Panama Canal Railway - History of Earlier Isthmus Crossings and Plans

History of Earlier Isthmus Crossings and Plans

While the Camino Real trail, and later the Las Cruces trail, built and initially maintained by the Spanish, allowed some cargo and passengers to be carried across the Isthmus of Panama for over three centuries, by the 19th century it was becoming clear that a cheaper, safer and faster alternative was required. As railroad technology developed in the early 19th century and given the cost and difficulty of constructing a canal with the available technology, a railway seemed the ideal solution.

President Bolívar of La Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia) commissioned a study into the possibility of building a railway from Chagres (on the Chagres River) to the town of Panama City; this study was carried out between 1827 and 1829 (just as railroads were being invented). The report stated that such a railway might be possible. However, the idea was shelved.

In 1836, President Andrew Jackson of the United States commissioned a study of proposed routes for interoceanic communication, in order to protect the interests of Americans travelling between the oceans and living in the Oregon Country. This resulted in the United States acquiring a franchise for a trans-Isthmian railroad; however, the scheme was a victim of the business panic of 1837, and came to nothing.

In 1838 a French company was given a concession for the construction of a road, rail or canal route across the isthmus. An initial engineering study recommended a sea level canal from Limón Bay to the bay of Boca del Monte, 12 miles (19 km) west of Panama; but the scheme again collapsed for lack of technology and funding needed.

Following the United States acquisition of Upper California and the Oregon Territory in 1846, and the prospective movement of many more settlers to and from the west coast, the United States once again turned its attention to securing a safe, reliable and speedy link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1846 the United States signed a treaty with Colombia (then the Republic of New Granada) by which the US guaranteed Colombian sovereignty over Panama and was authorized to build a railroad or canal at the Panamanian isthmus guaranteeing its open transit. Congress in 1847, a year before gold was discovered in California, authorized subsidies for the running of two lines of mail and passenger steamships; one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. The Atlantic lines ran from New York, Havana, Cuba and New Orleans, Louisiana to the Chagres River Panama on the Caribbean Sea ($300,000 subsidy). The proposed Pacific line ran with three steamships from Panama City, Panama to California and Oregon in the Pacific ($200,000 subsidy). None of the steamships in the Pacific were built before the mail contract was let.

In 1847, the actual east to west transit across the isthmus was by native dugout boats (later modified lifeboats were used) up the often wild and dangerous Chagres River and then by mules for about the final 20 miles (32 km) over the old Spanish trails. The trails had fallen into serious disrepair after some 50 years of little or no maintenance and up to 120 inches (3 m) of rain each year in the roughly April to December rainy season. A transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific (or from Pacific to Atlantic) would usually take four to eight days by dugout canoe and mule back. The transit was fraught with dangers and disease.

William H. Aspinwall, the man who had won the bid for the building and operating of the Pacific mail steamships, conceived a plan to construct a railway across the isthmus; he and his partners created a company registered in New York, the Panama Railroad Company, raised $1,000,000 from the sale of stock, and hired companies to do engineering and route studies. Their venture happened to be well-timed, as the discovery of gold in California in January 1848 created a rush of emigrants wishing to cross the Isthmus of Panama and go on to California. The first dual paddle steamer plus three masts powered steamship used on the Pacific run was the $200,000, SS California. She was 203 feet (62 m) in length, 33.5 feet (10.2 m) in beam, 20 feet (6.1 m) deep with a draft of 14 feet (4.3 m) and grossed 1,057 tons and when she sailed around Cape Horn South America she was the first steamship on the west coast of South and North America. When she stopped at Panama City on January 17, 1849 (1849-01-17) she was besieged by about 700 desperate gold seekers. Eventually, she managed to leave Panama City January 31, 1849 (1849-01-31) for California with almost 400 passengers and entered San Francisco Bay, about 3,500 miles (5,600 km) later, on February 28, 1849–145 days from New York. There nearly all of its crew except the Captain deserted and it was stranded for about four months before a new supply of coal and a new (much more expensive) crew could be hired. The trip to and from California from Panama was soon very actively traveled as it provided one of the fastest links between San Francisco, California and the East Coast cities—about 40 days transit. Nearly all the gold that left California went over the fast Panama route. Several new and larger paddle steamers were soon plying this new route.