Panama and the Canal in Picture and Prose

Panama and the Canal in Picture and Prose written by Willis J. Abbott is a  complete story of Panama, as well as the history, purpose and promise of its world-famous canal—the most gigantic engineering undertaking since the dawn of time.

The gray sun of a bitter February day was sinking in a swirling sea as the ship doggedly plowed its way southward along the New Jersey coast. One after another the beacons that guard that perilous strip of sand twinkled out, and one after another voyagers unused to ocean’s stormiest moods silently disappeared into secretive cabins. “It may be a stern and rockbound coast,” said one lady with poetic reminiscence, “but I wish I was on it!” For it must be set down as a melancholy truth that the voyage from New York to Colon is as a rule tempestuous.