COLON

city, eastern Matanzas province, west-central Cuba. The city is situated on an inland plain where sugarcane, fruits, and tobacco are grown and poultry and cattle are raised. The area also yields honey. Coln processes the farm products and has tobacco factories and a fruit-dehydration plant. The city lies on the central highway and a major railroad. Pop. (1989 est.) 66,900. city, north-central Panama. Founded in 1850 at the Atlantic (northern) terminus of the original Panama railway, the settlement was first called Aspinwall after one of the builders of the railway. Coln is the Spanish form of Columbus; the name of the neighboring port of Cristbal is Spanish for Christopher. After completion of the railway in 1855, Coln overshadowed the older Caribbean ports of Panama, and with the first plans for the isthmian canal it took on additional prestige. Built on swampy Manzanillo Island, the city was notoriously unhealthful until U.S. Colonel William C. Gorgas, in charge of sanitation during the canal construction, gave it a new system of waterworks and sewerage and drained the surrounding swamps. The great portworks and docks built by the U.S. government in the former Canal Zone at Cristbal, now virtually a suburb, make Coln one of the most important ports of the Caribbean Sea. The city's population is largely black, chiefly descendants of labourers imported from the British West Indies during construction of the canal. A busy tourist centre, Coln contains a customhouse, large public buildings, churches, and several modern hotels. It is on the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway, which runs to Panama City, and it has an airport. Pop. (1989 est.) 58,479.