Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-02
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
MONAGHAN CANAL

4
| Whether O. Nicaraguan Canal will
| be built Is a question which only
| the future can answer; but it has
| been so continuously discussed and
| its possible site so thoroughly sur
| veyed that the term "Nicaraguan
| Canal route" is easily described.
This route, in which interest has
| been awakened by the recent sign
| ing of a protocol between the Unit
| ed States and Costa Rica, relating
| to the proposed canal, is the subject
| of the following bulletin from the
Washington, D. c., headquarters of
the National Geographic Society:
"The Panama Canal, if one leaves
its locks and small artificial lake
out of consideration, may be consld-
cred the American Suez; for it is
relatively short and direct" says the
bulletin. 1.-The Nicaragua route
again ignoring locks-must be COM
pared with the Turkish straits; 1t is
relatively long, and has in it's course
a great natural inland sea from
which narrow ship-ways are pro-
jected.
Utilizing One of "Great Lakes"
"A Nicaraguan canal would be less
man-made affair than the Panama
Canal where at every turn nature
had to be thwarted and subdued by
engineers. There ships now move
every foot of the interocean way
through great bitches that were dug,
locks that were built, or lake that
was created by men. The Chagres
River wa sturned aside to make a
lake and even its bed was discarded.
If a Nicaraguan canal were built
according to existing plans. it would
entail much excavation and lock
building, but work that nature has
already done would be utilized to a
marked degree.
From the Atlantic end a canal
would have to be excavated, largely
through lowlands, for some fifty
miles, for the lower reaches of the
San Juan River are clogged with
sand brought down from the uplandA
OF Costa Rica. Locks would then
raise the waterway the 106-foot
level of the lake. Ships would be
transferred int the San Juan river
damned at this point, and would
move UP its slack water for approx
imately As miles to Lake Nicaragua.
This lake is a really large body OF
water-one of Americas Great
Lakes'-though far from its peers.
1t is 100 miles long and As wide at
the broadest point, and is the most
extensive body of fresh water in
North America south of Lake Mich
igan. For seventy miles ships wo'
use the water of Lake Nicaragua.
Then would come the descent to the
Pacific through a canal and locks
covering the dozen miles or more OF
narrow isthmus that divides the lake
from the ocean.
Pacific Part Easy
"The river and lake portion of
the route above the dam, however,
would not all be in readiness for use
without the expenditure of labor. or
the as miles of river, % would re-
quire Improvement, while channel
would have to be dredged through
a score of miles of the lake near the
river outlet where silt has accumu-
lated.
1.-THE Pacific side of the canal
would present relatively few difficult
ties. The narrow divide at the point
crossed by the canal route raises only
A feet above the lake level. AL
together the canal route, from deep
water to deep water, would be about
$50 miles long. The passage of
ships would require more than "a
hours as against IL or less at Pan
anna. Such a canal could be reached
on the other hand, more quickly
from parts of the United States.
zone other contrast exists between
the Panama Canal and the Nicara-
guam route. The former traverses a
country or relatively limited poten-
tial wealth. A canal through Nicar-
aqua would doubtless be a strong
factor in the development of that
country. opening up it's vast for
ests of both hard and soft woods and
tapping its coffee and cacao F tnta-
tions and it's mines. Lake Nicaragua
is already an important inland water
way, and near its banks are some Of
the chief cities Of the republic"