Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1913 — OLD PANAMA TRAILS [ARTICLE]

OLD PANAMA TRAILS

Trips the Auto Can Make—Tourists May See Many Interesting Sights, but Cannot Motor From Ocean to Ocean.

New York.—Along the trail where the pirate Morgan and his men made their way more than 200 years ago, and where the ’49ers who chose the isthmian route, struggled to reach the Pacific, the tourist today may jump into a taxicab and bowl along finely kept roads for many miles. The taxi hast.just made its appearance in Panama, writes the Panama correspondent of the New York Times. The business has started oft with a rush and the vehicles now here will be added to in a few weeks by several more which have been ordered by the local company. Automobile trips cannot extend all the way across the isthmus, for there is no highway from ocean to ocean, nor is it probable that any such road will be built in the near future, because thejconstruction of the Panama canal has formed a lake in the middle of the isthmus 164 square miles in area, with broad arms stretching out in all directions into the hollows between the hills. Only one location for such a road is practicable, and that Is along the right of'way of the Panama railroad, which skirts the eastern side of the. lake. This would be very costly construction.

North of this lake, however, toward the Atlantic ocean, there is a good macadam road leading from Gatun locks to the city of Colon. There are half a dozen motor cars for hire in Colon, and it is only a matter of an hour to take the ride from the city to Gatun. And it is worth while, too, because every inch of the way is interesting. the culmination coming at Gatun, where the locks and dam are under construction, and from whose hill one can see the Atlantic entrance to the canal, with the dredges at worlt there and the water lying beyond the roofs of Colon. In Colon itself there is a road along the water front, past the hospital, that has a certain quiet charm, but on the whole that city is tawdry looking and full of strange smells, although it is very clean. South of Gatun lake, between the village of Gorgona and the city of Panama, there is a number of good highways, each offering some special inducement for the autemobillst Tourists seem to favor the trip from the present city to the site of the old city of Panama, a distance of about seven miles. This is over a good macadam road, which runs along the foot of a low ridge, with rolling sabanas stretching out toward the bay. Here and there from the top of some rise in the highway a glimpse of the ocean may be obtained. The last mile of the journey is over the location of the "Camina Real,” or king's highway, along which the rich trade of old Panama was carried long ago. There is little-to see, for Panama was not a large city, as tourists know towns today, probably never numbering more than 20.000 persons, and within the walls was only a part of this population. After the pirate Morgan captured the city, on Jan. 19, 1671, the governor burned it, and three years later a new town was started on the site of the present city of Panama. Only a few old masonry walls, half a dozen beautiful arches and an imposing looking tower mark the site of one of the three great cities‘df the new world three centuries ago.'?' z ’ - From the romance of other days to that of the present is but an hour's

ride in Panama, for by turning northward from the road to old Panama one’s car can be sent along a good highway that runs along the Panama canal for 20 miles. The glimpse afforded of the canal construction as the motor cv glides along is not close enough to permit of any real knowledge of the work, but it is comprehensive, for it Includes dredging in the Pacific entrance, lock construction at Miraflores and Pedro Miguel, and excavation in Culebra cut. At the south end of Culebra cut the highway leaves the. edge of the canal to run behind Gold hill for two miles or more. The hill shuts off the busy life of the canal and one may look across the valley of the Pedro Miguel river upon as tangled a bit of tropical jungle as will be found in Central America. The hill once passed, the canal again appears, with Culebra cut stretching away into the distance The roar of dynamite blasts, the whistling of a score of locomotives, the crunching of the heavily laden dirt trains and the monotonous hammering of drills beat upon the ear, while the eye is held by a sweep of green hills on whose slopes are the homes of the canal builders. Immediately in the foreground is the yawning chasm that has been dug.