1 millionth boat transits Panama Canal

The Hong Kong ship Fortune Plum, which in Chinese forecasts Good Luck became the 1 millionth ship to transit the Panama Canal since it opened in 1914.he passage was recorded on Sept. 4 at 6:45 a.m. as the ship, carrying steel products passed out of the Canal at the Atlantic end.
The first ship that officially passed through the waterway linking two oceans was the steamer SS Ancon, on Aug. 15, 1914. Ancon and her sister ship Cristobal played a crucial role in building the canal, bringing workers and supplies, from New York to Panama.
On August 15, 1914 Ancon made the first official transit of the canal as part the opening ceremonies which were overshadowed by the start of WW I. Her sister ship Cristobal had made the first unofficial transit on August 3, delivering a load of cement, while an old French crane boat Alexandre La Valley had crossed the canal from the Atlantic in stages during construction, finally reaching the Pacific on January 7.)
Ancon was acquired by the United States Navy after the end of WW I  and fitted out as USS Ancon, a troop transport to return Americans home.
The Panama Railroad Company replaced SS Ancon in 1938 with a second SS Ancon, a larger steam turbine cargo liner which later action as US Navy Transport USS Ancon in World War Two.
An average of 14,000 ships now use the Canal annually.
The volume of traffic that goes through the Canal is about 300 million tons a year. It's busiest year was in 2007, when 312 million tons of traffic made the transit.