Panama Railroad Train First Transited Isthmus of Panama Jan. 28, 1855

Summary: Panama Railroad Company's inter-oceanic train first crossed the Isthmus of Panama Jan. 28, 1855, with a run between the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

The Panama Railroad Company achieved the first rail crossing of the Isthmus of Panama on Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855; image from Oran, "Tropical Journeyings," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. XVIII, no. CIV (January 1859), page 145, in F.N. Otis, Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad (1862), "On the Road," frontispiece: Public Domain, via Library of Congress Book/Printed Material

The inter-oceanic run of the Panama Railroad Company's train between Panama's Caribbean, northern, and Pacific, southern coasts on Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855, marked the first rail transit of the Isthmus of Panama.

The Gold Rush triggered Monday, Jan. 24, 1848, by the finding of gold flakes in the South Fork American River at Sutter's Mill, California, by American carpenter and sawmill operator James Wilson Marshall (Oct. 8, 1810-Aug. 10, 1885) also escalated interest in establishing a viable route via canal or rail across the Isthmus of Panama (Spanish: Istmo de Panamá) for east coast gold prospectors, according to British journalist and railway historian Christian Wolmar (born Aug. 3, 1949) in The Iron Road (2014; page 110). Three options, with one by land and two by sea, existed for travel from the east coast of the United States to the continent's west coast.

The transcontinental option, which linked the east and west coasts of the United States, featured an overland journey via wagon trails across the United States. The land route, with a duration of at least six months, traversed 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers).

The second option offered an oceanic voyage from the east coast to California via the Republic of Chile's (República de Chile) Cape Horn (Spanish: Cabo de Hornos), the meeting place of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Cape Horn route logged 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) and lasted at least 85 days (almost three months).

The third option comprised an inter-oceanic journey by steamship from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean via the Isthmus of Panama. The isthmic transit required up to eight days and covered 50 miles (80 kilometers) by dugout canoes and mules between Panama's northern and southern coasts. Coordination of the schedules of the Atlantic and Pacific steamships with transit of the isthmus finessed the Panama route's duration to 35 days, according to A.C.W. Bethel, professor of philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in "The Panama Route" in J.J. Rawls and R.J. Orsi, eds., A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California (1999; Chapter 12, page 252).

American businessman William Henry Aspinwall (Dec. 16, 1807-Jan. 18, 1875) had co-incorporated the Pacific Mail Steamship Company Tuesday, April 18, 1848, in New York as a mail and passenger service between Panama's isthmic Pacific coast and the west coast's Territory of Oregon (Aug. 14, 1848-Feb. 14, 1859). Co-incorporators included his uncles, Gardiner Greene Howland (Sep. 4, 1787-Nov. 9, 1851) and Samuel Shaw Howland (Aug. 15, 1790-Feb. 9, 1853), with whom he partnered, since 1832, in the New York-headquartered, Pacific Ocean trade-specializing merchant firm of Howland & Aspinwall.

Marshall's discovery of gold sparked Aspinwall's interest in minimizing travel time across the Panamanian isthmus by constructing a transisthmian railroad. On Saturday, April 7, 1849, Aspinwall co-incorporated the Panama Railroad Company in New York with American lawyer, Maya civilization rediscoverer and writer John Lloyd Stephens (Nov. 28, 1805-Oct. 13, 1852) and American businessman Henry M. Chauncey (April 3, 1795-April 28, 1863). Aspinwall served as the company's first president. The company sought a concession from the government of New Granada for building a railroad with Atlantic and Pacific termini. At that time Panama was contained within the Republic of New Granada (Spanish: República de la Nueva Granada; Oct. 20, 1831-April 11, 1858), which also consisted of present-day Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia) as well as smaller parts of present-day Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil), Costa Rica (Spanish: República de Costa Rica), Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador), Peru (Spanish: República del Perú) and Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela).

On Monday, April 15, 1850, the Panama Railroad Company obtained a 49-year contract with the government of New Granada granting to the company the exclusive right to construct a canal, highway or railroad across the isthmus, according to "History of the Panama Railroad" page on The Panama Railroad website (https://www.panamarailroad.org/history1.html). Provisions of the contract included ". . . guaranteeing that all public lands lying on the line of the road were to be used gratuitously by the Company; also a gift of 250,000 acres of land, to be selected by the grantees from any public lands on the Isthmus," as explained by American physician, urology pioneer, art collector, author and U.S. Mail Steamship Company and Pacific Mail Steamship Company's ship surgeon (1853-1861) Fessenden Nott Otis (March 6, 1825-May 24, 1900) in Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad (1862; pages 17-18).

The Panama Railroad Company selected Manzanillo Island (Spanish: la isla de Manzanillo) as the railroad's Atlantic terminus. The mangrove tree-shrouded islet is located on the eastern shore of Limon Bay (Spanish: la bahía de Limón) and the western shore of Manzanillo Bay (Spanish: la bahía de Manzanillo).

Fessenden Nott Otis described the geographical challenges presented by Manzanillo Island. "This island, cut off from the main land by a narrow frith, contained an area of a little more than one square mile. It was a virgin swamp, covered with a dense growth of the tortuous, water-loving mangrove, and interlaced with huge vines and thorny shrubs, defying entrance even to the wild beasts common to the country. In the black, slimy mud of its surface alligators and other reptiles abounded; while the air was laden with pestilential vapors, and swarming with sand-flies and musquitoes" (page 26).

In May 1850 clearing of a swampy spot on the western end of the mangrove tree-shrouded islet commenced. The town created at the site remained nameless for almost two years. Company co-founder John Lloyd Stephens suggested Aspinwall in honor of the company's first president. On Monday, Feb. 2, 1852, the town's name was formalized as Aspinwall (Otis, Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad, page 33).

