252 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PANAMA KOUTE FOE A SHIP CANAL.* 



By Professor WILLIAM H. BURR, 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



THE Panama route as a line of transit across the isthmus was estab- 

 lished, as near as can be determined, between 1517 and 1520. 

 The first settlement, at the site of the town of old Panama, six or seven 

 miles easterly of the present city of that name, was begun in August, 

 1517. This was the Pacific end of the line. The Atlantic end was 

 finally established in 1519 at Nombre de Dios, the more easterly port of 

 Acla, where Balboa was tried and executed, having first been selected 

 but subsequently rejected. 



The old town of Panama was made a city by royal decree from the 

 throne of Spain in September, 1521. At the same time it was given 

 a coat of arms and special privileges were conferred upon it. The 

 course of travel then established ran by a road well known at the present 

 time through a small place called Cruces on the Eiver Chagres, about 

 seventeen miles distant from Panama. It must have been an excel- 

 lent road for those days. Bridges were even laid across streams and 

 the surface was paved, although probably rather crudely. According 

 to some accounts it was only wide enough for use by beasts of burden, 

 but some have stated that it was wide enough to enable two carts to pass 

 each other. 



The harbor of the Atlantic terminus at Nombre de Dios did not 

 prove entirely satisfactory and Porto Bello, westerly of the former 

 point, was made the Atlantic port in 1597 for this Isthmian line of 

 transit. The harbor of Porto Bello is excellent and the location was 

 more healthful, yet Porto Bello itself was subsequently abandoned, 

 largely on account of its unhealthiness. 



As early as 1534 or soon after that date boats began to pass up and 



down the Chagres river between Cruces and its mouth on the Caribbean 



shore, and thence along the coast to Nombre de Dios and subsequently 



to Porto Bello. The importance of the commerce, which sprang up 



across the isthmus and in connection with this Isthmian route, is well 



set forth in the last paragraph on page 28 of the report of the Isthmian 



Canal Commission: 



The commerce of the isthmus increased during the century and Panama 

 became a place of great mercantile importance, with a profitable trade extend- 

 ing to the Spice Islands and the Asiatic coast. It was at the height of it9 



* The substance of this paper has been delivered as a lecture by the author 

 and will soon be published in a series of lectures on civil engineering. 



