Content Description John L. Stephens (1805 - 1852), with Henry Chauncey and William H. Aspinwall, played a crucial role in the planning, financing and promotion of the Panama Railroad, the first commercial link between the Atlantic and Pacific that traversed the Isthmus of Panama. An attorney by profession, Stephens tired of his legal career and, using health as an excuse, began a two-year voyage in 1834 to Europe and the Mediterranean. Beginning in 1837, Stephens published accounts of his travels:...