The Tracks Ahead feature on the Panama Canal Railroad said trains had been crossing the isthmus since 1840. I had never heard that. If this is true, how did they manage to cut through the jungle without having all the workers killed by malaria as the French did when they tried to build a canal?
This is a great Trivia question!
It was the true FIRST Transcontinental Railroad! And it was a true ocean-to-ocean line, too. You can see the Atlantic (Carribean) at the station in Colon and almost see the Pacific from the station in Panama (city) but it is within easy walking distance.
And in general it is a North/South railway!
I seem to recall that the line was completed in 1855.
Railroad workers were as exposed to Malaria and the other diseases of the country just as much as were canal workers. It took far fewer man-years to build the railroad so far fewer men died building the railroad than died in building the canal, both French and American projects. FYI many “American” laborers were imported from Jamaca and other Carabean islands. They died just as quickly as anyone else.
Mac
An Untimely End
In October of 1863 Judah set sail for New York to find financial backers to buy out his co-founders. While at port in Panama he became seriously ill. At the end of his voyage, he was carried from his ship to New York’s Metropolitan Hotel, where he died in Anna’s arms on November 2nd.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/peopleevents/p_judah.html
Theodore Judah did so much to build America’s transcontinental railroad. Judah died as a result of utilizing a much shorter route transcontinental railroad across Panama
Years ago I had either a paperback book or a lengthy magazine article about the building of that line, and in fact there was a terrible toll of the construction workers - it was titled something like “A Corpse Under Every Tie”. See -
http://www.panamarailroad.org/history1.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Railroad_Company
- Paul North.
I’m now recalling that the article was titled “A Skull Under Every Tie”, and a little research discloses that it may have been in the January 1970 issue of Trains. There’s a good chance I have that issue at home, so I’ll try to remember to look for it and post what I find here in the near future.
- Paul North.
I have never seen any discussion of how the builders of the railroad were affected by yellow fever (this was the real killer), but I have read of how it was determined that a particular breed of mosquitoes carried yellow fever, and how preventive steps were taken so the United States was able to construct the canal. Had the workmen already had yellow fever?
Yes. They died by the thousands, if not 10s of thousands.
Nope - that article was about the same story, but in a different location - the 228-mile Madeira-Mamore Railway in Western Brazil instead, a/k/a “The Railway of the Dead”. The full title is "Whatever Happened to the Railway with a ‘Skull Under Every Tie’ ", by J. Geoffrey Todd, pp. 25 - 28 inclusive with a map, some photos, a locomotive roster, and his trip report, in Trains, January 1970, Vol. 30, No. 3.
I still think I had a book with a similar title about a different jungle railroad, though . . .
- Paul North.
I am afraid you did not understand my question; it was about the workmen who survived–had they already had yellow fever and thus were immune? I did not ask, “Did they have yellow fever?”
Yes, I believe the surviving workers recovered from yellow fever and thus were immune.
Try to find a copy of “The Path Between the Seas” by David McCullough. It’s a wonderful non-fiction book (won a Francis Parkman literary history prize) detailing the building of the Panama Canal, including the hardships faced by all involved. Pages 428-429 contain photos of yellow fever treatment scenes (and a drawing of the female Stegomyia fasciata mosquito). Dr. William Gorgas’ efforts are the subject of chapters 15 and 16.
I hope this helps.
A source not remembered cited Chinese working on the Central Pacific staying healthier than others. Boiling water to make tea killed the Cholera bacillus.
So why didn’t distilling water - to make either beer or whiskey - have the same beneficial effect for the other crew ? [swg]
Drill yea terriers.
Would the Irish recovering the next morning on the Union Pacific drink copious amounts of creek water?
And, in Colon, you can watch the sun rise in the Pacific Ocean and set in the Atlantic Ocean!
Is it truly a transcontinental railroad? It crosses the Isthmus of Panama, not the Continent of Panama.
Yes-The country of Panama encompasses the Isthmus of Panama, which is the narrowest part of the American continent. In the process of crossing the isthmus of Panama, which is in the country of Panama, it crosses the continent of America.
Hmm. It seems like a very busy railroad…
Kevin, apparently the definition of the continents has been changed since I learned about the continents when I was in grammar school. We were taught that there were seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia–and that North America and South America are connected by the Isthmus of Panama. I had never heard of the continent of America until you wrote of it.
Hee hee hee… yes, I agree with you that the technical definition is that it is not “transcontinental”!
Yet the one we all celebrate as the “Transcontinental” was not either. It ran from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs (yet, technically, from Omaha because there was no RR bridge over the river) which makes it only about 1/2 transcontinental.
In the broader sense, Transcontinental means that is connected two coasts, specifically the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, yet, again the one we celebrate was only 1/2 that connection. And even if you include the pre-existing RRs to the east you still could not get on a train on one coast of the United States (and “pre-statehood” territories at the time) and travel on that train to the other coast. One set of tracks did NOT connect from one coast to the other! I remember a Trains article about this wherein someone studied the prospect and found that you would need to take a stage coach at one place, a river-ferry at a couple of other places and a few foot treks across the street or town to change RRs at other places. In addition the end of the tracks were no where near the actual coasts…, the western terminus being Sacramento, not San Fransisco.
The Panama RR meets the definition of Transcontinental as well as the one we celebrate, just in a slightly different manner.
BTW: Although at Colon one can observe the sun set on the Atlantic (Carribean sea, anyway) you really cannot see the sun rise over the Pacific… the isthmus does not curl far around enough to get the Pacific east of Colon (even if you could see the water). And the sunset over the Atlantic only occurs in mid summer, the rest of the time it is just far enough south on the horizon to set over land.
Regarding the transcontinentalism of the Panama Railroad, I was taught since grade school that North and South America were separate continents, but I remember my father saying that he was taught that America was one continent. If it’s one continent, then it is transcontinental, but if not, I dunno.
The first Transcontial RR was built in Panama in 1950 to 1955, it was finished. The gold rushers going to California would pay for a ride on the RR as far as the tracks went. Thus the PRR was self sustaning from the begining. Panama at the location of the RR and the Canal is a very unique location. Because of the curves of Panama the canal runs South East to North West, and is the only location on earth that the sun rises on the Pacific Ocean, and sets in the Atlantic or Carribean. I know because I was at many Easter sunrise services on the Pacific side.