The Atlantic APacific Ship-Bailway across the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
Elmer L.Oorthell.N.Y.' 18B6.

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Plate I. — A Steamer in Transit.

THE
ATLANTIC & "PACIFIC
Ship-Railway ACROSS THE
ISTHMUS. OF TEHUANTEPEC,
IN MEXICO,
Considered Commercially, Politically & Constructively.
BY
ELMER L. CORTHELL, . » *
Chief Engineer.

JANUARY, 1886.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
The constant and undiminished Importance of the East during the last
three thousand years, as the Source of the Wealth and Trade of the
World  3
CHAPTER II.
Opinion of American Statesmen during the last sixty years upon the
vast importance to this country of an Interoceanic Communication,
and upon the Necessity, Right and Policy of the United States to
encourage and protect any Isthmian Crossing between the two
. Oceans  8
CHAPTER III.
Commercial and Industrial Facts showing the paramount importance of
an Isthmian Crossing and its Imperative Necessity  17
CHAPTER IV.
Superior Advantages of the Tehuantepec Isthmus — Commercial, Cli
matic, Constructive and Strategic  23
CHAPTER V.
The Ship-Railway, its Plans, Practicability and Economy  33
CHAPTER VI.
Distances saved. — Tonnage expected. — Government Status of the Enter
prise, — Benefits to the United States and Mexico during the Con
struction. — General Results  63
CHAPTER VII.
Reports of Congressional Committees approving the Ship-Railway route
and method, and urging Government Assistance  70

PLATES.

I. A Steamer in Transit  Frontispiece.
II. Map showing Tehuantepec to be the great Central Barrier to the
World's Commerce  22
III. Perspective View of the Dock and Car  36
IV. Details of the Lifting Dock.  39
V. Details of the Car  41
VI. Perspective View of the Floating Turntable  45
VII. Details of the Floating Turntable  47

PREFACE.

The purpose of the Author in the following pages is to
present, in a concise yet comprehensive form, the commer
cial and political reasons for an interoceanic' communication
between the Atlantic and Pacific at the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec in Mexico ; also to bring together the more important
facts that prove the practicability and the economy of a
Ship-Railway. The previous discussions, while complete in
detail, have been partial and fragmentary. The writer has
had exceptional advantages in investigating this subject ;
he made examinations on the Isthmus and the surveys
of its harbors in 1880, and has since that time conducted,
through very efficient and experienced engineers, complete
topographical surveys of the Isthmus, on which the plans,
profiles and estimates are based.

THE

ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC

SHIP- RAILWAY.

CHAPTER I.*
HISTORICAL.
"The problem of interoceanic transit across the American
" continent has been said to ' possess not only practical value but
" historic grandeur '. Its partial solution is being attained by the
"construction of those railways which are bringing nearer to us
" so much of the eastern world ; but it can be fully solved only
" when such a work has been made as will prove a maritime highway
" for America and Europe to the western shores of the continent,
"to the new world of Australia and its surroundings, to Eastern
"Asia, and to Japan. To meet the requirements which commerce,
" supported by all the advanced appliances of this day, imperatively
"demands, the transit must offer the allurements of a full,
" uninterupted, safe, and speedy transportation. * * *
" History invests the problem with an interest surpassing that of
" its usual records. In this effort to secure a western route to Asia
" and the Spice Islands it is linked back to the age of the great
" discoverer ; and since the object held by Columbus for his
" sovereigns was the same with that of the ages preceding, the
"problem thus reaches back to the story of the coveted wealth
" of Asia and of the old highways to it.
" India and China ! what tales of marvelous endeavor to secure
" their riches remain on the pages of authentic history ! Both
"countries, from time immemorial, famed for the richness and
" variety of products secured by the caravan which sought them by
" weary routes from the west. These were the storehouses of
" product and luxury, drawn upon more and more as the facilities
"of commerce and land travel enlarged themselves, yet ever, as
" to-day, without sensible decrease. The labors of the Old World
" were to reach them by an eastern route; the labor of the New
* The quotations in the first part of this chapter are from the pen of Profes
sor J. E. Nourse, U. S. N.

4
" World is to reach them by the west. Through the whole period
"of history, ancient and modern, it is the same drawing upon the
"resources of the east. It was their traditional inexhaustibility that
" stimulated the progress of discovery in the Middle Ages, opened
" up the New World itself, and has left for our day the problem of
" the new transit. It has been reserved for our age, however, to
"crown the motives of the past with the higher purpose of extending
"over the east the highest types of civilization and Christian
"enlightenment, hopefully to be conferred upon it by thus advancing
" the closer intercourse and fellowship of men. ,
" The student of commercial history is instructed that during the
" last 3000 years the steady tendency of commercial enterprise has
"been toward the west, and that 'civilization has followed the sun
"in its course.' The steps of that progressive tendency are links in
" the earlier history of our problem. * *
" To look through the chapters of ancient history, is to recall
"without difficulty the fact that each of the great empires of
" antiquity owed its supremacy to the conquests of commerce as
" well as war. * * * Asa single instance of
" the richness of that commerce, it may be remembered that from
" one voyage the fleets of Solomon brought back gold equal in value
" to nearly fourteen and a-half millions of dollars. * * *
" In the days of Augustus the amount of the precious metals sent
" to India to pay for products for which there was no corresponding
"' exchange by the produce of the west, was estimated at 100,000,000
"sesterces, or $40,000,000. The consignments which reached
" Alexandria from the east were directed to every port in the
" Mediterranean. * * *
" Before the awakening of Europe from the sleep of ' the dark
"ages ', the Italians by their intercourse with Constantinople and the
"other cities of the Greeks having obtained a knowledge of the east
"and cultivated a taste for its precious commodities, were not slow
"to embrace and develop direct intercourse with India, and, in the
" course of the twelfth century, Venice established a regular trade
"through the ports of Egypt, which she maintained for four
"centuries. " The marvelous ascendency which the Mistress of the Isles thus
"acquired, aroused and stimulated the next great commercial
"enterprise of the world's history. The Portuguese, who for
"generations had sought to discover the realms of gold, in 149&
"established a maritime ascendency which extended over the coasts
"of Africa and Asia, from Mozambique to Japan ; whilst their

