Cardenas was a township in the old Panama Canal Zone. Built on a site that was originally intended for Panama Canal Company housing, it was originally founded to house Federal Aviation Administration personnel.[1] It housed 425 FAA personnel.[2] Later, the 120 housing units built for the FAA were supplemented by 11 homes for staff members of the Middle America Research Unit (MARU), a medical research laboratory of the National Institute of Health (NIH).[2]