He did it from the comfort of the White House, keying a telegraph transmitter that set off the explosion from over 2,000 miles away.

In the 103 years since Wilson pushed that button, the Panama Canal has become an international shipping bottleneck, as container ships grew too large for its aging locks.

Much of that will change in June, when a $5.25 billion effort to expand the canal reaches its long-delayed conclusion, allowing ships more than 2 1/2 times the size of the current limit to pass through the waterway.

The increased capacity could have profound effects on the US transportation industry, as the cost of shipping from Asia to ports in the eastern US would drop significantly. Simply put, bigger ships are more economically efficient and have lower per-unit costs.

Larger ships and lower costs meant importers traditionally chose to bring in goods from Asia at West Coast ports and then to the eastern US by rail.