" famous cities of Goa, Malacca, and Macao became emporiums of
"trade with India and China, which had previously enriched
"Venice and Genoa.
" From that date, eastern commerce, falling successively into the
"hands of the Dutch and the English, has at length assumed
" proportions which bear no comparison with those of the earlier
" ages. A new title has been jeweled into the crown of England '
" while the great highway, the realized dream of ages, is freighted
" daily from the same storehouses of the east, enriching not only
" Europe but the shores on our side of the globe.
" The first bold crossing of ' the sea of darkness ' links the
" commercial activities of the Old World with the New in the person
" of the great discoverer. The expectation of being able to sail
" westward to the Spice Islands without interruption was the
" principal motive of Columbus in undertaking the voyage which
¦" first marked the limits of the Atlantic. * * *
'' The chief object of his last voyage indicates, in a marked degree,
¦" his idea of Asia, since it was undertaken with the single purpose of
" seeking along the coast of the Caribbean sea the Strait which he
"imagined formed a communication between his discoveries and
"India. * * *
" ' He had been in pursuit of a chimera of a splendid imagination
" ' and a penetrating judgment. If he was disappointed in his
" 'expectations of finding a strait through the Isthmus of Darien, it
" ' was because nature herself was disappointed. For she appears
" 'to have attempted to make one, but to have attempted in vain.' *
' This, search for the secret of the strait marks the first era in the
" history of direct efforts for interoceanic communication across
"America. From this date it is a record of continuous and
" unavailing effort to find the strait, and on a failure of this, a
" record of numberless canal and railroad projects for an artificial
"transit. * *
" The discovery of the Pacific by Balboa, and its entrance by
" Magellan, kept alive for more than a quarter of a century the
" erroneous ideas of the strait. Since it was now certain that the
" new lands were not the Indies, the next thing was to carry forward
" the search for the narrow passage which must lead to them.
" The very configuration of the Isthmus strengthened the belief in
" the existence of such a passage by the number of its openings,
" which seem to invite entrance in the expectancy that some of them

* Washington Irving.

6
" must extend across the narrow breadth of land. For this great
" purpose, and in full expectancy of success, the whole coast of the
" N ew World on each side, from Newfoundland, as visited by the
"Cabots,'on the northeast, and thence south around the whole
" sweep of the Mexican Gulf, and the Caribbean Sea, around South
"America, and up the Pacific to Behring Straits, was searched and
"researched with diligence. Men, says Humboldt, could not
"accustom themselves tc the idea that the continent extended
" uninterruptedly from such high southern to such high northern
"latitudes. * * *
" The continuous search for the strait, made under the orders and
" direct superintendence of Cortez, at length resulted in putting an
" end to all hope in that direction. Charles V. had urged the search.
"In a letter from Valladolid, in 1533, he enjoined the most careful
" inquiry ' for the passage which would connect the eastern and
" western shores of the New World, and shorten by two-thirds the
"route from Cadiz to Cathay ; ' and Cortez, in his reply, expressed
" the highest hopes of success. ' It would render the King of Spain
" master of so many kingdoms that he might call himself Lord of the
" World '. The instructions of the court and the subsequent letters
" of the conquerer, as well as the correspondence of men of science,
" were always full of the idea. ' For the proximity of the two oceans
"in certain parts of the Isthmus having been this time ascertained,
"it could not yet be believed that nature had worked on a plan so
" apparently repugnant to the interests of humanity as to interpose,
"through the whole length of the new continent, such a barrier to
"communication between the great seas'. The conqueror of
" Mexico never abandoned this leading object in his reverses, nor
" forgot it in his triumphs. * * *
" He ascertained that, instead of the outlet before supposed to
" exist towards the north, the unknown ocean was locked up in the
" arms of the mighty continent. The hope of finding a short passage
" across the Isthmus thus perished. * * *
" The Spanish historian, Gomara,_ seems first to have proposed an
"artificial opening through the Isthmus. In 1551, representing,
" doubtless, the general feeling in Spain and in the New World, he
" urged on Philip II. the union of the oceans by three of the same
"routes which at this day are still before the world, Tehuantepec,
" Nicaragua and Panama ; and had Spain remained what she had
"been under Charles V., what had been in vain sought from nature
"might have been in some degree supplied by man. Her men of
" science had urged the work, and all Spain had awakened to it.

'It is true,' said Gomara to the Emperor, 'that mountains
" obstruct these passes, but if there are mountains, there are also
" hands. Let but the resolve be made, there will be no want of
" means ; the Indies, to which the passage will be made, will supply
"them. To a King of Spain, with the wealth of the Indies at his
" command, when the object to be attained is the spice trade, what
" is possible is easy.' * * *
" Since the glorious age of Balboa, among the people, indeed, the
" project of a canal was in every one's thoughts. In the very wayside
" talks, in the inns of Spain, when a traveler from the New World
" chanced to pass, after making him tell of the wonders of Lima
" and Mexico, of the death of the Inca Atahualpa, and the bloody
" defeat of the Aztecs, and after asking his opinion of El Dorado,
" the question was always about the two oceans, and what great
" thing would happen if they could succeed in joining them."
For nearly three hundred and fifty years, governments, companies
and individuals have made surveys and plans, and brought forward
projects of canals and railroads to overcome this important obstacle
to the commerce of the world. The celebrated Portuguese navi
gator Altono Galva, in 1550, wrote a treatise on the subject and
suggested several different lines for crossing the Isthmus. One of
the earliest exploits of Nelson was an attack on the port of San Juan
in Nicaragua in 1779, with the purpose of controlling communication
between the two oceans. King Charles III. of Spain sent an explor
ing expedition to the Isthmus under Manuel Galistro in 1780. Hum
boldt studied the subject on the Isthmus itself, and strongly urged a
transit-way. All the Central American Republics, immediately after
securing their independence, brought forward projects for inter
oceanic communication. In 1826, the Mexican government ordered
the survey of the Tehuantepec Isthmus to be made by Gen. Orbe-
gozo. Several of the Central American republics gave concessions
and contracts to individuals and companies of different nations,
looking to the construction of canals or railroads. The United
States government has sent several expeditions, under charge of
naval and army officers and civil engineers, to examine and survey
various routes across the Isthmus. Mr. Frederick M. Kelly, a
wealthy New York merchant, induced at first by the statements of
Humboldt in regard to the. feasibility of a canal through Darien, spent
a large fortune in explorations of the Isthmus. He not only sent sev
eral parties there under prominent engineers, but also appeared
before leading men of Europe and their governments, and the gov-

8

emment of the United States, asking their assistance in solving this
great problem. Some of the most skillful naval officers and army
engineers have, under the United States government, made surveys
of many parts of the Isthmus.

