OCR Text |
Show Brief History of the Road Which Like the Canal, Was Built (Before the Great Waterway Was Thought of) To Further the Interests of the American. Copyright, 101". by The International Bj odlcate, CWO streaks of rust and the rlglr of way" was the expression used in describing the Panama Kali-road Kali-road when the United States f took over the road from the French Car.al Company. Seven million was allowed for the railroad In the Canal deal. It had cost the French Com- , pany 18,000,000.00 twenty - throe oars before but this was due to the fact that the French were compelled to have the railroad In order to build the canal, for when the Columbian Government granted the Panama I Kaliroad franchise in 1619 they agreed that there should be no other Inleroceanle communication across the Isthmus without the consent of the Panama Company, so the railroad j named its own price. But when the j I'nited States wanted to buy the French thought best to sell at what was offered, believing that with a canal the railroad would lose In value. Good Investment. Aside from Us great part In building build-ing the Canal the railroad has proved one of the best paying Investments the United States has ever had. for In ten years Its profits have been some j 115,000,000.00 more than twice the' amount paid for it. The right of way has been entirely relocated, for part of the old road ran through what is now a portion of the Canai and nearly half of the old course now Mcs at the bottom of Gatun Lake The relocation cost $170,000.00 per ini) or $r.00O.OC0.OO In all. It was completed In 1912 and Is an up-to-date, modern railway, heavy railed, well ballasted and block signal operated. op-erated. The coaches are 6f the standard stand-ard American type The line runs from Cristobal through the hllU where tropical vegetation is so luxuriant luxur-iant that It resembles a huge botanical garden, skirts Gatun Lake, crosses the I MM I . , . J24SZJ20AZ I Canal, runs through a concrete tunnel and Into picturesque Panama City-All City-All trains are "accommodation" as , stops arc made at all the stations along tho Canal Built By American in is 19. The early history of this road Is Interesting from the fact that like the Canai It was built to further the ln-Lsrestl ln-Lsrestl of American citizens and bull' by Amur), am after tho French had failed. This was many ear. ago, for the two oceans have been linked by rail since 1865. Tin- war between the United States and Mexico resulted In a treaty signed on February -. is is. which made California Cali-fornia a part of the Union. Almost simultaneously with the signing of the treaty gold was discovered In that State and thousands of gold seekers from the east started for the new land The Journey across the country Was long and hazardous as the wagon I trains were frequently ottacked by Indians. In-dians. Tho trip to California around Cape Horn was long, expensive ami equally dangerous for many of the vessels were unseaworthy and wrecks with great loss of life were a common com-mon occurrr-nce. Trylng Biis. A large number of persons went by way of the Isthmus of Panama, shipping ship-ping from Now York on steamers steam-ers to the Atlantic clde of the Isthmus and crossing by trail with pack animals to the Pacific sJUe. where they reshlppcd to San Francisco. Fran-cisco. Tho trail across the Isthmus was only fifty miles In length, but after a time It became even more perilous than the long trip across tho States or the sail "around the Horn." Tho sudden development of the pack-mulo-train business on tho Isthmus brought a large number of adventurers adven-turers from South America Chileans. Peruvians. Indians and mixed breeds. They camo solely to plunder and rob. and after obtaining positions as packers, pack-ers, driver, tie. they began their ca-teer ca-teer of thieving. As most of tho victims were from tho United States our Government began be-gan to look about for some way of providing the American with a safer mode of travel across tho Isthmus. The matter of railroad building was taken up by Congress at the session Of 1848-9. and a survey was authorized author-ized for the purpose of constructing a road across the Isthmus. In December De-cember of that year three Americans, William Henry Asplnwall, John Lloyd Stephens and Henry Chauncey, obtained ob-tained a grant from New Granada under un-der the name of tho Panama Railway Company. It was merely a modified form of tho Klein concussion and tho road was to bo complotod In six years. I A few months later tho Legislature 1 of tho Stato of Now York passed an I act incorporating the Panama Rail-I Rail-I road Company with a capital stock of one million dollars, with the privilege privi-lege of Increasing it to fivo million dollars. It also gavo tho company ine rigni 10 ntgin yjjcianuus $500,000.00 had been subscribed and a certain per cent paid in. The company com-pany at onco sent Colonel Q. W. Hughes and a party of expert engineers en-gineers to tho Isthmus to make a survey for tho road. In the meantime mean-time they also made a contract with Colonel George M. Tolten and John C. Trautulno for the construction of tho road. These men wore later released re-leased from their contract and made assoclato engineers with Asplnwall and Stephens in tho construction of the road built by the company. It cost Mr. Stephens his life and the other engineers their health. Two of them resigned at tho end of the first year owing to a disagreement, but Colonel Totten remained on the Isthmus until the road was comploted and went over It on an engine from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the day of its opening, January' 28, 1855. The road co6t $8,000,000.00 in money, but it seems that no record was kept of Its cost In lives. Tho building of tho railroad was an engineering feat worthy of the greatest engineer, and without detracting de-tracting in tho least from the glory' of tho men who built the Canal It must be acknowledged that tho men who built tho Panama Railroad de- serve far more honor than has ever been given them. During the five j years of its construction they were L ompellcd to cut through Jungles and morasses which fairly reeked with fever. They worked in a tropical wll- f derness with sickness and death on L every hand. Many times during the J rainy season they were compelled to i live In the swamps on insect-Infested boats. The heat was stifling, and It was with difficulty that the laborers I could be Induced to continue their work. No army In battle endured greater hardships than these bravo Americans who. with an Indomitable p.-rseverence, worked against the greatest odds and conquered There was no commissary at that time, no j Ice and no pleasant home with ! screened verandas, shower baths and j "electric lights. There were no amuse- ments but the dens of vice in pest-rldden pest-rldden Colon and Panama. There was ny Tivoli and no Hotel Washington j where tho engineers might go for tho week-end, yet today one hears little j of tho pioneers of Panama- f In the old days the fare was twenty-five dollars for fifty miles fifty 1 cents per mile, yet there was less j kicking over this fare than there is j today at live cents vc "" gust of 1881 the Panama Railroad (sold out to the French Company, and , In 1904 came Into tho possession of the United States. j The length of the new road Is a ; trifle less than the old one. In many places It was necessary to build em- j bankments for tho upheavals had to J bo counterwelghtcd. virtually doubling tho width of the foundations. Some j idea of tho magnltudo of the task can be obtained from the fact that one '. hundred and sixty-seven embankments j were built. The throe-mile fill across I the Gatun Valley alone contains five j million cublo yards of material. While this task from an engineering standpoint was greater than tho con- i struction of tho original road, the s present road was built under far dlf- jj- feront circumstances and with every I convenience and comfort the Govern- ment could provide i How this railway aided the building j of the Canal by hauling away the ex- L. cavatod material and bringing sup- I plies to workmen Is too well known I to need repetition here. Suffice to say the Canal could not have been f built without the aid of tho Panama I Railroad. I |