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Balboa
Balboa
Coordinates:8°57′N79°34′W / 8.950°N 79.567°W /8.950; -79.567
Country	Panama
Population
• Total	~10,000[citation needed]

Balboa is a district ofPanama City, located at thePacific entrance to thePanama Canal. It was the capital of thePanama Canal Zone underAmerican administration.

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The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named afterVasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanishconquistador credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean. The name was suggested to thePanama Canal Zone authorities by thePeruvian ambassador toPanama. The hilly area north of Panama City was home to a few subsistence ranches and unusedmarshlands prior to being drained, filled, and leveled by theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers.

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

Until 1979, when the Canal Zone as a solely U.S. territory was abolished under the terms of thePanama Canal Treaties, the town of Balboa was the administrative center of the Canal Zone, and remained so until midday on December 31, 1999, when, according to the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the Panama Canal and all its assets and territories were fully returned to the Panamanian government.

The Panama Canal Administration Building, the former seat of the Canal Zone Government andPanama Canal Company, is located inBalboa Heights and is used as the main administration building for the agency that runs the Panama Canal — previously thePanama Canal Commission, now thePanama Canal Authority. The building has largemurals painted byWilliam B. Van Ingen, depicting the construction of the canal.

AUnited States Navyvery-low-frequency transmitting station (callsign NBA) near Balboa began service around 1915. It transmitted orders to submergedsubmarines.

Balboa is the Pacific-side port of the Panama Canal. The port has a dry dock inPanamax 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, thePacific Terminal, connected to Colón by thePanama 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.

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Formerly a part of theCanal Zone, Balboa is now part ofPanama City's township ofAncón. Since its incorporation into theRepublic 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 theBridge 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 ofTorrijos-Carter Treaties) brought the closure of related facilities and institutions, such asBalboa High School and some English-language churches, obviously because they were mostly available for Americans.

Sightseeing highlights for anyone visiting Balboa during the 2020s include the Administration Building,Mi Pueblito Afroantillano, scenic overlook of Ancon Hill (from which a set of locks of the Canal can be seen), monumentHomenaje a la Democracia, theGoethals 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.^{[citation needed]}

• Naval Base Panama Canal Zone

Wikivoyage has a travel guide forBalboa.

• Populated places in Panamá Province
• Panama Canal
• Panama Canal Zone Townships
• Geography of Panama City
• Ports and harbours of Panama

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