The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-11


loaded with gold-seekers were forced
to anchor near Manzanillo island and
the passengers paid the company a
handsome sum to carry them to Ga
tun in work cars. The news that the
road had carried more than thou
sond passengers reached New York
and funds again flowed into the cof-
fers of the company.
AS the work progressed passengers
were hauled longer and longer dis
tances and before the line was COM
pleted the receipts from passengers
and freight were considerably above
s2,OOO.OOO. The last rails were laid
the night of January p, 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
SS,OO0,OOO and it's gross earnings in
the same time were a little more than
that sum.
The rate across the isthmus was
put at SIS in gold, being intended to
be to certain extent prohibitive un-
til they could get things into good
running order, but SO great was the
volume of travel that the rate was
not reduced for more than twenty
years. Soon after its opening the
road began to declare "a per cent
dividends, and at one time it's stock
went up to $50.
In the 6O's the company fell on hard
times. 1t lost much of it's freight
traffic, and was held up by the politi-
clans in Bogota and then suffered by
the completion 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 on
ly about seven miles in length, from
Colon to Mindi and from Corozal to
Panama. From Mindi to Gatun the
grade ascends to ninety-tive feet
above tide level. From Gatun the
road runs east until it is four and a
half miles from the canal, and then
south again on great embankments
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 visible 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 their dead limbs above the
waters. Here and there is pretty
little island that not long ago was
the summit of a 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 begin
ming of the Culebra cut at Bas Obs
po. Originally it was intended to
carry the railroad through the Cul-
ebra cut on 4O-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 car
ried around Gold Hill to a distance of
two miles from the canal until it
reached the Pedro Miguel valley,
down which it runs to Paraiso and
the canal again. Thence it runs al
most parallel with the channel 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 Gatun