| Show PASSING PA P A I 1 N offie PANAMA M VE aaa T T pa D 11 A 7 an MP M fa 11 Z A cu ey JAM oad WY v colon 0 ze with the completion of 0 the panama canal tho Imp of 0 the iho panama railway wilt will decline nl al most to tho vanishing point for nearly sixty years thin railway has boon been carrying people and freight from rom ocean to ocean though only 47 miles long it has been tor for certain periods one of tho the most important and most interesting railroad cincil in tho the world during tho the building of at tho the canal under the ownership of the united states it has beco become me one of tho the best equipped and most moat of railways it hatt has given greet grec help in the construction of tho the canal that thae will provo prove its virtual death tho finding of gold la in california was the cause odthe of the building of tho panama pamma rall railroad foad for long years before the wild rush men of argonauts in 1849 tho isthmus was almost forgotten by tho the civilized world but when the yellow metal was discovered on the west coast it became once more a great trad roulean in order toiv to avoid tild belong the long trip across th the plains in pra prairie irto schooners ners thousand n dil at aft gold seekers went by boat to toCha chagra Chag groo rc up the cha gres grea river to gorgona borgona or cruces and thence over the old spanish road to panama thle this too was waa a long route and in the rainy oen season son a painful and dangerous one because of the alreva prevalence of disease to the rescue of the gold hunt hunters ers camo came three bold americans W ji As pin linwall wall henry chauncey and john L I 1 stevens St ovens in 1848 these men had bad asked tho the government of new granada for a concession for the road and in 1860 1850 obtained it at bogota tho the pacific terrains could not be oth otherwise emise than at panama but at forstthe first the harbor harbar ar of porto bollo bello was floo he Atlant lo te terminus minus however a f yew elv bork york speculator spoiled this plau plan by buying up all the land about tho the arbor and ak tot nonava co navy bay was chosen W instead a when work on the line was wag beg 6 aln in may hay 1860 there was no celebre eel ion olli no turning of tho the first of earth with a golden shovel two americans with alth a aang gang t indians landed on manzanillo island islan now the site bite of the city of colon t tejen en a desolate uninhabited spot and tegan began the tremendous task of clearing the route through the dense jungle the surveying party suffered intensely tor for the land was so swampy and so BO infested with mal malaria arta and yellow foyer fever bearing mosquitoes that they were compelled to sleep aboard a ship much of the time they carried their lunches tied on their heads and ato ate them standing waist deep in tho the water the efforts of the company to obtain laborers were attended by a terrible tragedy eight hundred chinese wore were brought over from hong kong but within a week of their landing acores of them died opium was given tho the survivors and for a short time checked tho the ravages of disease mut but tho theo supply of tho the drug was shut oft off on account of its cost and again th tho a deaths became numerous the poor orientals Orient als in despair began to commit suicide some by hanging others by impalement while some deliberately sat eat down upon the seashore and waited for tho the to overwhelm them in a few scarce two hundred were left and these broken in health and spirits were sent cent to jamaica another shipload of 0 laborers this time from IrIl ireland amil met mat no better fate tor for nearly every man died tho the material difficulties that con fronted aba th railway builders aro are thus by tomes in his Pa panama niina lu ju 1855 the isthmus did not filp sup ply it a ongle resource necessary tor for the under undertaking not only the cap capital carlial lial askill ami enterprise but the labor ahe no wood and iron tho the dally daily food tho the clothing tho the root to cover and the hi st to work with came from abroad most of the material ased for tho the construction of the road was brought broucht from vast distances although the country abounded bo aided ja in forests it was found from the expense of labor and the want of routes of communication to send tho he timber tor for the most moat part from 1 the united states and not orly only the rails to a considerable extent laid on Amert american can pine but the th bridgle ce and tho the houses and workshops of the various settlements were of the same wood all fashioned in fin maine and georgia the metal work the rails the locomotives and tho the too tools were ivere brought either cither from england or the united states the dally daily feodot food of tho the laborers even came camo from a new york market the jars arst t se section ution of the road was aid through a mangrove swamp in w which litch no bottom was fou found nd the tracks being floated on an immense ponto pontoon ois