COL6N, sometimes called ASPINWALL, Panama, city of 20,000 inhabitants on the north ern side of the Isthmus of Panama, connected with the city of Panama by a railway 49 miles in leng-th. During the civil war in M5 it was partly burned, but has been rebuilt. It stands geographically within the Canal Zone, upon an island which divides an inlet of the sea into the ports called Manzanillo and Limon Bay. American marines and sailors were landed there during the revolutions which began in 1885, 1899 and 1903, in accordance with the treaty by which the United States guarantees to pre serve from interruption free transit across the isthmus. It is the northern terminus of the Panama Railway and the Panama Canal. Prac tically all of the land in the city is owned by the Panama Railroad, under its original fran chise from the United States of Colombia, and as the United States now owns the Panama Railroad it has thus become the owner of the land, but cannot sell it. Adjacent to Colon, on Lim6n Bay and practically forming a part of the city, is the American city of Cristobal, where are located the great cold-storage plant of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the shops of the Panama Railroad. The deep but exposed harbor of Colon, in Limon Bay, is inferior to that of Porto Bello, 20 miles to the east, but has been improved by a long break water from Toro Point, erected by the Canal Commission. Steamships can come alongside the piers and the docking equipments are modern, including cranes and other ap paratus. Colon was formerly either the terminus or a port of call for about a dozen lines of steamships. The city has served as an entrepOt for much of the commerce be tween Atlantic and Pacific ports, but has lost much of its steamship business to the new and better equipped port of Cristobal. In 1915 the number of steamships entering the port of Colon was 103 (275,410 tons) as compared with 687 (2,120,704 tons) in 1914. In addition 131 sailing vessels, of 4,536 tons, entered this port. The imports into Colon for the year 1915 were valued at $3,892,534. Of this amount, a value of $2,833,439 was taken from the United States and a value of $740,155 from Great Britain and her colonies. Figures for the exports are not
available except those for exports going to the United States, furnished by the American consulate. The value of these exports for 1915 was $509,583. Of this total the larger items were: Coconuts, $234,205; rubber, balata, $128, 794; tagua (ivory) nuts, $56,420; turtle shells, $29,778; cocoa, $17,850; and hides, $15,202. The prevalence of war in Europe has served to revolutionize the foreign trade of Colon, and the above figures must be regarded as indicating only a passing condition. Colon consists largely of unattractive frame houses and small shops, but many of the newer houses, including the modern municipal building and the principal public school, are of concrete. Following the great fire of April 1915, which destroyed 20 blocks in the business section of Colon, this part of the city is being rebuilt with substantial concrete structures in modern style. Under the treaty of 1903 the cities of Colon and Panama, while remaining Panaman territory, came under the jurisdiction of the United States in all matters relating to sanitation and quarantine. Formerly Collin was a notoriously unhealthful place, but the unsanitary conditions were rem edied by the Canal Commission in 1906-07; sewers and a system of waterworks were con structed and stringent sanitary regulations es tablished. Unlike Panama, Colon is not an old city, having been founded in 1850 by the build ers of the Panama Railroad, which was pleted in 1855. For a time it was called wall, in honor of William H. Aspinwall, one of the builders of the railroad, but subsequently the name was changed by statute to Colon, in honor of Christopher Columbus, who sailed into Limon Bay in 1502. A fine statue of Columbus, the gift of Empress Eugenie in 1870, stands near the mouth of the old (French) canal in the present city of Cristobal. When the Canal Commission undertook its work, the population of Colon was probablynot much Aver 3,000, J consisting largely of Jamaica negroes and of natives of mixed Spanish, Indian and negro blood. The census of 1911 returned a popu lation of 17,748; estimated by the Isthmian Business Directory at 20,000 in 1915.