This day in history: Completion of the Panama Railroad
Just after midnight on January 27, 1855, the final spike for the Panama Railroad line was driven at Culebra, which was known as Summit at the time because it was located at the summit of the Continental Divide. The completed railroad was single-track and stretched for about 47 miles (76 km) between Panama City and Aspinwall (later named Colón). The following day, on January 28, a train crossed the Isthmus for the first time.
With the completion of the 5-year construction project, the Panama Railroad became the first transcontinental railroad in the Americas. In 1955, the centennial of the opening of the railroad was celebrated in the Canal Zone with a special commemorative trip.
3 Comments
George Bernard Vieto
My late dad used to work with the Panama Canal Railroad.
Dominick smith
the best blog ever no doubt
Janice G Scott
William Henry Aspinwall (1807-1875) was an American visionary and entrepreneur and is too seldom recognized for his contributions to the progress in the Western Hemisphere, particularly Latin America. In 1848, after obtaining steamship routes to Atlantic ports, he recognized the great lack of facilities, i.e. ports where ships traveling to South and Central America could refresh provisions, which led to his building the famous trans-Isthmian railroad that served the California ’49er gold rush; the French attempt at building the canal; the U.S. completing the canal (1914). The railroad has enjoyed a phenomenal history which continues today. My grandfather, Thomas I Grimison, began his canal construction employment in 1907 as a dirt train conductor. Dirt was taken from the diggings and dumped in the Pacific Side swamp, creating Balboa, Albrook Field, Ft Amador and Causeway along the Pacific entrance of the canal. My brother in law was also a railroad guy, and one of his favorite stories was recounting that during WW2, there were forty-nine ammunition trains crossing the Isthmus each day with only one set of tracks. This required a prescheduled train to pull onto the only one-siding that existed near Gamboa, and wait for the train from the opposite direction to pass before continuing on to Balboa, and then, to the end of the line at the Panama City railroad stations. The increase in trains from approximately eight to forty-nine each day, required hiring more men, and many came from the famous Pennsylvania railroad system. This was circa 1940; there were no cellphones; the crossover switches were operated manually; and, the train engineers relied on their carefully synchronized watches. Many who were hired from the U.S. deemed the work situation too dangerous, promptly quit and returned to Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Since 1998, the Panama Railroad has been jointly owned by Kansas City Southern and Mi-Jack Products and leased to the government of Panama.