Chagres and Fort San Lorenzo

Chagres, once the chief Atlantic port on the isthmus of Panama, is now an abandoned village at the historical site of Fort San Lorenzo. The fort's ruins and the village site are located about west of Colón, on a promontory overlooking the mouth of the Chagres River. 16th and 17th centuries: Discovery and fortification In 1502, during his fourth and final voyage, Christopher Columbus discovered the Chagres River. By 1534, the Monarchy of Spain had, following its conquest of Peru, established a rainy-season gold route over the isthmus of Panama—Camino Real de Cruces—using mule trains and the Chagres River. The trail connected the Pacific port of Panama City to the mouth of the Chagres, from whence Peru's plunder would sail to Spain's storehouses in the leading Atlantic ports of the isthmus: Nombre de Dios, at first; and, later, Portobelo. (The dry-season, overland route—the Camino Real—connected Panama City with those ports directly.)