The Panama Railroad Peter Pyne

ELEC copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment

Elecresource

Cover -- THE PANAMA RAILROAD -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART I: CONSTRUCTION -- 1 The Grand Design -- 2 A False Start -- 3 Slow Progress -- 4 A New Departure -- 5 Hopes Dashed -- 6 The Final Push -- PART II: THE WORKERS -- 7 The Men Who Built the Railroad -- 8 Working Conditions -- 9 Workers' Amenities -- 10 Mortality -- PART III: THE IRISH -- 11 The American Irish -- 12 The Men from Cork -- PART IV: EPILOGUE -- 13 Railroad-Government Relations -- 14 The Aftermath -- Conclusion

Appendix 1: Panama Railroad Construction Account, 1850-1858 -- Appendix 2: Panama Railroad Passage Account by Date of Ledger Entry, 1850-1855 -- Appendix 3: Likely Cork Workhouse Emigrants to Panama, December 1853 -- Appendix 4: Estimates of Mortality of the Inhabitants of Panama City, 1884-1893, and among the Workers Constructing the Panama Canal, 1881-1889 -- Appendix 5: Petition of the Irish Laborers to the British Consul, Panama City, 1854 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

"In 1848, a group of ambitious American entrepreneurs decided to embark upon a remarkable engineering feat-they would build a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The creation of the Panama Railroad ranks as one the boldest capitalist ventures in the nineteenth century, and would require battling climate, disease, and geography before it was completed. On a human level it would transform the destiny of thousands of lives in America and Panama as well as in Ireland. The Panama Railroad provides the first comprehensive account of the railroad's construction, going well beyond the known stories of the titans of industry involved with its construction, such as William Aspinwall, George Law, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. It seeks to correct false claims and address numerous gaps in past histories, and in particular showcases the stories of the ordinary Irish workers willing to travel halfway around the globe to pursue an uncertain future and a perilous undertaking in the hopes of escaping the devastating Great Famine of 1845-49"-- Provided by publisher