Photo of the Week

Another fantastic photo from the early days. This one is from 1907, four years after Panama received it's independence from Columbia. This street shown above has been probably the busiest street in the country of Panama to date. Front Street, Colon was the hub of all activity since the building of the Panama Railroad in 1855, through out all the years in between. What a wonderful old photo. The original scan is a very good one and can be zoomed into to study the details and what a study!

One thing that caught my eye is the large light suspended over the street that I have a yellow arrow pointing out. This is one of the early street lights for this era. It is a carbon arc lamp that were widely-used type of electric light and the first commercially successful form of electric lamp. There is another photo of the week on my website that addresses the carbon are lamp, but I can find the page. The carbon are lamp was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1886. Goggle carbon arc lamp to read more if interested. It is a fascinated story.