1855 Isthmus of Panama Railroad Track and Tie Pair (03/17/2011)

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1855 Isthmus of Panama Railroad Track and Tie Pair

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1855 Isthmus of Panama Railroad Track and Tie Pair

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Sold Date: 03/17/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Transportation and Vehicles

I believe these are bookends but could just be separate displays. There are two of them. Each has a piece of steel rail and the wood used for the ties for the First Rail Crossing the Isthmus of Panama which was completed in 1855. Here is some data from Wikipedia:
"Constructing the Railroad

In May 1850, the first sod was turned on the railroad construction; but very quickly, the difficulty of the scheme became apparent. Much of the route was through jungle swamps, the heat was stifling, mosquitoes were everywhere and deluges of rain for almost half the year required some of the workers to work in water up to four feet deep. The swamps were apparently endlessly deep often requiring over a hundred feet (30 m) of gravel backfill to secure a roadbed. The only power equipment they had was the railroad and its locomotives; the rest of the work had to be done by pick and shovel and mule cart. Cholera , Yellow fever and malaria took a deadly toll, and despite the continual importation of large numbers of new workers, there were times when the work stalled for simple lack of alive and semi-fit workers. All supplies, and nearly all food stuffs had to be imported from thousands of miles away, greatly adding to the cost of construction. Laborers came from as far away as Ireland, India, China and Australia . The project's fortunes turned in November 1851, just as they were running out of the original $1,000,000, when two large steamships with about 1,000 passengers were forced to shelter in Limón Bay , Panama due to a hurricane in the Caribbean . Since the railroad's docks had been completed by this time, and rail had been laid 7 miles (11 km) up to the town of Gatún on the Chagres River, it was possible to unload the ships' cargoes of emigrants and their luggage and transport them by rail — using flat cars — for at least the first part of their journey up the Chagres River. Desperate to get off the boats and across the Isthmus, the gold seekers paid $0.50 per mile and $3.00 per 100 pounds of luggage to be hauled to the end of the track. This infusion of money saved the company and made it an ongoing money maker. The directors of the company immediately ordered passenger cars, and the railway began operation with initially 40 miles (64 km) of track still to be laid. Each year they added more and more track and charged more for their services. This greatly boosted the value of the company's franchise, which enabled it to sell more stock to finance the remainder of the project which took over $8,000,000 and from 5,000 to 10,000 lives to complete.

By July 1852 they had finished 23 miles (37 km) of track and reached the Chagres River where a massive bridge had to be built. The first wooden bridge they built failed when the Chagres river rose over 40 feet (12 m) in a day and washed it away. They then started work on a much higher 300-foot-long (91 m) massive iron bridge which took over a year to finish. In all over 170 more bridges and culverts had to be built.

In January 1854, excavation began at the summit of the Continental Divide , where the earth had to be cut down over 40 feet. Several months were spent digging this cut. The road over the crest of the continental divide, at Culebra, now called the Gaillard Cut , was finally completed from the Atlantic side in January 1855, thirty-seven miles (60 km) of track having been laid from Colón (then called Aspinwall). A second team, working under less harsh conditions with railroad track, ties, railroad cars, locomotives and other supplies brought around Cape Horn by ship, completed their 11 miles (18 km) of track from Panamá City to the summit on the Pacific side of the Isthmus on a rainy midnight on January 27, 1855. Lit by sputtering whale oil lamps, the last rail was set in place on pine crossties. The final spike was held in position and George Totten, chief engineer, in a pouring rain with a nine-pound maul drove the spike that completed the railroad. The next day the first locomotive with passenger cars pass...