JUNIO DE 2017
NOTA CENTRAL
With the independence of 1903, American Henry T. Cook
signed a contract with the US and Panamanian governments to
extend tram services to the colonial Canal Zone and exploit the
Santa Ana branch to the already functioning market.
When he failed, he transferred his rights to banana entrepre-
neur Minor C. Keith, who creates the Panama Tramway Company
and builds 11 miles (17.6 km) of rail lines with electric power trans-
mission. Trams nursery consisted of 15 cars in April 1912.
The lines were: from the national palace to Las Sabanas (the
outskirts of the city), that is, it ended in what today is the firehouse
of Carrasquilla.
Another route doubles La Cresta and culminates in the Urracá
Park (formerly Bella Vista beach). A third part of the Coca-Co-
la Café, passes near Amador Square, B Street, Amador Cemetery,
Modelo jail, enters Balboa and culminates at the La Boca Pier.
The tram resumed its services on August 1, 1913, with a chauf-
feur by car and, with him, a collector of tickets. At that time it was
paid with tolken, a kind of coins minted by the company itself only
to acquire its services.
In those fifteen cars, 11,000 people move daily, traveling 1500
miles (2400 km). The electric power with which these devices were
moved was provided by the electrical plant of the locks of Mira-
flores, in the American colony.
The paving of the streets and the tram canceled the old service
of car of horses and carts, and the cars are introduced at prices not
cheap.
B eyond B usiness
R. W. Hebard, another gringo entrepreneur of the construction,
obtained with the municipal council the construction of an electri-
cal plant of the Panamanian State, giving it in concession, thanks
to the colonialism, to his countryman Keith in February of 1915.
The Tram Company was transformed into Compañía Eléctrica
de Panamá, specialized in selling energy and electricity to Panama
City, Colon and provinces.
That was the origin of the leftist Catlin contract of 1916, be-
tween American millionaires and the Panamanian state, conform-
ing to the powerful monopoly of the Panamanian Corporation of
Force and Light.
At that time, there are 22 cars in the service of the capital, in-
cluding the canal workers, whose works actually ended in 1920.
J orge C onte P orras tells us :
The tram was a selection transport, with its peculiar timbre and
its electric machine that gave the impression of traveling with a
speed of astonishment...
It was a crowded transport of passengers,
where people pushed to enter and to de-
scend. I remember one of the drivers was
very popular with the passengers, his
huge mustaches that he bore with undis-
guised vanity.
The cars were used for rides, and
to carry cargo from the market. These
vehicles were served by Italians, who
were called bachiches, distinguished
by clothing that displayed garments of
combined color. Everyone wore a jack-
et, vest, tie, hat, and mustache.
If I remember correctly, the terminal
of the cars was the 5 de Mayo square ...
Later the chivas (buses a little smaller)
arrived, invariably traveling to the out-
skirts of the city and were almost always
conducted by Spaniards.
La Casa del Travía, or nursery, was located in
the neighborhood of El Maranon, and then became the
famous gymnasium of El Maranon, according to Torres. The
price to deal with this
With the growth of the city and, mainly, its number of inhabitants, the
demand of transport of the outskirts to the center was overflowing.
In 1940, President Arnulfo Arias Madrid liquidated the tram and made way for the
buses. His service is suspended on June 1, 1941. Months later, on October 9, in a coup orga-
nized by the US embassy, Arias Madrid is overthrown for being a nationalist.
Panama went on to another stage of its reality, marked in a wicker seat with folding backs
where it could accommodate up to three people. That was my life, seen from a streetcar.
Post: at the Transport Museum in Philadelphia, says Torres, “there is a Panamanian
copy of this medium; here none were kept.” Why will it be?
ilustración: Adriana Moreno
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