships too large for the current canal. Cranes unload their containers and reload them onto smaller ships that are able to transit it.