Balboa, Panama

Former YMCA Building in 2014

The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean. The name was suggested to the Panama Canal Zone authorities by the Peruvian ambassador to Panama. Prior to being drained, filled, and leveled by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the hilly area north of Panama City was home to a few subsistence ranches and unused marshlands.

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

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.[1]

Balboa has a multimodal (ship-to-train) terminal, called 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.

Formerly a part of the Canal Zone, Balboa is now part of Panama City'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, 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 today 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.

• Naval Base Panama Canal Zone