by october 1851 eight miles had been completed and ground was wa reached at gatun galun lack of funds now brynn to hampar th builders I 1 in vectors in the states had become discouraged cou raged and the cost ot of labor had bad ad danced but a hurricane came to tho the rescue two ships loaded with gold openers were forced to lo anchor near manzanillo island and the passengers paid the company a handsome sum to carry them to tio gatun galun in work cars tho newa that the road had carried moro more than a thousand passengers reached now york and funds again flowed cowed into the coffers coffero of the company As the work progressed passengers were hauled longer and longer distances and before the line was completed the receipts from passengers and freight were considerably above the last rails were laid the night of january 27 ISK 1855 and the next day tho first train passed clear across the isthmus from the atlantic to the pacific the entire cost of 0 the road up to december 31 1858 had been something less than antl and its gross earnings in the same time were a little more than that sum the rate across the was waa put at 25 gold being intended to be to a certain extent prohibitive until they could got get things into good running order but so great was was tho the volume of travel that the rate was not reduced for more than twenty years boon after its opening the road began to declare 24 per cont cent dividends and at one timo time its ita stock went up to in the the company fell on hard bard times it lost much of its freight braf ile was held up by tho the politicians in bogota and then suffered by the completion of the union pacific railroad next russell russlell lell sage and others like him got control of the directorate and wrecked the road when do de lesseps came over to dig a canal his company bought up the stock and used the road to help in its ita work then in 1904 the united states kiili ni iLi L rin also acquired N uba U 1 the railway and so it became jibe he h first american road to be owned y the government so be see eco and efficiently has it been conducted since then that it to la cited ai as an argument tor for the government ownership of ill all our railways the building ng of the canal and especially the creation of the artificial oa ga tun lake made necessary the relocation of the panama railroad along most moat of its route the old roadbed now la Is under water for much ot of the wa way the old did line still in use being only about seven miles in length from co lonto mindi and from corozal cortozal to panama from mind to gatun galun the grade ascends to 95 feet above tide level from gatun galun the road runs east until it to is four and a half miles from the canal and then south again on great embankments across the gatun galun valley along this stretch passengers obtain an unusual view because of the construction of the hatun gatun dam across the channel of the chagares chagres river the chagres chagares valley and all its ita tributary valleys have been converted into a la lake kewith with an area of about square miles the tha galun gatun valley Is one of these drowned arms and as the train crosses wide stretches telles of water are to bo be seen on both sides bides of the track down below the surface are still visible the tops of glaha trees that have been killed by submergence and along the edges of the ho lake the tallest and hardiest handiest har diest of the trees reach thir dead limbs above the waters here and that e la Is a pretty little island that not long agoras ago ane the summit of a hill and tho shore line is most picturesquely broken up by capes peninsulas and bays prom from fite lerlo the line skirts the shore odthe of the lake to the beginning of the culebra cut at das obispo bispo originally it was waa intended to carry the railroad through the culebra cu catona tona cut ona on a 40 foot foo t beam along the east side ten feet above water level but this plan was knocked out by the slides and breaks the una line was waa curled around gold hill id to a distance of two miles from the canal until it reached the pedro ml all guel valley down which it runs to paraiso and the canal again thence it runs almost parallel with the channel to panama there are aie two big steel etoel bridges on the line one near monte lerlo has a center lift span to permit access to tho the upper arm am of gat tun U a lake the otlie other a quarter of a mile long across the chagres chagares river at gamboa the total cost of building the now new line of the railway was in addition a large larg cum osum has been expended in increasing the terminal I 1 facilities of course evou evett after the canal is 4 opened tho railway will havea good deal of at business transporting people and goods between colon and panama and serving the needs of the operating forces of tho the canal but its dayrol days ot glory have departed and J i A smith the american who has bas been its efficient general lecog mizing that fact has haa realf ned aai rs tho |
