of the Spaniards and the bucaneers, hundreds of years before the first Chinese set foot on the Isthmus. "Matachin" is an old Spanish word meaning "Butcher." Very likely the village was so called because some one lived there who slaughtered cattle and supplied the travelers up-river with fresh meat. There is no authority for the other story.
PANAMA AND THE PAN-AMERICAN
RAILROAD
There is no way of reaching Panama by railroad from either North or South America. Some day, a line may be built through the length of the three Americas, from Alaska to Patagonia, but at present (1912) there are long stretches where even a horse could not go. Except for a rough overland trail to Costa Rica, the Canal Zone is virtually an island, surrounded on two sides by water and on the other two by the jungle. Proposals have been made for a railroad to run from Panama City to David, the capital of the Province of Chiriqui, and for another through the San Blas country to South America, but there is small probability of their being built in the immediate future. Any railroad crossing the Canal will have to build an expensive bridge between Gold Hill and Contractor's Hill, high enough to clear the masts of the tallest ships.
A story is told of a visiting Congressman, who had been seasick all the way from New York to Cristobal. When he saw " P. R. R." on the Panama Railroad freight cars on the dock, he exclaimed: "I'd never have come this way if I'd known there was a Pennsylvania Railroad station so handy!"
SPILLWAY, GATUN DAM[1]
The spillway is a concrete-lined channel 1,200 feet long and 285 feet wide cut through a hill of rock nearly in the
- ↑ Official Handbook.
