Show PA dal IN ci hoftke P ANA ay pa k cv al 1 its colon C 2 with the completion of 0 the panama canal the importance of the panama railway will decline al at most to tho the vanishing point for nearly sixty stars y ars this railway has been carrying people and freight from ocean to ocean though only 47 miles long it has been tor for certain periods per lode ono one of the most important and moat moot interesting railroad lines la in the orld during the building of the canal under the ownership ot of the united states it has become one of tho the best equipped and most effi efficient clent of rall railways waya it has given elect help in tho the construction of the canal that will prove ita its virtual death the finding of gold in california was the cause of the building of the para ma railroad for long years before the wild rueh rush of argonaut argonauts in 1849 the isthmus nas as almost forgotten by the civilized world but when the yellow metal was discovered on the west coast it became once more a great trad in order to avoid the long trip across the plains in I 1 prairie schooners ners thousands ct gold seekers went by boat to Cha charrel Cb agres grel up the cha grea gres river to georgona or arucas and thence over the old spanish road to panama thie this too was a long route and in the rainy season a painful and dangerous cue ene bee beino itic 0 o of the prevalence of disease to the rescue of tho the gold hunters came three bold americans IV 11 II aspinwall pin wall henry chauncey and john I 1 L stevens in 1818 1848 these men had asked tho government of new granada for a concession for the road and in 1850 stevens obtained it at bogota the pacific could not bs otherwise than at panama but at first the harbor barbor of porto dello bello aas selected for the atlantic terminus however a new neav york speculator spoiled this plan by buying up all the kanj about the harbor and holding it at a very high price so navy bay was chosen instead when work on the line was as begun in aay alay 1850 there was no celebration no turning of the first of earth tarth with a golden shovel two americana americans with a gang of indians landed on manzanillo island now the site of the city of colon then a desolate uninhabited spot and began the tremendous task of clearing the route through the dense jungle the surveying parly party buffered intensely for the land was so swampy and so infested with malaria and yellow fever bearing mosquitoes that they were corn compelled to sleep bleep aboard a ship much bluch of the time they carried their lunches tied on their heads and ate them standing waist deep la in the water the efforts of the company to obtain laborers were attended by a terrible tragedy eight hundred chinese were brought over from hong kong but within a week of their landing scores of them died opium was given the survivors and for a short time checked tho the arava ravages es of disease put tho the supply of the brug drug was shut oft off on account of its and again the dea is became numerous the poor orientals in despair began to commit suicide some by hanging others by impalement while some deliberate eat mat down upon the seashore ashore ee and waited for the rising tide to overwhelm them in a few weeks scarce two hundred were left and these theme broken in health and spirits sent to ja malia another shipload of laborer laborers this time from ireland met no better fat fate tor for nearly every mau maa died the material difficulties that confronted the railway builders aro are thus summarized by tsee in tn his u in 1855 the isthmus did not supply a single resource necessary for the undertaking not only the capital skill and enterprise but the labor the wood and iron the dally food the clothing the roof root to cover and the instruments st to work with cane came from broad most of the material used aged for the construction of the road was brought from vast distances although tho the country abounded in forests it was found necessary from the of labor and the want of routes of communication to send the timber for the most moat part from tho the united states and not only were the rails to a considerable extent laid on Amert american can pine but tho the bridges brid gee and the houses and vork shops of th various settlements were of the earno same wood all fashioned in maine and georgia the metal work the rails mile the locomotive locomotives and tho the tools were brought cither elther from england or the united state MAIO stat e tha tho duly food of the laborer laborers even cams came from a mew lork ork market the birst motion section of the road was ld brough a mangrove swamp in tn which no bottom was found the tracks being floated on an immense pontoon dy by october 1351 eight miles had beon completed ana olid ground vas reached at gattin lack of fund funds now began begin to lumper the buil builder derL in batore in the states had become die dis cou raged and the cost of labor had