CHAPTER II.
OPINIONS OE AMEEICAN STATESMEN DUBING THE LAST SIXTY TEAKS UPON THE
VAST IMPOETANCE TO THIS COUNTEY OF AN INTEEOOEANIO COMMUNICA
TION, AND UPON THE NECESSITY, EIGHT AND POLICY OF THIS GOVEEN-
MENT TO ENCOUKAGE AND PEOTECT ANY ISTHMIAN CROSSING BETWEEN
THE TWO OCEANS.
In 1826, Henry Clay, Secretary of State, in a letter of instructions
to the Commissioners of the United States to the Congress of
Panama, said :
" A cut or canal for purposes of navigation somewhere through
" the isthmus that connects the two Americas, to unite the Pacific
"and Atlantic Oceans will form a proper subject of consideration
" by the Congress. That vast subject, if it should ever be accom-
" plished, will be interesting in a greater or less degree to all parts of
" the world. But to this continent will probably accrue the largest
" amount of benefit, from its execution ; to Colombia, Mexico, the
" Central Republic, Peru, and the United States, more than to any of
" the other American nations. What is to redound to all America
" should be effected by common means and united resources, and
" should not be left to the unassisted efforts of any one power. In
" the present limited state of our information as to the practicability
" and the probable expense of the object, it would not be wise to
" do more than to make some preliminary arrangements. The best
" route will be most likely found in the territory of Mexico or that
" of the Central Republic. * * *
" You will inquire particularly as to what has been done, or may
" have been designed by Spain, or by either of the new States, and
" obtain all other information that may be within your reach to solve
" this interesting problem. You will state to the ministers of the
" other American powers that the Government of the United States
" takes a lively interest in the execution of the work and will see with

9
" peculiar satisfaction that it lies within the compass of reasonable
" human efforts."
In 1835, President Jackson commissioned Mr. Charles Biddle to
go to the Isthmus and study the subject of interoceanic communica
tions. In 1839, the chairman of the Committee on Roads and
Canals of the House of Representatives, Mr. C. F. Mercer, presented
a report on the subject, urging negotiations for an interoceanic cross
ing. In the beginning of his report he said :
" It is obvious that if the contemplated communication from sea
" to sea be practicable, the nation which has the right to appropriate
" its exclusive use to itself might lawfully, control the richest com-
" merce of the world, or prescribe to all other nations the terms upon
" which they be admitted to share its enjoyment. The policy is not
" less apparent which should prompt the United States to co-operate
" in this enterprise liberally and efficiently. * * * If other con-
" siderations did not prompt this decision, it should suffice for its
" confirmation to contrast the continuous voyage of the same vessel
" across the two oceans, divided by the Isthmus, with the trans-ship-
"ment of a heavy cargo between vessels of equal burden, and the
"intervening expense of land transportation, double port duties,
" and commissions, added to the damage of shifting and exposing
" very valuable commodities to waste and depredation. The United
" States, whose territory extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
" cannot but regard with solicitude any eterprise which, if prac-
" ticable, will so greatly approximate their eastern and western
" frontiers." In 1847, during the negotiations between the two Republics,
which finally resulted in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848,
James Buchanan, then Secretary of State, sent the following
instructions to Nicholas P. Trist, the Commissioner of the United
States at the City of Mexico : "Instead of fifteen millions of dol-
" lars stipulated to be paid by the fifth article for the extension of
" our boundary over New Mexico and Upper and Lower Cali-
" fornia, you may increase the amount to any sum not exceeding
'" thirty millions of dollars, payable by instalments of three millions
" per annum, provided the right of passage and transit across the
" Isthmus of Tehuantepec, secured to the United States by the
" eighth article of the project, shall form a part of the treaty."
In 1850, Daniel Webster, while Secretary of State, said in a letter
to the United States Minister at Mexico : " The American public at
"large has a great and obvious interest in the Tehuantepec pas-

10
" sage."* In another letter, in 1851, he said : " No one can fail to
" see how exceedingly important this communication would be to
" the Government of Mexico. It proposes to give her a practical
" highway from sea to sea. It opens to her a communication on the
"one side and the other with the eastern and western worlds. It
" gives her access to the markets of all nations and makes her, in
" short, a central point of the commerce of modern times."
In 1851, President Fillmore said, in his message to Congress :
" In negotiating upon this important subject, this Government has
"had in view one and only one object. That object has been and
" is the construction or attainment of a passage from ocean to ocean,
" the shortest and the best for travelers and merchandise, and equally
" open to all the world. It has sought to obtain no territorial acqui-
" sition nor any advantages peculiar to itself, and it would see with
" the greatest regret that Mexico should oppose any obstacle to the
" accomplishment of an enterprise which promises so much conven-
" ience to the whole commercial world and such eminent advantages
" to Mexico herself. Impressed with these sentiments and these con-
" victions the Government will continue to exert all proper efforts
" to bring about the necessary arrangement with the Republic of
" Mexico for the speedy completion of the work."
That illustrious statesman, Lewis Cass, in an official letter, while
Secretary of State, in 1857, said :
"The proximity of the Isthmus" (Tehuantepec) " to our shores, the
" salubrity of the climate, the adaptness of the ground for the con-
" struction of the railroad, and the great diminution of distance in
" comparison with traveled routes between our Atlantic and Pacific
" possessions, all conspire to point it out as far preferable to any
" other route."
In 1858, he stated the principles on which any interoceanic
transit-way must rest as far as this country is concerned, " what the
" United States want in Central America, next to the happiness of
" its people, is the security and neutrality of the interoceanic routes
" which lead through it."
The vast importance of this subject was fully appreciated by that
great statesman, William H. Seward, who used the following lan
guage in regard to it :
" During the past three hundred years, statesmanship and humani.
* Sen. Exec. Doc, 97, Thirty-second Congress, First Session.

