The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-02
CANAL PROJECTS
MUMERoUs ROUTES SURVEYED ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA.
Early Discoverers Searched for Ma tura Waterway and Four Hundred
 Years Nations Have Discussed | Feasibility of Digging Canal
Philadelphia Ledger.

! Feasibility of Digging Canal Philadelphia Ledger
 For more than four centuries the sub 5ect of waterway through the Central time discussed. The early discoverers sought in vain for natural waterway. In the sixteenth century surveys were made looking towards the construction of canal The amount of interest in the canal project at that early day may be conjectured when 1t is realized that no fewer than six different routes were were mus of Tehauntepec. This latter project would have connected two rivers ana made . waterway f50 miles long. Work by the Spanish government. but the. in- dependence of the Central American States intervened and work was stopped. resurveyed and in ls42 a contract was given to Jose de Garray to dig the canal. but no work has ever been done.
 In 1859 the. Governor of Honduras sug- gested the construction of a road for to the 1Guif. of Fonseca. and a little later an attempt was made to have a canal distance -of about lS9 miles. As early as 17S1 the Nicaragua route was favorably considered. Surveys were made under the direction of, the Spanish Cortes and the
  other Spanish attempts, nothing came of
 The nineteenth century saw the isth- milan canal subject discussed in earnest: The Tehauntepec route. early abandoned definitely. was followed by various routes at Nicaragua. Panama and Darien- Each respective promoters. and finally the first and second were really begun. The first although the longest. Is for q clear. open way: the others include deep cuts in their xla sTha rOIlte thrOflRh a mountain and the Darien under one. The Darien Is the shortest.
 The parien- -Canals- -
 The Darien Canal ascheme,l which has been revived. is one of thoseA that found most favor about forty years aga when numerous expeditions were sent down to the Isthmus of Darien. which. like the Isthmus of Panama. is a part of Colom- out Garella and Courtines to make ex-- aminations, Gareila reported in favor of a canal from Limon Bay, pass under the dividing m ridge of Ahogayssg1Fa seS Fas py oa tun to the Bay of Vaca del Monte, twelve miles west of Panama. This was the first tun- mel scheme. providing. as H did. Tor ia range nearly three and one quarter miles in length. In 1852 pr. Cullen and others were Eiven the privilege by the govern ment of New Grenada of constructing canal between Caledonia Bay and the Gulf of San Miguel
 The Darien scheme recently advocated again was born I in 1864, ,sI when MT. uIa Kei- from the Bay of San Bias to the River Chepo. This route is thirty miles long, as against forty-six and half miles by the Panama route. and one hundred and ninety by the Nicaragua route. tun- mel of more than four miles. through solid granite, would be required.
 e la nsns 1 se f of the Gulf of San Miguel. by way of the River Tuira. in 1885. The same year M. de Puydt. an engineer employed by the pany, announced a favorable passage from the port of Escondido to the Tuira, thence to the Gulf of San Miguel In 1870 veyed two lines from Caledonia Bay by different routes to the mouths of the Rivers Sabana and Lara. on the Pacific. but found no lower. level on the Cordil- from the Bay of San Blah to the Chepo River he reported still more favorable. The next year he examined the line Of the French engineer. M. de Puydt. and found it impracticGble., In 1873 United States government expedition surveyed a line befyeen the River Atrato and the
 Pacific id In the reP9r Of this Daren miles of navigation of the River At. rato, which was said to be fully capable of being nayigatsd By the largest elas; lass and the Pacific a canal twenty-eighi miles long must be cut, of which thres miles would have to be tunnelled. The tunnel was to be one hundred and twelve feet high and sixty feet wide. and to have eighty-seven feet of clear head way above the surface of the water. The with a bottom width of fifty-five feet and a surface width of seventy feet.
 In 1925 the matter was first given se- ernment The South and Central Ameri. can States had declared and secured their independence from Spain; and ir 1885 the Senate of the United States re- uuested President Jackson to enter into negetiations with New Grenada and the Central American States. with the object in view of securing treaties that would protect American capitalists who would undertake the building of a canal. The right of way across the isthmus was se- cured from New Grenada by the treaty vantage of in the construction of rail. way from ocean to ocean, a distance of fortv-eight miles. This was the first rail read the sGnpsset se rush t Tas to California. ebout the time of the gold discovery, 40,000 passengers annually travelled this road. at a fare of $25 each.
 The famous canal project of M. de Les Eeps, with which so much scandal was connected. was to follow the railway route, tine French company having pur- sst simsted 'e te c cost sS6.oOO,6oo francs eabout sf50, 900 000) the company to build 1t being known as the Interoceanic Canal Com pany of Panama, which was organized in 1881.
 Precious to this-time, in 1s4s, party of American capitalists. among whom were the Vanderbilts. organized the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Com pany they at that time controlling the Hallway. In 1851 Joseph l.. White. who was interested in the above company. se- cured from the government of Nicaragua a charter authorizing the formation of another company with similar object in view. It was practically different name for the same parties. Since then the com panies have changed names frequently. and with each change there has been shown renewed activities in pushing for ward the work In 1889. when the old Pa- mama Canal Company collapsed. the American Dredging Company of New York had completed nearly fourteen miles of navigable waterway.
 4 The Bay of Limon. or Navy Bay. marks the entrance from the Atlantic 2 side Colon near by is the terminus of !