ad alced danced but a hurricane cime me to tho the rescue two ships loaded with gold seekers were forced to anchor ne near ar manzanillo island and the passengers pa engers paid ald the company a handsome ban deome sum to arry carry them to gatun galun in work ork cars tho the iee neo that the road had carried more ban than a thousand passengers reached now cw york and funds again flowed into ha tha coffers of the company ae As the work vo progressed gressed passengers were hauled longer and longer dis ills and before tho the line was nas corn plated feted tho the receipts froni from passengers ind and freight were iero considerably above the tho laet last ralla rails were laid the he night of januar 27 1855 and the next day the first train passed clear across the isthmus from tho atlantic to 0 o th ahw pacific the entire cost of the rad up to december 31 1858 had been something less than ind and itu gross earnings in the same lime time were a little more than that sum the rate across the isthmus was put at t 1 25 5 gold beg belig Intend intended eil to be to a ertain certain extent prohibitive until they could get things into good running or der lut so groat great was the volume of ravel travel that the rate waa aa not reduced reduce for or more than twenty ears rears soon aft er r its opening the road began to de do dare clare 21 24 per cent dividends and at one time its stock wont up to in the GO 60 a the company fell on hard times it lost much of ite its freight braf fie was held up by the politicians in bogota and then buffered suffered by the completion of tho union pacific railroad next ruseell russell sage and others like him got control of the directorate and wrecked the road when de do lesseps came over to dig a canal hie his company bought up the stock and used the road to help in its work then in 1904 the united states bought out the french company and also acquired the railway and so 20 it became the first american road to be owned by ili mhd government so eco no and efficiently has it been conducted since then that it Is cited aa as an argument for the government ner ener ship of all our railways the building of the canal and especially the creation of the artificial ga CIA tun lake made necessary the relocation oc of tho the panama railroad along moat most cr of its route tha the old roadbed now la is under water for of th tho way wair the old line still in use being only about seven miles in length from colon to hindi and from corozal cortozal to panama fi fr m mindl blindt to gatun galun the grade grado ascends co 95 feet above tide level from gatun galun the road runs east until it la Is tour four and a half miles from the canal and then south again on great embankments across the gatun galun valley along this stretch passenger pae gerR ol 01 ov tain tata an unusual view because of the construction of the gatun galun dam across the channel of the chagres chagares river the chapes valley and all its tributary valleys alloys have been converted into a lake with an area of about square miles the galun ralley valley Is one of these drowned erms and as the train crosses wide stretches of water are t ta by seen on both aides sides of the track down below the surface are still visible the tope tops of giant trees that have lave been killed by submergence and along the edges of the lake the tallest and hardiest hard leit of the trees reach dead lamla above the waters here mere and there la Is a pretty little liland island that not long ago wae was the summit of a hill and the shore line Is most picturesquely broken up by capes peninsulas and baya from monte cirlo the line skirts the hore shore of the lake to the beginning of the culebra cut at das ban obispo originally it was intended to carry the railroad through the culebra cut on a 40 foot beam along the east side tea feet above ater level but this plan ian was knocked out by the slides and breaks breake the una ilas was carried around gold to a distance of two miles from the canal until it reached the pedro bil 1 guel valley down which it runs to paraiso and the canal again thence it nine runs almost parallel with the channel nel to panama there are two big steel bridges on the line one near monte lonto cirlo has a center lift span to permit access to the upper arm of ga ton tun balte the other a quarter of a mile long across the chagres chagares river at gamboa the total cost of building the new line of the railway was JS 8 in addition a large cum has bat been expended in tn increasing the terminal facilities of course even after the canal Is 1 opened the railway will havo have a good apal of 0 business transporting people and tind goods between colon and slid panama and serving the needs ut the op operating erstin 9 forces of tho the canal but its days ol 01 glory have departed and J A smith the tbs american who has been its en debt gener general tal rewa biting that fact bas reigned aad and rp r tamed to the stata |