The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-11
PANAMA RAILWAY.
Famous Old Line About to See Its
Finish.

of the Panama railway Will decllne
almost to the vanishing point,
For nearly sixty years this rail-
way has been carrying people and
freight from ocean to ocean. Though
only forty-seven miles long, it has
been, for certain periods, one of the
most important and most interesting
railroad lines in the world. During
the building of the canal, under the
ownership of the United States, it has
become one of the best equipped and
most efficient of railways. 1t has
given great help in the construction
OF the canal that will prove its virtual
death.
The finding of gold in California
was the cause of the building of the
Panama railroad. For long years
before the wild rush of argonauts
in 1S49 the isthmus was almost for
gotten by the civilized world, but
when the yellow metal was discover
ed on the west coast it became once
more a great trade route. In order
to avoid the long trip across the
plains in prairie schooners,' thou
sands of gold-seekers went by boat to
Chagres, up the Chagres river to
Gorgona or Cruces and thence over
the old Spanish road to Panama.
This, too, was a long route and in
the rainy season painful and danger
Gus one because of the prevalence OF
disease.
To the rescue of the gold hunters
came three bold Americans, W. H.
Aspinwall, Henry Chauncey and John
L. Stevens. In 1S4S these men had
asked the government of New Grana-
da for a concession for the road, and
In 1850 Stevens obtained it at Bogo-
ia. The Pacific terminus could not be
otherwise than at Panama, but at
first the harbor of Porto Bello was
selected for the Atlantic terminus.
However, new York speculator
spoiled this plan by buying up all the
land about the harbor and holding it
at a very high price, so Navy Bay was
chosen instead.
When work on the line was begun
in May, 1850, there was no celebra-
ton, no turning of the first spadeful
of earth with a golden shovel.
Two Americans with gang OF
Indians landed on Manzanillo island,
now the site of the city of Colon, then
a desolate, uninhabited spot, and be-
gan the tremendous task of clearing
the route through the dense jungle.
The surveying party suffered intense
ly, for the land was so swampy and
so infested with malaria and yellow
fever bearing mosquitoes that they
were compelled to sleep aboard ship
Much of the time they carried their
lunches tied on their heads and ate
them standing waist-deep in the
water.
The efforts of the company to OBJ
tain laborers were attended by a
terrible tragedy. Eight hundred
Chinese were brought over from
Hong Kong, but within week Of
their landing scores of them died.
Opium was given the survivors and
for a short time checked the ravages
of disease. But the supply of the
drug was shut off on account of its
cost and again the deaths became
numerous. The poor Orientals in
despair began to commit suicide,
some by hanging, others by impale-
ment, while some deliberately sat
down upon the seashore and waited
for the rising tide to overwhelm
them. In a few weeks scarce two
hundred were left, and these broken
in health and spirits were sent to
Jamaica.
Another shipload of laborers, this
time from Ireland, met no better
fate, for nearly every man died.
The material difficulties that con-
fronted the railway builders are thus
summarized by Tones in his "Pana-
ma in 1885," 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 daily
food, the clothing, the roof and the
instruments to work with came from
abroad.
Most of the material used for the
construction of the road was brought
from vast distances. Although the
country abounded in forests, it was
found necessary, from the expense of
labor and the want of routes of COM
munication, to send the timber, for
most part, from the United States,