Mr. J. Foster Crowell lately read a paper before the Engineers' Club of
Philadelphia upon the Present Situation of the Inter-oceanic Canal
Question, presenting the subject from a general standpoint. He sketched
the history of the various past attempts to establish communication
through the American Isthmus, and traced the developments in the
different directions of effort, which finally concentrated the problem
upon the three projects now before the world, summarizing the progress in
each case, and stating the following propositions:
I. That Panama is the only possible site for a Sea Level Canal, and that
such treatment is the only feasible method at that place.
II. That Nicaragua is the only practicable site for a Slack Water system
(for a canal with locks), and that it is pre-eminently adapted by nature
for such a use; that there are no obstacles in an engineering sense, and
no physical drawbacks that need deter the undertaking.
III. That the Ship Railway, as a mechanical contrivance, has the
indorsement of the best authorities, and may be admitted to be the _ne
plus ultra_ as a means of taking ships from their natural element and
transporting them over the land.
IV. That none of these plans has as yet advanced sufficiently to warrant
our considering its completion as beyond doubt.
V. That, as the _additional_ sum now asked for by De Lesseps (_even if
sufficient_) to complete the Panama Canal is _greater_ than the estimated
cost of either Nicaragua Canal or the Ship Railway, it would be
economical to abandon the Panama Canal, and the money sunk in it, to
date, unless its location and form possess paramount advantages; and we
therefore may profitably consider the relative merits of the three lines
without regard to the past, from four standpoints, viz.: