from 1859 announcing a sailing from New York to California via the Panama Railroad. Fine print in the middle reads "Passengers and Mails will be forwarded by Panama Railroad. and embark, Free of Expense..."
Construction In January 1849, Aspinwall hired Colonel George W. Hughes to lead a survey party and pick a proposed Panama Railroad roadbed to
Panama City. The eventual survey turned out to be full of errors, omissions, and optimistic forecasts, which made it of little use. In April 1849,
William Henry Aspinwall was chosen head of the Panama Railroad company, which was incorporated in the State of New York and initially raised $1,000,000 in capital. In early 1850,
George Law, owner of the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company, bought up the options of the land from the mouth of the
Chagres River to the end of Navy Bay in order to force the directors of the new Panama Railroad to give him a position on the board of the company. Since there were no harbor facilities on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, they needed to create a town with docking facilities to unload their railroad supplies there. Refusing to allow Law onto the board, the directors decided to start building harbor facilities, an Atlantic
terminus, and their railroad from the vacant site of Manzanillo Island. Starting in May 1850, what would become the city of Aspinwall (now
Colón) was founded on on the western end of Manzanillo Island, a treacherously marshy islet covered with
mangrove trees. The board solicited bids from construction companies in the United States to build the railroad.
George M. Totten and
John Trautwine initially submitted one of the winning bids. After surveying the railroad's proposed course and the probable construction difficulties and uncertainties, they withdrew their bid. Totten agreed to become the chief engineer on the railroad construction project, working for a salary instead of as a general contractor. A new town on the Atlantic end of the railroad would have to be built on swampy ground that was often awash at high tide. The mangrove, palms, and poisonous
manchineel (
manzanilla) trees and other jungle vegetation had to be felled, and many of the buildings in the new town had to be built on stilts to keep them above the water. As more worker housing was needed, abandoned ships brought to the mouth of the Chagres River as part of the
California Gold Rush were towed near the island and used for temporary housing. A steam-powered
pile driver was brought from New York. Docks were constructed on pile-driven timbers, more of the island was stripped of vegetation, and elevated living spaces, docks, warehouses, and the like were constructed. Before the railroad construction could get fully started, the island was connected to the Panamanian mainland by a causeway supported by pile-driven timbers. The first rolling stock, consisting of a
steam locomotive built by William Sellers & Co., and several
gondola cars, arrived in February 1851. The required steam locomotives, railroad cars, ties, rails, and other equipment were unloaded at the newly constructed docks and driven across the track laid across the about causeway separating the island from the mainland. This causeway connected the Atlantic terminus to the railroad and allowed the ties, iron
rails, steam engines, workers, backfill, and other construction material to be hauled onto the mainland. Later, passengers and freight would go the same way. As the railroad progressed, more of the island was filled in, and the causeway was expanded to permanently connect the island to the mainland; its island status disappeared and the town of Aspinwall was created. In May 1850, the first preparations were begun on Manzanillo Island, and the start of the roadway was partially cleared of trees and jungle on the mainland. Quickly, the difficulty of the scheme became apparent. The initial of the proposed route passed through a jungle of gelatinous swamps infested with
alligators, the heat was stifling,
mosquitoes and
sandflies were everywhere, and deluges of up to of rain for almost half the year required some workers to work in swamp water up to four feet deep. When they tried to build a railroad near Aspinwall, the swamps were apparently deep, often requiring over 200 feet (60 m) of gravel backfill to secure a roadbed. Fortunately, they had found a
quarry near
Porto Bello, Panama, so they could load sandstone onto barges and tow it to Aspinwall to get the backfill needed to build the roadbed. Built as the steam revolution was just starting, the only power equipment was a steam-driven pile driver, steam tugs, and steam locomotives equipped with gondola and dump cars for carrying fill material; the rest of the work had to be done by laborers wielding
machete,
axe,
pick,
shovel,
black powder, and
mule cart. As more track was laid, the workers had to continually add backfill to the roadbed, as it continued to slowly sink into the swamp. Once about of track were laid, the first solid ground was reached, at what was then called Monkey Hill (now Mount Hope). This was soon converted to a cemetery that accepted nearly continuous burials.