11
tarianism have combined with ever increasing diligence and effort
to find the means of effecting an enterprise which is, perhaps, the
" only one that ever has commanded universal assent and com-
" mended itself to the desire of all mankind. Every advance of
"modern civilization in Europe, the establishment of every new
"nation in America, every opening of any secluded Asiatic state
" and nation that has occurred, has increased the zeal and the energy
" of the friends of progress in favor of a canal across the American
" Isthmus." President Hayes, in 1880, in a special message to Congress,
stated :
" An interoceanic canal across the American Isthmus will essen-
" tially change the geographical relations between the Atlantic and
" Pacific coasts of the United States, and between the United States
" and the rest of the world. It will be the great ocean thoroughfare
" between our Atlantic and Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the
" coast line of the United States. Our merely commercial interest
"in it is greater than that of all other countries, while its relations to
" our power and prosperity as a nation, to our means of defense, our
" unity, peace and safety, are matters of paramount concern to the
"people of the United States."
Ex-Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Wm. Windom, while a mem
ber of the U. S. Senate, said in an address to that body, February
28th, 1881 :
" Bordering upon the Gulf on the north lie the great States of
"Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. North of
" these lies the mighty empire drained by the Mississippi River,
" while to the east are the Atlantic States, stretching from Florida to
" Maine. .On the Pacific are the States of California, Oregon and
"Washington Territory, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific
" stretches a domain whose magnificence is the pride of every Amer-
"ican. Obstructing, embarrassing and burdening the commerce
"between these great sections of the Union, lies this narrow strip of
" land. * * * * To avoid it, 1,200,000 tons of wheat raised in
" California and Oregon last year were compelled to seek a Euro-
" pean market by a costly and tedious voyage of fourteen thousand
"miles around Cape Horn. Even the exchange of productions be-
" tween our own Atlantic and Pacific States must be made by the
"same circuitous, expensive and dangerous route, or else sustain
" the heavy burdens imposed for railway transportation across the

12

" continent. The commerce of all the leading nations is in like man-
" ner obstructed and burdened. The time has come when this bar-
" rier is to be removed. The wonder is that it has been permitted
" to remain so long."
The importance to this country of an interoceanic communica
tion was very forcibly presented in a letter to the Minister of the
United States at London, May 8th, 1882, by the Secretary of State,
Hon. James G. Blaine :
" The possessions of the United States upon the Pacific coast are
" imperial in extent and of extraordinary growth. Even at their
" present stage of development they would supply the larger part of
" the traffic which would seek the advantage of the canal. The
" States of California and Oregon, and the Territory of Washington,
" larger in area than England and France, produce for export more
" than a ton of wheat for each inhabitant, and the entire freights de-
" manding water transportation eastward, already enormous, are
" augmenting each year with an accelerating ratio. While the popu-
" lation and products of the Pacific slope are thus increasing upon a
" vast scale, the railway system connecting the Gulf of Mexico with
" the interior and with the Great Lakes is being rapidly extended,
" thus affording additional facilities for enlarging the commerce that
" must seek the coast line to the Pacific, of which the projected
" canal at Panama will form a part, and be as truly a channel of com-
"munication between the Eastern and far Western States as our own
" transcontinental railways. It is the perception of this domestic
" function of the long-sought water-way between the two seas that
" border the Republic, which has caused the project to be regarded
"as of vital importance by this government. The history of the
"enterprise is marked from the outset by the numerous expeditions
" which have from time to time been sent out by the United States
" at large expense to explore the various routes, and thus facilitate
" the work when the time should be ripe and the vast capital be
"forthcoming for the undertaking."
In a message of President Arthur, occurs the following statement
on this subject :
" The establishment of water communication between the Atlan-
" tic and Pacific Coasts of the Union is a necessity, the accomplish-
" ment of which, however, within the territory of the United States
" is a physical impossibility. While the enterprise of our citizens
" has responded to the duty of creating means of speedy transit by
"rail between the two oceans, these great achievements are inade-

1 °
lo
" quate to supply a most important requisite of national union and
" prosperity. For all maritime purposes, the States upon the Pacific
" are more distant from those upon the Atlantic than if separated by
" either ocean alone. Europe and Africa are nearer New York, and
" Asia is nearer to California than are these two great States to each
" other by sea. Weeks of steam voyage, or months under sail, are
" consumed in the passage round the Horn with the disadvantage of
" traversing tempestuous waters or risking the navigation of the Sfraits
" of Magellan. A nation like ours cannot rest satisfied with such a
"separation of its mutually dependent members. We possess an
" ocean border of considerably over ten thousand miles on the At
lantic and Gulf of Mexico, and, including Alaska, of some ten
" thousand miles on the Pacific. Within a generation the western
" coast has developed into an empire, with a large and rapidly grow-
" ing population, with vast but partially developed resources. At
" the present rate of increase, the end of the century will see us a
" commonwealth of, perhaps, nearly a hundred million inhabitants,
" of which the west should have a considerably larger and richer
" proportion than now. * * * *
" From a purely commercial point of view the completion of such
" a waterway opens a most favorable prospect for the future of our
" country. The nations of the Pacific Coast of South America will
"by its means be brought into closer connection with our Gulf
" States. The relation of these American countries to the United
" States is that of a natural market from which the want of direct
" communication has hitherto practically excluded us. By piercing
" the Isthmus the heretofore insuperable obstacles of time, sea, and
" distance disappear, and our vessels and productions will enter upon
" the world's competitive field with a decided advantage of which
" they will avail themselves. When to this is joined the large coast-
" ing trade between the Atlantic and Pacific States, which must
" necessarily spring up, it is evident that this canal affords even
" alone an efficient means of restoring our flag to its former place on
" the seas. Such a domestic coasting trade would arise immediately,
" for even the fishing vessels of both seaboards which now lie idle in
"the winter months, could then profitably carry goods between the
"eastern and western States.
" The political effect of the canal will be to unite closer the States
" now depending upon railway corporations for all commercial and
" personal intercourse, and it will not only cheapen the cost of trans-
" portation, but will free individuals from the possibility of unjust

