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A straight line from Chicago passes through Panama
City, Florida and continues on to the Panama Canal.
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The development in this once unincorporated part of
Northwest Florida had previous names such as Floriopolis, Park Resort, and
Harrison. In 1906, the development was named Panama City and it was first
incorporated as Panama City in 1909. According to the Panama City Public Library's
A History of Panama City, George Mortimer West hoped to spur real estate
development in Bay County during a period of intense popular interest in the
construction of the Panama Canal by changing the town's name from Harrison to
Panama City, because a straight line between Chicago and the capital of the
Central American country of Panama intersected the Florida town. Additionally,
since required meanders around land formations in a seaborne route to the canal
added distance when starting at other ports, Panama City was the closest
developed port in the US mainland to the Caribbean entrance of the Panama
Canal.
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