How extravagant an operation this canal was, is told by the figures. Two hundred and fifty millions of dollars were spent, and only one hundred and forty millions' worth of work can be shown for it. This great difference created a scandal throughout France, especially as the poorer French people had been led to invest in canal shares, in the belief that they would yield great profit.
The Nicaragua Canal plan is a very different one. The distance across the Isthmus at the point chosen for this route is much greater than for the Panama Canal, and yet there are fewer difficulties in the way. Although the route is one hundred and seventy miles long, there will have to be only twenty-seven miles of actual canal and only six locks. This is on account of the use of Nicaragua Lake and the rivers. The lake is the largest of any lying between the Great Lakes of the United States and Lake Titicaca in Peru.
The route, as laid out after many exploring expeditions have been sent to Nicaragua, is: From Greytown on the Caribbean Sea to the San Juan River by canal, through this river to the lake, through the lake a distance of over sixty miles in clear open water, then by the Lajas River and by canal to the Pacific Coast at Brito. It will be seen that about seventy-five miles of the course is in the rivers and over sixty miles in the lake. Of course the waterway of the rivers will have to be improved, but the cost of this is small compared to making an entirely new cutting. The engineering expeditions have been over every inch of the route to be traversed, and have made thorough examination both of the surface conditions and of the formation of the soil, etc.
All engineers who have investigated the project unite in believing it thoroughly practical and not subject to any extraordinary difficulties.
It was at first planned that the United States Government should build and control this canal, but a bill for this purpose was vetoed by President Cleveland on account of the conditions named by the Government of Nicaragua.
In 1889 a private company was formed to undertake the work, but this company has since failed. It is now hoped that bills can be passed and financial arrangements made which will enable this company to finish the work and the United States to control the canal. The estimated cost of this canal is $150,000,000, and, as General Tracy said in his speech, the saving, etc., will more than compensate the Government for the outlay.
The importance of having this waterway joining the two great oceans has long been recognized and is easily seen. The distance from New York to San Francisco, when vessels have to go all the way around South America, is about fourteen thousand eight hundred miles. If they could pass through a canal at the Isthmus it would be reduced to under five thousand, or about one-third of the distance. Think of the saving in time and money that this would mean!
The great advantages of such a plan are evident in a moment.
We have referred to the speech of General Tracy, who, you will remember, was, during President Harrison's administration, Secretary of the Navy. In that speech he stated that, were this canal completed, we would need to have but one navy where now we practically must have two,—one to guard the Atlantic coast and one the Pacific coast.