14
" discrimination. It will bring European grain markets of demand
" within easy distance of our Pacific, and will give to the manufac-
" turers on the Atlantic seaboard economical access to the cities of
" China, thus breaking down the barrier which separates the princi-
" pal manufacturing centres of the United States from the markets
" of the vast population of Asia, and placing the Eastern States of
" the Union for all purposes of trade midway between Europe and
" Asia. In point of time the gain for sailing vessels would be great,
" amounting, from New York to San Francisco, to a saving of
" seventy-five days ; to Hong Kong of twenty-seven days ; to Shang-
" hai of thirty-four days, and to Callao of fifty-two days."
An examination of the documents in the archives of the United
States Government will show that it has not only been the
unanimous policy of our greatest statesmen, but the earnest and
deep-seated sentiment of our people, that European countries
should not colonize any part of North or South America, and should
not exclusively control the Isthmian crossing, whether it be by rail
road, canal or ship-railway. The occupation of the Panama Isthmus
by ah armed force last spring was made by the United States in
virtue of a treaty concluded with New Granada (now the United
States of Colombia,) in 1848. The express object of this treaty
was to enable the United States, and not an European power, to pro
tect the Panama Railway. The explicit wording of Article XXXV.
of this treaty shows how important the subject was considered then,
especially when it is remembered that our Government has uniformly
and strictly adhered to the policy of non-interference in the affairs
of other countries. It is as follows :
" And in order to secure to themselves the tranquil and constant
" enjoyment of these advantages, and as an especial compensation
"for the said advantages, and for the favors which they have
"acquired by Articles IV., V. and VI., of this treaty, the United
" States guarantee positively and efficaciously to New Granada, by
" the present stipulation, the perfect neutrality of the before named
" isthmus, with the view that the free transit from one to the other
" sea may not be interrupted or embarrassed in any future time
"while this treaty exists."
The only way to reduce to a minimum the danger of European
complication on the American isthmus is for this Government to
unite with Mexico in the encouragement and protection of an
isthmian route at Tehuantepec.
It is not a sentiment only but a deep-seated policy established by

15
treaty precedent and the declaration of American statesmen of all
parties, that any isthmian crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific
shall be absolutely neutral and safe from interference ; the transit-
way to be held inviolate for the benefit of the commerce of all
nations. The great importance of an interoceanic communication, the
advantages of the Tehuantepec Route, the established practica
bility of the Ship-Railway and the broad and statesmanlike policy
to be followed by his administration, are clearly expressed by
President Cleveland in his Message to the Congress of the United
States, Dec. 8th, 1885, as follows : —
" The interest of the United States in a practicable transit for ships
across the strip of land separating the Atlantic from the Pacific has
been repeatedly manifested during the last half century.
" My immediate predecessor caused to be negotiated with Nicara
gua a treaty for the construction, by and at the sole cost of the United
States, of a canal through Nicaraguan territory, and laid it before
the Senate. Pending the action of that body thereon, I withdrew
the treaty for re-examination. Attentive consideration of its pro
visions leads me to withhold it from re-submission to the Senate.
" Maintaining, as I do, the tenets of a line of precedents from
Washington's day, which proscribe entangling alliances with foreign
States, I do not favor a policy of acquisition of new and distant ter
ritory or the incorporation of remote interests with our own.
" The laws of progress are vital and organic, and we must be con
scious of that irresistible tide of commercial expansion which, as the
concomitant of our active civilization, day by day, is being urged
onward by those increasing facilities of production, transportation
and communication to which steam and electricity have given birth ;
but our duty in the present instructs us to address ourselves mainly
to the development of the vast resources of the great area committed
to our charge, and to the cultivation of the arts of peace within our
own borders, though jealously alert in preventing the American
hemisphere from being involved in the political problems and com
plications of distant governments. Therefore, I am unable to recom
mend propositions involving paramount privileges of ownership or
right outside of our own territory, when coupled with absolute and
unlimited engagements to defend the territorial integrity of the State
where such interests lie. While the general project of connecting
the two oceans by means of a canal is to be encouraged, I am of
opinion, that any scheme to that end to be considered with favor
should be free from the features alluded to.
" The Tehuantepec route is declared, by engineers of the highest
repute and by competent scientists, to afford an entirely practicable
transit for vessels and cargoes, by means of a ship-railway, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. The obvious advantages of such a route, if
feasible, over others more remote from the axial lines of traffic

16
between Europe and the Pacific, and, particularly, between the val
ley of the Mississippi and the western coast of North and South
America, are deserving of consideration.
" Whatever highway may be constructed across the barrier dividing
the two greatest maritime areas of the world must be for the world's
benefit, a trust for mankind, to be removed from the chance of domi
nation by any single Power, nor become a point of invitation for
hostilities or a prize for warlike ambition. An engagement combin
ing the construction, ownership and operation of such a work by
this Government with an offensive and defensive alliance for its pro
tection, with the foreign State whose responsibilities and rights we
would share, is, in my judgment, inconsistent with such dedication
to universal and neutral use, and would, moreover, entail measures
for its realization beyond the scope of our National polity or pres
ent means.
" The lapse of years has abundantly confirmed the wisdom and
foresight of those earlier Administrations which, long before the
conditions of maritime intercourse were changed and enlarged by the
progress of the age, proclaimed the vital need of interoceanic transit
across the American Isthmus and consecrated it in advance to the
common use of mankind by their positive declarations and through
the formal obligation of treaties. Toward such realization the efforts
of my Administration will be applied, ever bearing in mind the prin
ciples on which it must rest, and which were declared in no uncer
tain tones by Mr. Cass, who, while Secretary of State, in 1858,
announced that ' What the United States want in Central America,
next to the happiness of its people, is the security and the neutrality
of the interoceanic routes which lead through it.'
"The construction of three transcontinental lines of railway all
in successful operation, wholly within our territory and uniting the
Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, has been accompanied by results of
a most interesting and impressive nature, and has created new con
ditions, not in the routes of commerce only, but in political
geography, which powerfully affect our relations toward, and necessa
rily increase our interests in any trans-isthmian route which may be
opened and employed for the ends of peace and traffic, or, in other
contingencies, for uses inimical to both. Transportation is a factor
in the cost of commodities scarcely second to that of their produc
tion, and weighs as heavily upon the consumer. Our experience
already has proven the great importance of having the competition
between land carriage and water carriage fully developed, each act
ing as a protection to the public against the tendencies to monopoly
which is inherent in the consolidation of wealth and power in the
hands of vast corporations. These suggestions may serve to
emphasize what I have already said on the score of the necessity of
a neutralization of any interoceanic transit ; and this can only be
accomplished by making the uses of the route open to all nations
and subject to the ambitions and warlike necessities of none."

