Why go
Follow the city's history through places that still carry it: Panamá Viejo and Casco Viejo mark its move, while Balboa and Ancón recall the Canal Zone. This wider view helps explain why Panama City's neighborhoods look and feel so different from one another.
The full story
Panama City grew first as a Pacific link in Spain's colonial trade network. The settlement founded in 1519 was destroyed after the 1671 attack by Henry Morgan, and the rebuilt city took shape on the Casco Viejo peninsula. These two sites preserve the first great change in its geography. The isthmus became a route of renewed importance during the California Gold Rush. The Panama Railroad, operating from 1855, connected the Atlantic and Pacific sides. Canal construction later changed the city's economy and infrastructure, while bringing workers from the Caribbean and creating new social tensions. The U.S.-administered Canal Zone placed restricted areas beside Panamanian neighborhoods; those divisions help explain the significance of the events remembered as Martyrs' Day in 1964. The 1989 U.S. invasion left another urban trace. Fire destroyed part of El Chorrillo, a neighborhood next to the old quarter. Panama City's history is therefore best understood across several districts, rather than through a single monument or a single colonial date.