Bridge Company and will cost $60,000. The fifteen spans will rest on fourteen piers and two abutments all of which will be built of concrete on pile foundations. It is estimated that the masonry work will be finished about July, 1908.

There will be a tunnel at Miraflores, the first on the Isthmus, about 600 feet long. It will will be be a single track tunnel and will be lined its entire length with concrete.

It is estimated that before the new line is completed 10,000,000 cubic yards of fill must be made. All these fills are being made with excavated material from the canal cuttings.

Plans have been prepared for a modern terminal yard at Panama of nine tracks, The terminal at Colon has already been brought up to date. A new $50,000 modern passenger station is all that Panama now lacks in the matter of railroad facilities.

Some Comparisons as to Rates.

It is interesting to note the difference between the first passenger and freight tariff of the Panama Railroad which went into effect February 15th, 1855, and that of the present day. The following table will give some of the changes that have taken place:

idea

.02 per lb.
.40 per cu. ft.

.02 per lb.

.50 per cwt.

1.20 per cwt.

.44 per cwt.

1.00 per ewt.

.80

per cwt.

.32 per cwt.

All the rates

payable in gold.

mentioned in the above table were

While the fare from Colon to Panama

was at the rate of over 50 cents gold per mile, in those days it was not considered excessive, in fact, travelers

congratulated themselves upon getting over the Isthmus so easily and cheaply. Children under twelve years of age were charged half fare, or $12.50, while the rate to residents on the Isthmus was commuted to the flat amount of $50.00 per month. A large number of articles at that time did not come under the general classification, and carried special rates. One quarter of one per cent. of its value was charged for the transportation of gold across the Isthmus. Silver was charged one-half of one per cent.; jewelry and precious stones one quarter of one per cent.; indigo and cochineal, 2 cents per pound; coffee and cocoa 1 cent per pound; coal in bulk $9.00 per ton of 2240 pounds; coal in bags $7.00 per ton of 2240 pounds, iron in pigs $7.50 per ton; rolled iron $10.00 per ton; white pine lumber $18.00 per thousand feet; yellow pine lumber $20.00 per thousand feet, and oak at $22.00 per thousand feet. Horses, mules and cattle were transported at owners' risk. The rate on horses was $40.00 each, mules $20.00, and cattle $7.00. All bills for freight had to be paid in advance, but the management in in its first schedule made the consoling announcement that as as the business of the road would warrant, some of the above rates might be materially reduced.

soon

The baggage charge was a feature the traveling public did not like, especially inasmuch as the management rated overcoats, umbrellas and the like under this head. So much "kicking" resulted that about three months after the first rates were put into effect, the company permitted passengers fifty pounds of baggage free.

The first-class passenger rate between Colon and Panama at the time the United States took the railroad over was $5.00 gold. On the first of August. 1904, the rate was reduced to $4.00. Later it came down to $2.80, and again to $2.40 where it stands at the present time.

Passenger traffic over the railroad during the past year or so has shown an enormous increase. This is in part due to the constant accessions in the ranks of the

La Dalia

Cardoze Hermanos.

Corner of Avenue B and 8th Street,

PANAMA.

A Varied Assortment of

DRY GOODS

Always on Hand.

Sole Agency for the SINGER SEWING MACHINES.

Commission employes on the Isthmus, and in part to the great liberality with which these were formerly treated in the matter of passes. Inasmuch as the Isthmian Canal Commission pays to the Panama Railroad Company a certain sum monthly (said to be $5,000 at the present time) for passenger transportation, the increase or decrease of such sum being dependent upon the amount of travel, it be hooved the former to curtail these privileges to some extent. Notwithstanding, gold employes are allowed a courtesy pass once a month, while the privilege of half rates is extended to all classes of employes and their families at any time.

Most of the freight is now hauled across the Isthmus at night. The completion of the Tehuantepee Railway does not appear to have had any appreciable effect on the trans-Isthmian business to date, while the local business is constantly increasing in volume. The freight traffic is

generally heaviest during the months of January and

Some Comparisons as to Rates.

155

February when the coffee crops of Ecuador and Central America are moving.

Some Railroad Earnings.

The railroad paid dividends on its capital stock every year from 1853 to 1892. The smallest dividend during this entire period was two per cent, in 1885, and the largest 44 per cent. in 1868. In 1865 the capital stock was increased from $5.000,000 to $7.000.000. In 1881,