17

CHAPTER III.
COMMEBCIAL AND INDUSTEIAL FACTS SHOWING THE PARAMOUNT IMPOETANCE
OE, AND IMPERATIVE NECESSITY FOB, AN ISTHMIAN CROSSING.
The London " Times " of August 21, 1884, treated this subject so
broadly that we give the paragraph entire that relates to it :
" Looking at the ship-railway project from a broad and general
" point of view, there can be little doubt that it is one which is
" fraught with great results. This will be better realized when it is
" remembered that the American isthmus separates about 100,000,000
" of the most enterprising, industrious and enlightened people on the
" face of the earth, inhabiting the North Atlantic coasts of Europe
"and America, from 600,000,000 who inhabit the Orient and the
" islands of the Pacific. It is true that the sailing distances which
" separate England from India, China and other Oriental countries,
" have been, greatly reduced by the Suez Canal ; but these distances
" are almost insignificant when compared with those which the ship
" railway would annihilate. For instance, the greatest saving effected
" by the Suez Canal between London and Calcutta is abput 4,500
" statute miles, whereas the sailing distance by the ship railway from
" London to every port on the Pacific coast of North America will
" be lessened by nearly twice this great distance, or about 8,250 miles.
" The Suez. Canal brought London and Canton about 3,500 miles
" nearer together by sea. The ship railway would save more than
"three times that distance between the great American metropolis
"and every port in British Columbia. The American isthmus and
* the Cordilleras of North America constitute a narrow but almost
"impassable barrier to the interchange of the manufactures and pro
ductions of 40,000,000 of people in the Mississippi Valley and
"Atlantic States, not only with those of 10,000,000 of their country-
" men to the west of them, but with the others on the islands and
"coasts of the Pacific who are seemingly their nearest neighbors.
" The ship railway would give to these descendants of the British
" Isles a sea route between their Atlantic and Pacific ports scarcely
" a thousand miles longer than the railway between New York and
" San Francisco, and it would give to the vast valley of the Mississippi
" a gateway equivalent to the discharge of its mighty river directly
"into the Pacific. A work designed to confer such great benefits
"on the commerce of the world should commend itself with especial
" force to this country, which is carrying more than 70 per cent, of
"that commerce."
The writer, in an address before the Franklin Institute of Phila
delphia, December 28, 1884, gave in detail the following commercial
reasons for an interoceanic crossing :
"It is necessary now to glance at the internal commerce of the

18
"United States, because from that we can estimate what its foreign
"commerce would be, if the barriers now obstructing it were
" removed, and if the immense surplus products, agricultural, manu
facturing and mineral, could be shipped at reasonable expense and
"in reasonable time, to foreign countries needing our surplus pro
ductions. During the year 1883, the railroads of the United
" States transported over four hundred million tons of freight, valued
"at $12,000,000,000. These goods if placed for transportation in
" one freight train, carrying fifteen tons to the car, would require a
"a train 175,000 miles long, or seven times the circumference of the
" earth. In addition to this rail transportation there should be added
" many millions of steamboat and coastwise tonnage, probably equal
" to fifty per cent, of that transported by rail. While we are carry
ing, year by year, these immense amounts of freight, the whole
" foreign commerce of Europe is less than ten billions of dollars in
" value. "The Mississippi Valley has a commercial internal business,
" by river and by rail, of over four billions of dollars. Galveston,
" the seaport of Texas, has a tributary net work of railroads more
" than six thousand miles in length. The increase of commerce of
" the countries west of the United States, that is, those bordering on
"the Pacific, has been one hundred and fifty per cent, in five years •
"but on account of the impossibility of reaching this business we
"have less than four per cent, of it — the remainder going to
" Europe, via the Cape of Good Hope, the Suez Canal and Cape Horn.
" Our Pacific Coast — California, Oregon and Washington Terri-
"tory, is especially adapted to the cultivation of cereals, particularly
" wheat. The salubrity of the climate and the richness of the soil
"reduce the cost of its production to a minimum. But on account of
" the great length of the voyage by which the wheat and the flour of
"the Pacific Coast reach Liverpool and other markets of the Old
" World, it must compete, under great disadvantages, with the wheat
"raised in India and Australia. A voyage of sixteen thousand
"miles is necessary to place California wheat in the Liverpool
"market. The freight per ton by sea is about $15.00. To haul it
"across the continent by the transcontinental railway lines, would
"cost $25.00 to $36.00 a ton to New York alone, saying nothings of
"the transatlantic voyage."
Another view of the same subject was presented in an address, by
the writer, before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, August 26th, 1885, as follows :

19
"Forty-five millions of our people live east of the Rocky Moun
tains, and produce nearly all the manufactured goods of the country
which amount annually to the enormous total of over five
billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) in value. Not being able to reach
economically or promptly the countries that have need of these
manufactured articles, we export but two per cent, of them, and
therefore we cannot compete with those countries of Europe which
also manufacture them, and which by the Suez Canal are placed much
nearer to those markets. Special attention is called to the unfortunate
position of the Mississippi Valley and its seaports on the Gulf ;
with only eight hundred miles between them and the Pacific, they
cannot reach its markets except by- a voyage around Cape Horn,
which absolutely prevents all commercial intercourse with them.
Our whole eastern and southern coast can send its products
Eastward, but to the Westward is an impassable barrier, and
Westward are six hundred million people offering their rich
treasures to commerce and civilization. The dwellers on the west
of South America, Mexico and our own Pacific coast, although
seemingly our nearest neighbors, are practically removed farther
from us than the East Indies are by way of the Suez Canal.
"The over-sea commerce of the globe is now upward of fourteen
billion dollars, and is increasing at the rate of seventy-five per cent.
every decade ; so that, if ten years ago it was important to solve the
isthmian problem, it is vastly more important to-day, and will be
still more so ten years hence."
There is an imperative necessity for a shorter and less expensive
maritime route than now exists from our Pacific coast to the Atlan
tic markets of this country and Europe. The Suez Canal has given
to India such an immense advantage in the exportation of cereals to
Europe, that this important product of the Pacific coast will soon be
without an available market ; but 8000 miles saved in distance, and
two months and a half in time, will more than restore the advantage
we had before the opening of the Suez route. Another important
and much needed factor in the development of the Pacific coast
States is the immigration of a har-dy, industrious and assimilating
European population. A short and inexpensive maritime route for
passengers from European ports to San Francisco and Portland will
induce agricultural emigrants to seek the Western coast, from which
they are now practically excluded by the excessive cost of transpor
tation The prosperity of the Pacific States will. also tend to the
development of that great railway system which penetrates to

