page_title: History of the Nicaragua Canal
section_title: Early plans (1825–1909)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Nicaragua Canal / Early plans (1825–1909)
caption_attribution_description: Momotombo volcano 1900 Edition Stamp.
context_page_description: There is a long history of attempts to build a canal across Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Construction of such a shipping route—using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua—was first proposed in the early colonial era. Napoleon III wrote an article about its feasibility in the middle of the 19th century. The United States abandoned plans to construct a waterway in Nicaragua in the early 20th century after it purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal was built and that is now the main connecting route across Central America.
  Because the steady increase in world shipping may make it an economically viable project, speculation on a new shipping route has continued. In June 2013, Nicaragua's National Assembly approved a bill to grant a 50-year concession to the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company to manage the Nicaraguan Canal and Development Project to build the canal.
context_section_description: The idea of constructing a manmade waterway through Central America is old. The routes suggested usually ran across Nicaragua, Panama, or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. The colonial administration of New Spain conducted preliminary surveys as early as 1551, under the supervision of a Spanish explorer named Gormara. Nothing came of this initial attempt, but the idea was revived in 1781 by the Spanish Crown and surveys were made again, this time under the supervision of an officer named Galisteo. Construction did not occur, as the crown was unable to secure adequate funding.
  In 1825 the newly established Federal Republic of Central America (FRCA) considered the waterway. That year, FRCA government authorities hired surveyors to chart the route and contacted the government of the United States to seek financing and the engineering technology needed for building the shipping route, to the advantage of both nations. A survey from the 1830s stated that the waterway would be 278 km (172.7 mi) in length and would generally follow the San Juan River from the Caribbean Sea to Lake Nicaragua, then go through a series of locks and tunnels from the lake to the Pacific Ocean.
  While officials in Washington, D.C., thought the project had merit and Secretary of State Henry Clay formally presented it to the Congress of the United States in 1826, the plan was not approved. The United States was worried about the poverty and political instability of Nicaragua, as well as the rival strategic and economic interests of the British government, which controlled both British Honduras (later Belize) and the Mosquito Coast.
  On August 26, 1849, the Nicaraguan government signed a contract with the United States businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt. It granted his Accessory Transit Company the exclusive right to construct a waterway within 12 years and gave the same company sole administration of a temporary trade route in which the overland crossing through the isthmus of Rivas was done by train and stagecoach. The temporary route operated successfully, quickly becoming one of the main avenues of trade between New York City and San Francisco. Civil war in Nicaragua and an invasion by filibuster William Walker intervened to prevent the canal from being completed.
  Continued interest in the route was an important factor in the negotiation of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850. The canal idea was discussed seriously by businessmen and governments throughout the 19th century. In 1888 a bill was proposed in the US house of Representatives to incorporate a Nicaragua Canal company.  In 1890, the American-owned Nicaragua Canal Construction Company held its third annual meeting, while brush was being cleared along the canal route.  Many workers were reported in hospital owing to tropical illnesses.
  In a letter sent to the Nicaragua Canal Board in 1895, Swiss geographer and nearby Costa Rica resident Henri François Pittier warned that construction of the project would be difficult to carry out, as earthquakes and heavy rainfall were common in the country.  Though Pittier did not believe earthquakes alone could hamper any future construction, he acknowledged that an earthquake or any other seismic activity for that matter would bring catastrophic landslides if carried out in areas where soil is soaked with heavy amounts of water. However, Pittier also suggested that a study could be conducted in the country's western isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean, as rainfall was less common in this part of the country.
  In 1897, the newly named United States Nicaraguan Canal Commission proposed the idea of building the canal, as did the subsequent Isthmian Canal Commission in 1899. The commission also recommended that the French work on the Panama Canal be taken over if it could be purchased for no more than US$40 million. Since the French effort was in disarray, in 1904 the United States purchased the French concession, equipment, and excavations for US$40 million.
  The Nicaraguan Canal Commission carried out the most thorough hydrological survey yet of 
caption: Momotombo 1900 Edition Stamp
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