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AMERICA'S LEGACY IN PANAMA

PANAMA CANAL TREATY TRANSITION

END OF AN ERA

U.S. MILITARY IN PANAMA

U.S. MILITARY IN REGION-History

LIFE AFTER SOUTHCOM

SOUTHCOM TODAY

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By WHO /By Others
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PANAMA    

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ARI (Interoceanic Region Authority)

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Ruins of Panama Viejo, the original Panama City which was founded in 1519 and built on the coast across the Bay of Panama from the current Casco Viejo or colonial Panama City to where it was relocated in 1673 after Panama Viejo was destroyed by the English pirate Henry Morgan in 1671. In its day, Panama Viejo was an important point of commerce between the Americas and Spain. (Much more, in Spanish, at http://www.panamaviejo.org/) Fort San Lorenzo -- Old Spanish fortress at the mouth of the Chagres River on the Caribbean coast near Fort Sherman. [Source: World Monuments Fund/Panama site, www.wmfpanama.org/index.html]

FROM 16TH CENTURY COLONIAL TIMES

Portobello -- Old Spanish garrison and Customs house on the Atlantic side of the isthmus of Panama.

 One of the cannons at Fort San Lorenzo [Source: Photo by Eric Jackson, The Panama News, Feb 5-19, 2005, www.thepanamanews.com/ pn/v_11/issue_03/travel_01.html 

Panama City (shortly after 2000)-- Areas of Balboa Boulevard, Bay of Panama, banking area in Marbella (left background), and Paitilla (the latter in the right background) -- photographed from top of Ancon Hill. Older parts of the city are in the foreground. The lone high-rise building on the far right background (to the right and behind Paitilla area) was the beginning of the new Punta Pacifica area created by landfill of area near the site of the former Paitilla airport now at Albrook. [Photo courtesy of Inteoceanic Region Authority (ARI) website, www.ari.gob.pa]

 Colon Free Zone, founded in 1947 next to the city of Colon on the Atlantic side of the isthmus of Panama, is the largest free trade zone of the Americas. Located near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, dedicated to re-exports of an enormous variety of merchandise to Latin America and the Caribbean.

TO 21ST CENTURY  PANAMA 

CROSSROADS OF WORLD TRADE

AND

NASCENT REGIONAL TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICAL HUB OF THE AMERICAS

Panama City Skyline (about 2003) -- Areas of Balboa Boulevard, Yacht club, Bay of Panama, new Miramar Hotel and Condominium complex (two high towers and two adjacent towers in center of photo), banking area in Marbella, and Paitilla residential and business area [Photo courtesy of Inteoceanic Region Authority (ARI) from its website, www.ari.gob.pa]
Panama Canal's Miraflores Locks (before 2000), the first set of locks for ships entering the Canal from the Pacific -- Albrook area and Ancon Hill in the right background; part of Panama City in distant left background  [Photo courtesy of Panama Canal Authority from its website, www.pancanal.com] Container ship transiting Gatun Locks, the only set of locks of the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side of the isthmus of Panama.  [Courtesy of Panama Canal Authority from its El Foro newsletter, 17-30 October 2003]
Passenger cruise ship transiting Miraflores Locks -- Since 2000, several cruise ships have been docking in Panama at Cristobal (on the Atlantic side) or more recently also at Flamenco Island (on the Pacific side) for a day or two as part of their cruise schedules [Source: Panama Canal Authority website, www.pancanal.com]
Mansanillo International Terminal (MIT) port constructed on part of the former Coco Solo Naval Base on the Atlantic side and opened in mid-1995.  [Photo by and courtesy of Mauro, 2007] Panama Railroad hauling containers -- Today the completely renovated Panama Railroad's business is transporting containers from one side of the isthmus of Panama to the other. [Source: Panama Canal Authority El Foro newsletter 17-30 Sep 04, photo by Rodolfo Valdez] Panama Railroad, in addition to its primary business of moving containers across the isthmus, provides limited passenger service. [Photo courtesy of Panama Canal Authority from its newsletter, El Foro, 2-24 July 2004]  Passenger cruise ships since 2000 dock at Cristobal Dock 6 pier on Atlantic side and some at Flamenco Island on Pacific side [Photo by Cecilio Simpson, ACP El Foro 29 Apr-12 May05; courtesy of ACP]
ALBROOK TODAY -- The former Albrook Air Force Base (later changed to Air Force Station) has been converted in the late 1990s to the site of Marcos A. Gelabert Airport (domestic flights) which was relocated in 1999 from the Paitilla area across Panama City. Other additions include a new National Transport Center (for all buses servicing Panama City and the interior parts of the country) and the large Albrook Shopping Mall (next to the Transport Center and both next to the airstrip (on right side of the photo), plus newly constructed housing areas, apartment complexes, and two small shopping centers (latter on the left side of the photo). [Photo courtesy of  Inteoceanic Region Authority (ARI) from its website, www.ari.gob.pa]   

New National Transport Center (for all buses servicing Panama City and the interior parts of the country) between the North Corridor and the Albrook Shopping Mall. [Photo courtesy of  Inteoceanic Region Authority (ARI) from its website, www.ari.gob.pa]   
One of the many stores, boutiques, restaurants, movie theaters, etc., of the large Albrook Shopping Mall. [Photo courtesy of Allan Hawkins Jan 2005]
Ciudad del Saber (City of Knowledge) -- new consortium of educational institutions, research and new- technology centers, and technical-industrial park the largest entity established at Fort Clayton since Clayton's transfer to Panama 1999.  Flamenco Mall on Flamenco Island near Amador part of the Fuerte Amador Resort and Marina (FARM) tourist complex of shopping areas, restaurants, nightclubs, yacht club with docking for passenger cruise ships and custom duty free stores. Flamenco was part of former Fort Grant, one of several coast artillery fortifications during World Wars I and II. [Photo by WHO 2002] Hotel Melía Panama Canal at Espinar (former Fort Gulick) on Atlantic side -- Complete remodeling and expansion of the former U.S. Army School of the Americas headquarters building 400, Mundinger Hall into a five-star hotel and maintaining the same exterior architecture [Source: Inteoceanic Region Authority (ARI) website, www.ari.gob.pa]

Scroll slowly over above photos for photo captions and sources

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This page last updated: July 6, 2007
Site developed, owned and maintained by  

William H. Ormsbee, Jr.  2005-2007