Cristobal, Panama

Cristóbal Corregimiento
County
Cristóbal's Bldg. 1104
Cristóbal
Coordinates: 9°21′N 79°54′W / 9.350°N 79.900°W / 9.350; -79.900Coordinates: 9°21′N 79°54′W / 9.350°N 79.900°W / 9.350; -79.900
Country	Panama
Province	Colón
District	Colón
Area
• Land	428.5 km2 (165.4 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Total	49,422
• Density	115.3/km2 (299/sq mi)
	Population density calculated based on land area.
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)

Cristóbal is a port town and county in Colón District, Colón Province, Panama with a population of 49,422 as of 2010. It is located on the western edge of Manzanillo Island, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Cristóbal Colón is the Spanish translation for Christopher Columbus, the Genovese explorer for whom these places were named.

What came to be known as "Old Cristóbal," and today consists of the port of Cristóbal, was first built by the Panama Railroad Company in the 1850s at the time they dredged part of the 650 acres (2.6 km²) of virgin swamp on Manzanillo Island to build their headquarters and port of arrival for railway travelers. In the 1880s, the French Inter-Oceanic Canal Company arrived to find the port of Colón (then Aspinwall) just a few streets wide and long while the rest of Manzanillo Island was still a swamp. They used soil from their canal excavation works to create a landfill on a coral reef adjacent to the Panama Railroad's area of Colon. This new landfill area, upon which the French built their facilities, was called Christophe Colombe, a name which was translated in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.

In 1904, after Panama's US-backed declaration of independence from Colombia, the Canal Commission set up its provisional headquarters in Cristóbal. By then, the United States had purchased the French Canal enterprise's assets in Panama and had secured use and control of the Canal Zone "in perpetuity." The Panama Railroad's assets also came under Canal Zone control, and its facilities became part of the Canal Zone town of Cristóbal.

Cristóbal was of vital importance to the American plan to build the Panama Canal. Much like the city of Colón (formerly Aspinwall) had been during the American construction of the Panama Railroad, Cristobal was the port of entry for construction equipment and materials, most canal workers, and supplies and provisions for them and their dependents. High priority was given to building up the town beyond the existing French and Panama Railroad facilities.

By April 1906 Cristóbal had a population of 2,101, and 489 of these were American. Just a year later the population had topped 4,000, a quarter of which were American. Construction of facilities for gold roll and silver roll employees (terms that respectively designated mostly white Americans and mostly West Indian laborers working on the construction of the Canal) was underway and housing was expanded, though many bachelors and silver roll employees were housed in box cars given the lack of sufficient housing throughout the Canal Zone. Also that year, the former French and Panama Railroad hospitals were consolidated and refurbished.