Note XXXIV-26 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

The difficulties of the ground and climate, together with scanty resources of the country and scarcity of labor, were overcome. The road runs on the easterly bank of the Chagres River as far as Barbacoas, where it crosses the river over a bridge 625 ft long, 18 ft broad, and 40 ft above the mean level. A full account of the construction may be found in Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 1-46; Thornton's Oregon and Cal., ii. 349-52; Pim's Gateway, 192-209, 415-28; Nic., Corr. Ist., May 30, June 12, 1850; De Bow's Encyc., pt ii. 493-4; Fremont's Am. Trav., 171-2, and other authorities too numerous to name here. The construction cost many lives of all nationalities, owing to the climate; and was finally completed with negroes of the Isthmus, Jamaica, the coast of Cartagena and Santa Marta. Maldonado, Asuntos Polít., MS., 6.