The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1913-09-05

2 Yt[Z[E<S<z/
and freight were considerably above
| $4,000 900. The last rails were laid
the night Of January 81, 1855, and the.
next day the first train passed clear
| across the isthmus from the Atlantic,
to the Pacific. The entire cost of the
road up to December 81, 1858, had
been something less than $4,000, 900
and its gross earnings in the same
time were little more than that sum.
The rate across the isthmus was put
at $25 gold, being intended to be to a
certain extent prohibitive until they
could get things into good running or
| der, but so great was the volume Of
| travel that the rate was not reduced
| for more than twenty years. Soon aft
| er its opening the road began to de-
| clare "a per cent. dividends, and at
one time it's stock went up to $780,
In the SOS the company fell on hard
times. 1t lost much Of its freight traf-
fc, was held up by the politicians in
Bogota and then suffered by the COM,
pletion of the Union Pacific railroad.
Next Russell Sage and others like him
| got control of the directorate and
| wrecked the road. When de Lesseps
came over to dig a canal his company
bought up the stock and used the road
to help in it's work.
Then in 1904 the United States
| bought out the French company and
also acquired the railway and SO it
became the first American road to be
owned by the government. So eco
nomically and efficiently has it been
conducted since then that it Is cited
as an argument for the government
ownership of all our railways.
The building of the canal and espe-
cially the creation of the artificial Ga
tun lake made necessary the reloca-
ton of the Panama railroad along
most of it's route. The old roadbed
now is under water for much of the
way, the old line still in use being only,
about seven miles in length, from Co
Ion to Mind and from Corozal to Pana-
ma. From Mind to Gatun the grade
ascends to 95 feet above tide level.
From Gatun the road runs east until it
is four and half miles from the
canal, and then south again on great
entertainments across the Gatun valley.
Along this stretch passengers OBJ
| tain an unusual view. Because of the
construction of the Gatun dam across
the channel of the Chagres river, the
Chagres valley and all its tributary!
valleys have been converted into a
lake with an area of about 164 square
miles. The Gatun valley is one of
these drowned arms and as the train.
crosses, wide stretches of water are to-
be seen on both sides of the track.
Down below the surface are still Wis
ible the tops of giant trees. that have
been killed by submergence, and along
the edges of the lake the tallest and
hardest of the trees reach thir dead
limbs above the waters. Here and
] there is a pretty little island that not
long ago was the summit of hill, and
the shore line Is most picturesquely
broken up by capes, peninsulas and
bays.
From Monte Lirio the line skirts the
shore of the lake to the beginning Of
the Culebra cut at Bias Obispo Orig
inally it was intended to carry the rail-
road through the Culebra cut on 40
foot beam along the east side, ten feet
above water level, but this plan was
knocked out by the slides and breaks.
The line was carried around Gold Hill
| to a distance of two miles from the
canal until it reached the Pedro Mi
guel valley, down which it runs to
Paraiso and the canal again. Thence,
! it runs almost parallel with the chan
mel to Panama. There are two big
steel bridges on the line. One, near
Monte Lirio, has a center lift span to
permit access to the upper arm of Ga
tun lake; the other, a quarter Of a
mile long, across the Chagres river at
Gamboa. The total cost of building
the new line of the railway was $780,
1872. In addition, a large sum has been
expended in increasing the terminal
| facilities.
OF course, even after the canal is
opened, the railway will have a good
deal of business, transporting people
and goods between Colon and Panama,
and serving the needs of the operating
forces of the canal But it's days of
glory have departed, and J. A. Smith,
the American who has been its eff
cient general superintendent, recog-
nizing that fact, has resigned and re-
turned to the states.