Panama Canal Railway

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The Panama Canal Railway (PCR, Spanish: Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. Opened in 1855, the route today stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near Panama City). The construction of the railroad, under difficult physical conditions and with the day's limited technology, was hailed as an international engineering achievement—one that cost US$8 million and the lives of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers. The railway was vital to the early 1900s construction of the Panama Canal, and its route was altered to accommodate the creation of the canal's Gatun Lake. After World War II, the railroad's importance declined and much of it fell into a state of neglect. It was reopened in 2001 after a three-year effort to rebuild it to haul intermodal traffic. The original line was built by the United States and the principal incentive was the vast increase in passenger...

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