The Panama Canal
I WAS AMAZED TO SEE THE MlRAFLORES Bridge in the Panama Canal cover picture of the Fall 1996 issue. It is plainly visible at the entrance of the lock, on either side, a drawbridge in its open position. The Bridge of the Americas replaced it; I would have thought it had been dismantled. When I lived in Panama, between 1951 and 1959, the Miraflores Bridge and the nearby Thatcher Ferry were the routes across the canal. Canal traffic took precedence, and until a transiting vessel passed, the bridge opened, the ferry waited, and all vehicle and pedestrian traffic across the isthmus was stalled.
Phyllis R. Heller
Albany, N.Y.