Balboa is a district of

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

, located at the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

entrance to the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. It was the capital of the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone (), also known as just the Canal Zone, was a International zone#Concessions, concession of the United States located in the Isthmus of Panama that existed from 1903 to 1979. It consisted of the Panama Canal and an area gene ...

under American administration.

History

Former_YMCA_building_in_Panama_Canal_Zone

The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after

Vasco Núñez de Balboa Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish people, Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to ...

, the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean. The name was suggested to the

authorities by the

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian ambassador to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. The hilly area north of Panama City was home to a few subsistence ranches and unused

marshland In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in general ...

s prior to being drained, filled, and leveled by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

. The town of Balboa, like most towns in the Canal Zone, was served by the Canal Zone Government–operated schools, post office, police and fire stations, commissary, cafeteria, movie theater, service center, bowling alley, other recreational facilities and company stores. There were several schools in the area, including Balboa Elementary School, Balboa High School, and the private St. Mary's School. The town was also home to two private banks, a credit union, a Jewish Welfare Board, several Christian denomination churches, civic clubs (such as the Elks Club and the Knights of Columbus), a Masonic Lodge, a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

, several historic monuments, and a miniature Statue of Liberty donated by the Boy Scouts of America.

Panama Canal Treaties

Until 1979, when the Canal Zone as a solely U.S. territory was abolished under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaties, the town of Balboa was the administrative center of the Canal Zone, and remained so until midday on December 31, 1999, when, according to the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the Panama Canal and all its assets and territories were fully returned to the Panamanian government.

Panama Canal Administration Building

The Panama Canal Administration Building, the former seat of the Canal Zone Government and Panama Canal Company, is located in Balboa Heights and is used as the main administration building for the agency that runs the Panama Canal — previously the Panama Canal Commission, now the Panama Canal Authority. The building has large

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s painted by William B. Van Ingen, depicting the construction of the canal.

Balboa Naval Transmitting Station

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

very-low-frequency transmitting station (callsign NBA) near Balboa began service around 1915. It transmitted orders to submerged

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

Port of Balboa

Balboa is the Pacific-side port of the Panama Canal. The port has a dry dock in Panamax size (even the gates have a construction similar to that of the locks of the Panama canal). In 2012, Balboa was ranked the busiest container port in Latin America. Balboa has a multimodal (ship-to-train) terminal, the Pacific Terminal, connected to Colón by the Panama Canal Railway. This allows transportation of containers by train across the isthmus. The railway also runs a passenger service between Panama City and Colón, once a day, each way.

Climate

Current highlights

Formerly a part of the Canal Zone, Balboa is now part of

's township of Ancón. Since its incorporation into the Republic of Panama, part of Balboa has been developed to enhance the port's capacity and to adapt to private ownership of residences (previously owned by the U.S. Government/Canal Zone Government/Panama Canal Company, and rented to employees thereof) and some small companies and restaurants. The rapid growth of the West-side population of Panama's province has resulted in increased car traffic because one of the only two ways available to cross towards the west side of the country is the

Bridge of the Americas The Bridge of the Americas (; originally known as the Thatcher Ferry Bridge) is a road bridge in Panama which spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Designed by American civil engineering company Sverdrup & Parcel, it was completed ...

, which is an issue being solved by the construction of new streets. Demographic changes resulting from the departure of most of the American population (because of Torrijos-Carter Treaties) brought the closure of related facilities and institutions, such as Balboa High School and some English-language churches, obviously because they were mostly available for Americans. Sightseeing highlights for anyone visiting Balboa during the 2020s include the Administration Building, ''Mi Pueblito Afroantillano'', scenic overlook of Ancon Hill (from which a set of locks of the Canal can be seen), monument ''Homenaje a la Democracia'', the Goethals Memorial, the Prado, two handicraft markets, three bed-and-breakfast hotels, and a country store and café near the Administration Building. The population as of the 1990 census was 1,214.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Panamá Province Panama Canal Panama Canal Zone Townships Geography of Panama City Ports and harbours of Panama