Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-04
GOOD ROADS IN CANAL ZONE.
Work Begun Centuries Ago Resumed
by Uncle Sam.
FINE DRIVES ARE PROJECTED
Part of Plan to Develop Farming on
the Isthmus-POssibilbties of
Raising Fruits and Vege-
tables I'm Panama.

PANAMA. June How many people
know that the United States is building an
elaborate system OF roads I'm connection
with the canal? The construction OF these
macadam roads in a land subject to sud
den tropical floods is In itself a big task,
but his feature of Uncle Sans undertake
ing on the isthmus is so unimportant COM
parCd with the fifty-mIle canal that little
has been heard Of It
Yet when the work in the canal zone is
finished there will be open to the tourist
one Of the p~rettiest drives to be found in
any tropical land. 1t will be possible to
take a carriage at Colon, drive along the
canal to the great Gatun lake, ferry across
It and resume the journey in another car
rage on the south shore of the lake to
Panama.
The road will lie through a country
shaded by broad palms and heavy with
other tropical vegetation. 1t will be up
hill and down and to the charm Of the
Jungle drive will be added now and then
glimpses Of the ships of many nations ply
ing from one great ocean to the other. At
one point on the road it will be possible to
get a splendid view of the Culebra cut,
which to the layman will probably be the
most interesting feature of the canal.
From the trunk roadway lateral
branches will meander back into the coun-
try on both sides of the canal and connect
with a system of roads that the Republic
Of Panama has projected into the unde-
veloped interior of the country.
Purpose of the Highway.
The purpose of the road building by the
| ITnffpd States or 20 ha await hu tha 1Opa
government, is first to connect the villages
along the line of the canal, and, second, to
induce a permanent population in the zone
by opening up the land to agriculture
The zone is fifty miles long and ten
miles wide, and the lands to which the pro-
jected highways will give access comprise
about 1900 900 acres, three-fourths of which
are owned by the United States. About
one-half Of this land will be inundated by
Gatun lake when the Chagres river has
been damned or will be used for other
canal purposes.
Nearly all the remainder will have
TO be reclaimed from the jungle. TIL in
tention Of the government is to lease the
land for agricultural purposes only and tC
limit the term Of the leases to not more
than twenty-five years.
WOrk on the trunk roadway mas alreauy
made good progress. The cost of the roads
is being betrayed from funds collected bS
taxation in the Zone. Up to March 81, 1909
S94,742 had been expended on this system
Of roads, but this, of course, does not in.
clude the amounts expended by the com
mission for highways tina nave been BUN
? to give access to commission quarters Of
? buildings.
49,. ~ NIo.ANN nN1n khA k-,,nIr .Nas
will run from Cristobal, the entrance t.
the canal to Gatun, on the north shore o.
, Gatun lake, a distance of eight miles. TIL,
maoadam highway from Gorgona on thu
/, south shore of the lake to this city will b,
eighteen miles long. aH-
French Began the Work.
This opening up of roads through tn,
isthmus was undertaken by the French
only on a very limited scale. The Amer
leans Upon their occupation in 1904 found
only a few ill-kept trails leading from tn,
more important villages Of the interior
and these were impossible in the rain,
season.
= Then, as even now, about the only gooC
avenue of travel was the line Of the Pan
anna railroad. Today those living in tn,
interior villages follow their uncertain
trails down to the railroad, and then strik'
out with their pack animals over the tie
for either this city or Colon.
The Canal Record, the commission
official organ, pointed out in a recen
issue that practically the only systemati,
attempt at permanent road construction
on the isthmus until the Americans tool
hold was that done by the ~Spaniardi
in the sixteenth century. Traces Of tn,
old pack roads built by the Spaniardi
from Nombre de Dios, Porto Bello anC
Cruces TO Panama 800 or 400 years ago ar,
still to be found. In fact they are fairl!
we'll preserved in spots considering thel
age.
These roads had a surface OF cobblt
stones. In some places they have beeI
: washed out and in others they have beei
obliterated by the rank growth of trop
> zeal vegetation, which has forced its wa!
up even between the cobbles of the road
bed.
The French built a road from Panami
u to Corozol, a distance of three miles, blu
1t was so badly washed out when tn
y Americans took hold that they will hav
to rebuild 1t.
First American Roads.
The first roads built by the American
were those running from the city OF Pan
anna westward to La Boca, a distance o
two and one-half miles, and eastward I
the boundary Of the canal zone, a distano
. OF three and three-quarter miles. They ar
OF the best macadam type, and incidental
afford one Of the p~rettiest evening drive
that can be found anywhere.
The building of mRcadam roads in Pan
anna is, however, a pretty expensive pre-
position, and after the construction Of thes
first roads, experiments were made wit
cheaper classes OF highways. Trails wer
cleared and surfaced with earth, but on
rainy season showed the utter futility O
attempting to construct roads OF that typ