Is a Ship Canal Practicable?: Notes, Historical and Statistical, Upon the Projected Routes for an Interoceanic Ship Canal Between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in Which is Included a Short Account of the Character and Influence of the Canal of Suez, and the Probable Effects Upon the Commerce of the World of the Two Canals, Regarded Either as Rivals, or as Parts of One System of Interoceanic NavigationAbert, S. T. (Silvanus Thayer)
History
Is a Ship Canal Practicable?: Notes, Historical and Statistical, Upon the Projected Routes for an Interoceanic Ship Canal Between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in Which is Included a Short Account of the Character and Influence of the Canal of Suez, and the Probable Effects Upon the Commerce of the World of the Two Canals, Regarded Either as Rivals, or as Parts of One System of Interoceanic Navigation
Abert, S. T. (Silvanus Thayer)
Canals, Interoceanic
Where the Cyane lay during the bombardment of Greytown a luxuriant
grass marsh is now growing. It has not been many years since this
harbor afforded refuge for shipping of ordinary draught, but it is not
unusual, at the present time, to find the harbor so completely closed
during a storm that a pedestrian may walk dry-footed across the former
entrance. Upon such occasion the harbor of Greytown is converted into
a lagoon until after the storm, when the accumulating water of the San
Juan erodes for itself a new outlet to the ocean.
It is apparent some other initial point must be found before this route
can be seriously considered as a suitable terminus for interoceanic
communication. Monkey Point is said to supply a good anchorage, and has
been suggested for this purpose. Monkey Point affords anchorage for
ships drawing rather more than three fathoms. By joining the island
with a breakwater of _pierre perdu_, of the length of about twelve
hundred feet, a good harbor, affording five fathoms water, can be
obtained.
The writer is not aware that any surveys have ever been made for
connecting this point with the San Juan river, or with the lakes. It
is therefore unnecessary to mention other reports upon the same route,
or to do more than to refer to the plans, profiles, and details of the
“Interoceanic Canal of Nicaragua,” submitted at the Paris exhibition by
L. J. Thome de Gamond. The report of M. de Gamond is not at hand.
A healthy and productive country; two lakes affording an inexhaustible
supply for a summit level; a divide easily overcome at an altitude
represented as 174 feet, and the convenient channel of the San Juan,
through which the waters of Lakes Managua and Nicaragua find their way
from an amphitheater of hills to the Atlantic ocean, are advantages
which engineers and capitalists are loath to abandon, and which
the reader relinquishes with regret. We may expect, therefore, to
find the question continually revived. But its advantages have been
overestimated.
The San Juan river has cut an outlet for the canal through the ridge,
separating Lake Nicaragua from the Atlantic; but to pierce the divide
on the opposite side, which separates the lake from the Pacific, a
tunnel of about six miles in length will be requisite. The altitude
of the divide is six hundred feet above the level of the lake. The
singular omission in Colonel Childs’ report may have led Admiral Davis
to overlook so important an objection, or perhaps he may have thought
it unnecessary to multiply objections to a route which appeared
impracticable upon other grounds.
CHIRIQUI.
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