The Panama Canal as seen by Charles Owens of the Los Angeles Times Art Staff from a special Military Airplane

A reduced version of Charles Owen’s incredible illustration of the engineering marvel that is the Panama Canal.

The aerial perspective was the hallmark of Los Angeles Times illustrator Charles Owens, who used a keen eye and rapid fire sketching to create his visual masterworks. He spent over a month in Panama in 1925 collecting data for the map; including making numerous flyovers in an army plane, reviewing photographic material in the canal archives and drawing thousands of sketches.

The resulting image, reduced and reproduced here by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is an easy to understand pictorial overview that uses an impossible projection and scale to showcase the major features of the canal. The entire route is in focus from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in addition to numerous inset maps and illustrations highlighting major design features. Supplemental text explains the process of traversing the canal and provides additional detail throughout the image.

The triumphant achievement of the Panama Canal was overseen by chief engineer George Goethals, who would later open a private construction firm. Owen’s map must have made an impression on Goethals, as he endorsed it personally in a box near the bottom of the sheet. Published in 1951 by the Engineer Base Reproduction Plant of U.S. Army Caribbean (USARCARIB) in Corozal.