20
the heart of the continent. Water-ways parallel with railways have
not checked but have actually promoted the development of the
latter. The all-water route to the Atlantic seaboard from the Great
Lakes has, no doubt, tended to the development of the Great
Trunk Line systems that are parallel to these water-ways.
The Mississippi River, the great Water Trunk Line north and
south, has stimulated and developed the railroad systems that
parallel it from St. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul to New Orleans,
and the same is true in reference to Long Island Sound and the
Atlantic Coast. A short all-water route from the Hudson to the
Golden Gate will develop and enrich the whole country bordering
on the two oceans, and increase the business of the transcontinental
railways, and enrich them. The opening of the Gulf ports to the
Pacific markets will benefit the whole interior country also, and
even to the remote lakes of the north and the enterprising cities
upon their shores, will be felt the pulsations of the new life which
a maritime transit-way at the Mexican Isthmus will infuse into the
commerce and industries of our entire country. The joining of
the 10,000 miles of Atlantic coast line with the 10,000 miles on the
Pacific will multiply the coastwise commerce of the United States,
now already immense, beyond the expectations. of the most sanguine
advocate of an isthmian crossing.

Plate JJ.— Map showing Tehuantepec to be the great Central Barrier to the World's Commerce.

23

CHAPTER IV.
SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES OV THE TEHUANTEPEC ISTHMUS — COMMERCIAL,
CLIMATIC, CONSTRUCTIVE AND STRATEGIC.
It will be seen by an examination of the map of the world
(Plate II.) that the American isthmus is about fifteen hundred miles
in length, in an air line, and that the distance from the Tehuantepec
isthmus to Panama is about twelve hundred miles, and to Nicaragua
about eight hundred. It will also be noticed that the Tehuantepec
Isthmus is nearest to North America. It may be generally assumed
that that crossing of the American isthmus which is nearest to the
axial line of commerce will offer the shortest routes. That line may
be assumed to be drawn through Hong Kong, San Francisco, New
York and Liverpool. The table of distances on pages 63-65, will show
how much shorter is the route via Tehuantepec on nearly all of the
main lines of commerce. The principal purpose of this country in
opening interoceanic communication for our merchant marine is to
form a closer commercial union of the ten thousand miles of our
eastern, with the ten thousand miles of our western coast ; to
shorten the immense distance of sixteen thousand miles that must
be traversed by the commerce of our Pacific coast on its vpyage to
New York or Liverpool, and to obtain the shortest and most econo
mical route for freight and passengers from the Old World, as well
as from our own Atlantic coast, to our Pacific States and British
Columbia. A crossing at Tehuantepec for ships will' accomplish
this better than any other location can possibly do. For an ordinary
sized steamer it will save, over the Panama route, at least one
thousand dollars on every trip ; and, on account of the longer time
required to pass the ship through the Nicaragua Canal, the saving
over that route will be nearly as great. Commodore Shufeldt,
United States Navy, in 1871, in an official report of his survey of
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, said :
"Each Isthmus rises into irnportance as it lies nearer to the
" centre of American commercial interests, and the intrinsic value
"of this eminently national work ought to be based upon the
" inverse ratio of the distance from that centre."
The Tehuantepec Isthmus has important advantages in the supe
rior nautical conditions which prevail there. Commander Self ridge,
whose great familiarity with the coasts of the American Isthmus
gives weight to his opinion, stated as follows, in an official report on
the Darieh Ship Canal :
" Lying near the equator, but generally a little north of it, is a
" belt some four or five degrees wide, of calms, rains and light baf-
" fling winds, that separates the wind systems of the north Pacific
"from those of the south. Its average northern limit may be placed
"at 8Q north and its southern at 3" north, but both are very van-

24

" able. This is often spoken of as a ' calm belt,' which term is
" calculated to mislead one as to the nature of the weather to be
" expected within these limits. Neither does the term, ' region of
" variable winds,' appear satisfactory, as it does not express the
"peculiar character of the weather. ' Doldrums' seems to be the
" correct word, for although it may be as some say, 'uncouth,' it is
" the only single word that conveys to the mind of the seaman all
" that can be expressed by saying ' a region of calms,' squalls, light
" baffling winds, and storms of wind and rain.' " *
That eminent authority on the physical ge&graphy of the Sea,
Lieut. M. F. Maury, says, after describing the winds and currents on
each side of the American Isthmus : " You will observe at a glance
" that the Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, is, on account of these
" winds and calms, in a purely commercial point of view, the most out
" of the way place of any part of the Pacific Coast of inter-tropical
" America." \
He stated in a letter written in 1866, as follows :
" I have spoken about the calm belt about the equator — Panama
is within its range. * * * It is difficult to convey to one who
has never experienced these Galms an idea of the obstinacy with
which they vex navigation. We are all familiar with calms at sea
which last for a few hours or even a day, but here they last for
days and weeks at a time. I have known vessels going to or from
Panama to be detained by them for months at a time. * * *
On one occasion the British admiralty wishing to send one of their
sailing vessels into the Arctic Ocean from Panama in time to save
the season had her towed by a steamer through this calm belt and
carried seven hundred miles out to sea before she could find a
breeze. * * *
" These remarks apply to the approach and departure by sea to or
from the Pacific terminus of any route across the Isthmus of
Panama or Darien, and even with greater force to the Atrato and
others on the South American side of Panama. In short, the results
of my investigations into the winds and currents of the sea and
their influence upon the routes of commerce, authorize the opinion
which I have expressed before and which I here repeat, namely, if
nature, by one of her convulsions, should rend the continent of
America in twain and make a channel across the Isthmus of
Panama or Darien as deep, as wide, and as free as the Straits of
Dover, it would never become a commercial thoroughfare for sail
ing vessels, saving the outward-bound and those that could reach
it with leading winds."J
* House Mis. Doc. No. 113, 42d Cong., 3d Sess., p. 231.
f From testimony of Lieut. Collins, U. S. N., before House Com. on Inter
oceanic Canals, July 28, 1880, page 41 of testimony.
% Mis. Doc No. 66, 46th Congress, 3d Session, page 41 .

