Detailed Description

Title: Datos sobre la historia del Ferrocarril del Pacífico.
Creator: Gutiérrez, Rufino.
Publication Info: Bogotá : Arboleda y Valencia, 1919.
Physical Details: 47 p. ; 24.3 x 16.3 cms
Physical Condition: Wrappers worn and stained slightly, some dog-earing and yellowing of interior pages which remain fair.

Summary: A historical account of the many attempts to build a road and a railway to keep the Pacific coast connected to the interior of the country. Branch lines from Cali to Popayán in the south and Cartago in the north were begun in 1914. This railroad served the region on "an east-west axis from Buenaventura to Armenia and a north-south one from Cartago to Popayán." ("Pacific Railroad" In Robert Davis, Historical Dictionary of Colombia, 1977, p. 165).
Historical Notes: During the first decades of the twentieth century, from the loss of Panama to the worldwide economic depression, Colombia experienced the longest period of political stability in its history to that point. Political stability came accompanied, to a certain extent, by steady economic and technological development, as well as urbanization, and social policies aimed towards converting Colombia into a modern nation. Beginning in the 1870s, Colombian governments saw railroads as the icon of modernity, the panacea for the economic development of the country. Just between 1904 and 1909, for example -roughly the Rafael Reyes presidency-, Colombian railways in operation grew in length from 565 to 901 kilometers. Bogotá was finally connected to the Magdalena River by the Girardot Railroad, which linked that river port with the capital, and continued to Facatativá. Other key routes were also developed, such as the Antioquia Railroad in 1914, which linked Medellín with the Magdalena, and the Pacific Railroad in 1915 , that would connect Cali with the Pacific port of Buenaventura. (See for example Juan Santiago Correa Restrepo, De Buenaventura al Caribe: El ferrocarril del Pacífico y la conexión interoceánica, 1872-2012. Bogotá: CESA, 2012).
Donor Notes: A learned sketch of the history of the Ferrocarril del Pacífico as it stood in 1919. - J.L.H.

Subject(s): Ferrocarril del Pacífico
Railroads -- Colombia -- History -- 20th century
Colombia -- Economic conditions -- 20th century

Type: Pamphlet
Language: Spanish
Donor: J. León Helguera
Collection: Helguera
Institution: Vanderbilt university
Accession Number: P01931
Record Number: 516