Chagres River
| Chagres River | |
|---|---|
The Chagres River as seen from the highway between Panama City and Colon in 1986 | |
| Native name | Río Chagres (Spanish) |
| Location | |
| Country | Panama |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Chagres National Park, Panamá Province, Panama |
| • coordinates | 9°24′N 79°17′W / 9.400°N 79.283°W |
| Mouth | |
• location | Chagres, Colón Province, Panama |
• coordinates | 9°19′N 80°0′W / 9.317°N 80.000°W |
| Length | 120 mi (190 km), east to west |
| Basin size | 1,259.5 sq mi (3,262 km2) |
The Chagres River (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃaɣɾes]), in central Panama, is the largest river in the Panama Canal's drainage basin. The river is dammed twice, and the resulting reservoirs—Gatun Lake and Lake Alajuela—form an integral part of the canal and its water system. Although the river's natural course runs northwest to its mouth at the Caribbean Sea, its waters also flow, via the canal's locks, into the Gulf of Panama to the south. The Chagres thus has the unusual claim of drainage into two oceans.