The California gold rush resulted in large demand for travel to California. The only existing sea route from the East Coast to California was through Panama. It was an effective monopoly with the U.S. Mail Steamship Company running to the Atlantic side of the isthmus, and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company running from Panama to San Francisco. The monopoly kept rates high, so Cornelius Vanderbilt pioneered a new route from New York to San Francisco across Nicaragua, at least 500 miles shorter than the route across Panama. His ocean-going steamships sailed from New York to the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, and from the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. He planned a canal to connect the two oceans, but in the short-term transferred passengers from one coast to the other by shallow-draft river steamer, stagecoach, and mule train. The Nicaraguan government granted the Accessory Transit Company, controlled by Vanderbilt, the right to build a canal and pending its construction, a monopoly on transporting passengers across the country. Charles Morgan was the company's New York manager. The business, if not the canal was a success, and in one year 24,000 passengers traveled the route.