Trolley Thursday 2/10/22 - The Panama Tramways

If one talks about the country of Panama (and its identically named City of Panama), most conversations stop at the giant canal built through gunboat diplomacy by 1914. However, the history of Panama does go on beyond the giant Canal, as the city had famously been sacked by privateer Henry Morgan in 1671 and reestablished a distance away by 1673. With the new Panama eventually came a new streetcar system that, like the Canal as its contemporary, continued to be a hotbed of constant reorganization, interruption, and commercial importance to the slender isthmus. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look at how electric streetcars built up Panama and what came after, if anything came after.