Cholera,
yellow fever, and
malaria took a deadly toll on workers. Despite the company's constant importation of high numbers of new workers, there were times when progress stalled for simple lack of workers. The worst year was 1852. Cholera swept along the line after the arrival of a boat from
New Orleans. Nearly all of chief engineer George Totten's staff died, 51 in total, including engineers, surveyors, and draftsmen. Founding owner John Lloyd Stephens, the only one of the founders who spent time in Panama, died of malaria. Thirty-year old Army Captain
Ulysses S. Grant was leading his 4th Infantry regiment, consisting of several hundred soldiers and their wives and children, across the isthmus to California for garrison duty, when they were struck by cholera. More than 150 of his party died of the disease in the crossing. In later years he would talk more of the horrors he had seen in Panama than any of the battles he had fought in. All supplies and nearly all foodstuffs had to be imported from thousands of miles away, greatly adding to the cost of construction. Laborers came from the United States, the
Caribbean Islands, and as far away as
Ireland,
India,
China, and
Australia. After almost 20 months of work, the Panama Railroad had laid about of track and had spent about $1,000,000 to cross the swamps to
Gatún. The project's fortunes turned in November 1851 – just as they were running out of the original $1,000,000 – when two large
paddle steamers, the SS
Georgia and the SS
Philadelphia, with about 1,000 passengers, were forced to shelter in
Bahía Limón, Panama, owing to a
hurricane in the
Caribbean. Since the railroad's docks had been completed by this time and rail had been laid up to Gatún on the Chagres River, it was possible to unload the ships' cargoes of emigrants and their luggage and transport them by rail, using flatcars and gondolas, for at least the first part of their journey up the Chagres River on their way to
Panama City. Desperate to get off the ships and across the isthmus, the gold seekers paid $0.50 per mile and $3.00 per 100 pounds of luggage to be hauled to the end of the track. This infusion of money saved the company and made it possible to raise more capital to make it an ongoing moneymaker. The company's directors immediately ordered passenger cars, and the railway began passenger and freight operations with about of track still to be laid. Each year it added more and more track and charged more for its services. This greatly boosted the value of the company's franchise, enabling it to sell more stock to finance the remainder of the project, which took more than $8,000,000 and cost 5,000 to 10,000 workers' lives to complete. By July 1852, the company had finished of track and reached the Chagres River, where an enormous bridge was to be built. The first wooden bridge failed when the Chagres rose by over in a day and washed it away. Work was begun on a much higher, , hefty iron bridge, which took more than a year to finish. In all, the company built more than 170 bridges and culverts. In January 1854, excavation began at the summit of the
Continental Divide at the
Culebra Cut, where the earth had to be cut from to deep over a distance of about . Several months were spent digging. In March 1854, 700 Chinese laborers arrived to work for the Panama Railroad Company. Decades later, the
Panama Canal project required years to cut through this area deeply enough for a canal. The road over the crest of the continental divide at Culebra was completed from the Atlantic side in January 1855; 37 miles (60 km) of track having been laid from Aspinwall (Colón). A second team, working under less harsh conditions with railroad track, ties, railroad cars, steam locomotives, and other supplies brought around Cape Horn by ship, completed its of track from Panama City to the summit from the Pacific side of the isthmus at the same time. On a rainy midnight on January 27, 1855, lit by sputtering whale oil lamps, the last rail was set in place on pine crossties. Chief engineer
George M. Totten, in pouring rain with a nine-pound
maul, drove the spike that completed the railroad. The next day the first locomotive with freight and passenger cars passed from sea to sea. The huge project was completed. hardwood tie used to build the Panama Railroad after 1855 Upon completion the railroad stretched 47 miles, 3,020 feet (76 km), with a maximum grade of 60 feet to the mile (11.4 m/km, or 1.14%). The summit grade, located from the Atlantic and from the Pacific, was above the assumed grade at the Atlantic terminus and above that at the Pacific, being above the mean tide of the Atlantic Ocean and the summit ridge above the same level. The gauge was in , Ω-shaped rail. This gauge was that of the southern United States railway companies at the time. This gauge was
converted to standard in the United States in May 1886 after the
American Civil War, and remained in use in Panama until the railroad was rebuilt in 2001. High prices for carrying freight and passengers, despite very expensive ongoing maintenance and upgrades, made the railroad one of the most profitable in the world. Engineering and medical difficulties made the Panama Railway the most expensive railway, per unit length of track, built at the time.
Death toll It is estimated that from 5,000 to 10,000 people may have died in the construction of the railroad, though the Panama Railway company kept no official count and the total may be higher or lower.
Cholera,
malaria, and
yellow fever killed thousands of workers, who were from the
United States,
Europe,
Colombia,
China, the
Caribbean islands, and also included some
African
slaves. Many of these workers had come to Panama to seek their fortune and had arrived with little or no identification. Many died with no known next of kin, nor permanent address, nor even a known
surname.
Shipping lines in August 1914 For most of the 19th century, the Panama Railway relied upon third-party companies—most notably the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company—to provide connecting steamship services between New York and Panama on the
Atlantic and Panama and San Francisco on the
Pacific. However, the company also maintained its own fleet of smaller watercraft for local work, and over the course of its history also ran two of its own steamship lines. A downturn in world trade during the
Great Depression reduced the number of ships from six to two. In the late 1930s, the two remaining ships were retired and three new ones, named , and
Cristobal after their predecessors, were built to replace them; around this time, the Panama Railroad Steamship Company was renamed the Panama Line. The line continued in service, excepting an interruption during
World War II, until 1981, when the last of its ships was sold and the government-owned steamship service between the United States and Panama came to an end. == 1904–12 rebuild: Panama Canal building and afterward ==