The government of New Granada, however, preferred Colón, in honor of Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; ca. 1446/1451-May 20, 1506). During his fourth and last voyage of the western Atlantic Ocean (May 9, 1502-Nov. 7, 1504), the late 15th and early 16th century explorer and navigator had explored, unsuccessfully, the northwestern and central Caribbean coast of Panama in his quest for the "narrow place between two seas” described by Indigenous Americans. Missing the isthmus, Columbus sailed as far northeast as present-day Portobelo, according to "The Lure of the Pacific" in Linda Hall Library's Digital Exhibition of "The Land Divided, The World United." Founded March 20, 1597, the port city on Portobelo Bay (Spanish: La bahía de Portobelo) is situated approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Aspinwall-Colón. According to legend, the port's name derives from Puerto Bello ("beautiful port"), the name given by Columbus to his discovery Nov. 2, 1502, as related by Patricia Katzman in Pocket Adventures: Panama (page 136).

Controversy over the town's name lasted for 38 years. In 1890, the refusal of the Colombian post office to deliver mail addressed to Aspinwall settled Colón as the town's name, according to "Construction of the first transcontinental railroad" in the "History" section of the Panama Canal Railway Company website.

Located on the Gulf of Panama (Spanish: Golfo de Panamá), Panama City (Spanish: Ciudad de Panamá) also known as Panama (Spanish: Panamá), marked the Pacific, northern coast's terminus of the Panama Railroad Company's railroad. The terminus was constructed at Playa Prieta, a northern suburb of Panama City.

Fessenden Nott Otis described the effective design of the Pacific terminus. "A pier of four hundred and fifty feet in length was constructed at the Panama terminus, which gave greatly increased facilities for embarking and landing passengers and freight, and a steam-tug was substituted for the lighters and small boats which had been previously used for transportation between ship and shore, a distance of two and a half miles. The Company owned, by purchase, fourteen acres of land, having a front of five hundred feet on the bayy. The Company also obtained by purchase, in connection with the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, a group of four islands in the Bay of Panama, about two and a half miles from the city, affording good shelter and anchorage for vessels of the largest class, and well supplied with good springs of water." (Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad, page 40).

At midnight, Saturday, Jan. 27, 1855, crews working southward from the Caribbean coast and northward from the Pacific coast met at Culebra, the summit of the Continental Divide of the Americas (Spanish: Divisoria continental de las Américas), also known as the Continental Divide (Spanish: Gran Divisoria). The Continental Divide stretches from the Bering Strait, between the Arctic and Pacific oceans, to the Strait of Magellan (Spanish: Estrecho de Magallanes), the natural passage in southern Chile (Spanish: República de Chile) between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As the principal, primarily mountainous hydrological divide of the Americas, the Continental Divide separates the watersheds that flow into the Atlantic Ocean from those draining into the Pacific Ocean.

The completed railroad traversed 47 miles 3,020 feet. Fessenden Nott Otis described the meeting of the Caribbean coast and Pacific coast crews. "Simultaneously with the operations toward the Pacific, a large force was established at Panama, under the superintendence of Mr. J. Young, one of the Company's most efficient and energetic officers, and the road was pushed rapidly onward, over the plains of Panama, through the swamps of Corrisal and Correndeu, and up the valley of the Eio Grande, to meet the advancing work from the Atlantic side; and on the 27th day of January, 1855, at midnight, in darkness and rain, the last rail was laid, and on the following day a locomotive passed from ocean to ocean" (page 36).

The next day, Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855, the Panama Railroad Company's train debuted the first rail transit of the Isthmus of Panama. The Jan. 28, 1855, issue of The Portland Transcript described momentous achievement: "That great enterprise, the inter-oceanic or Panama Railroad across the Isthmus, is completed, and the rough Atlantic is now wedded, with an iron band, to the fair Pacific" ("Panama RR opens Jan 28 1855.jpg," Wikimedia Commons).

Trans-oceanic Panama Railroad, completed Saturday, Jan. 27, 1855, traversed the Isthmus of Panama, with end points at Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the next day, Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855; the railroad replaced the previous dual mode of transit by boat via the Chagres River and by mule via mule paths at Cruces or Gorgona; "Map of the Panama Railroad," F.N. Otis, Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad (1862), page 5: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

The Panama Railroad Company achieved the first rail crossing of the Isthmus of Panama on Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855; image from Oran, "Tropical Journeyings," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. XVIII, no. CIV (January 1859), page 145, in F.N. Otis, Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad (1862), "On the Road," frontispiece: Public Domain, via Library of Congress Book/Printed Material @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.illustratedhisto00otis/?sp=12; Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/histoillustrated00otisrich/page/n9/mode/1up

Trans-oceanic Panama Railroad, completed Saturday, Jan. 27, 1855, traversed the Isthmus of Panama, with end points at Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the next day, Sunday, Jan. 28, 1855; the railroad replaced the previous dual mode of transit by boat via the Chagres River and by mule via mule paths at Cruces or Gorgona; "Map of the Panama Railroad," F.N. Otis, Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad (1862), page 5: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/histoillustrated00otisrich/page/n12/mode/1up; Public Domain, via Library of Congress Book/Printed Material @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.illustratedhisto00otis/?sp=15; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustrated_history_of_the_Panama_Railroad;_together_with_a_traveler%27s_guide_and_business_man%27s_hand-book_for_the_Panama_Railroad_and_its_connections_with_Europe,_the_United_States,_the_north_and_(14758501004).jpg; Internet Archive Book Images, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14758501004/

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