25
Capt. Silas Bent, the well known nautical expert, stated the fol
lowing before the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis :
" Mere statements of the difference in miles is a very inadequate
" measure of the difference in time that would be occupied by sail-
" ing vessels in making these several passages, and when we consider
" that three-fourths of the ocean commerce of the world is carried in
" sailing vessels, you can see what an important factor this question
" of sailing-time becomes in the solution of the problem before us.
" The northeast trade winds which extend across the Atlantic are
" so broken and interrupted when they encounter the West India
" Islands, that they never penetrate the Caribbean Sea ; but the
" northwest portion of them, however, do extend into the Gulf of
" Mexico, and often so far down as to reach well toward Tehuante-
" pec, so that whilst in the Gulf winds are always found, yet the
" Caribbean Sea remains a region of almost relentless calm.
" Nor is this all, for the mountain ranges, extending the length
" of the Isthmus of Panama and through Central America, offer a
" still more formidable barrier to the passage of these winds, thus
" throwing them still higher into the upper regions of the atmo-
" Sphere, and extending these calms far out into the Pacific Ocean,
" ofl the parallel of Panama, with lessening width, for fifteen or
" eighteen hundred miles to the northwest, along the coast of Cen-
" tral America.
" This whole region of calms, both in the Caribbean Sea and in the
" Pacific Ocean, is so well known to navigators that sailing vessels
" always shun it, if possible, though they may have to run a thousand
" miles out of their way to do so.
" This absence of wind of course leaves this vast area exposed to
" the unmitigated heat of a torrid sun, except when relieved momen-
" tarily by harassing squalls in the dry season, and by the deluging
" rainfalls of the wet season. With these meterological facts in
" view, let us now suppose that the Lesseps Canal at Panama, and
" the Eads Railway at Tehuantepec are both completed and in run-
" ning order ; then let us start two sailing ships, of equal tonnage and
"equal speed from the mouth of the Mississippi, with cargo for
" China, one to go by the way of the Panama Canal, and the other
" by the way of the Tehuantepec Railway, and I venture to affirm
" that by the time the Panama vessel has cleared the canal and floats
" in the waters of the Pacific, the Tehuantepec vessel will have scaled
"the Isthmus and be well on to the meridian of the Sandwich
" Islands ; and that before the former vessel can worry through the
"fifteen or more hundred miles of windless ocean before her, to
" reach the trade winds to the westward of Tehuantepec, the latter
" will have sped five thousand miles on her way across1 the Pacific,
" and be fully thirty days ahead of her adversary. For it is a fact
"worth mentioning here, that the strength of the northeast trade
"winds in the Pacific, as well as the maximum strength of the north-
"ern portion of the great equatorial current in that ocean, are both
"found on or near the parallel of latitude of Tehuantepec, the

26
"former blowing with an impelling force to the westward of ten or
" twelve miles an hour, and the latter with a following strength of
" three or four miles per hour."
It has been stated by those who advocate an interoceanic crossing
at Panama, that it really makes very little difference to the commerce
of the world, whether the route is favorable or not to sailing ves
sels, for the alleged reason that steamships are rapidly taking their
place. The facts given in the report of our Commissioner of
Navigation, Mr. Jarvis Patten, for 1884, pp. 22 and 23, controvert
this statement :
" The American merchant marine of the present time, although it
" has not in later years kept pace with that of Great Britain, is sec-
" ond only to hers.
" Notwithstanding the disadvantages that American shipbuilders
" have had to contend against, the high character of their vessels
"has been maintained. Our wooden ships are probably the best
" and safest vessels afloat. * * *
".'We are apt to talk as if we had no ships,' said Hon. W. P.
" Frye, in a speech to the Senate April 30, 1884, ' and you would
' judge from an ordinary discussion in Congress that there was no
' such thing as an American ship to-day. Why, Mr. President, we
' have the finest coastwise trade in size, in ships, in material, in men,
' in discipline, in comfort, in convenience, in prosperity that there is
' in the whole world,' and the Senator might with equal truth have
" said the same of the fine fleet of sailing ships engaged in the Cah>
" fornia wheat trade. When the guano trade, which gave employ-
" ment to a large number of ships for a period of twenty years, col-
" lapsed with the outbreak of the Peru-Chili war, our vessels went
" into the grain trade that had been springing up between our Pacific
" ports and Europe. This trade, which has since grown to great im-
" portance, employs the largest and best-equipped fleet of wooden
" ships in the world. * * * *
" The wood sailing ships of this country are thought to surpass
' any others afloat in point of safety, and it is a mistake to accept
" the opinion that the day of wooden ships is entirely past. Two-
" thirds of the tonnage of the world is probably still composed of
" wooden vessels, while their numerical preponderance is much
" greater, notwithstanding the fact that for screw steamers and many
" other kinds of craft iron possesses certain advantages.
" In round numbers the total of our sea-going marine was on June
"30, 1884: Vessels, 6,636; tons, 3,700,404. Of this number,
"422, of 601,186 tons, were steamers, and the rest sailing vessels."
The Report of the Commissioner for 1885, shows an increase
during the year of 60 sailing vessels, and a decrease of 67 steam
ships.

27
An early transit-way for ships at Tehuantepec will do much to
solve the important problem now before the country so prominently,
of promoting our merchant marine and the shipping interests of the
United States. It will assist very materially in restoring us to our
proper place among the commercial nations of the world. The im
portance of these interests was eloquently stated by the Hon. Nel
son Dingley, Jr., in a speech in the House of Representatives, April
25, 1882, in which he used the following language :
" The efforts of England to control the ocean carrying trade ought
" to arouse the American Congress and people to the importance of
"our shipping interests. This is a question which affects the
" interior as much as the seaboard, the West as much as the East,
*' the South as much as the North. It is not a local, but a national
" question. " It involves the inquiry as to whether we will save to our own
"people the ship-building industry, which employs ten thousands of
" workmen, and distributes millions of dollars ; whether we shall
" retain a due share of $100,000,000 which we annually pay for ocean
" transportation, with all the avenues of employment which it would
" open ; whether we shall open up wider markets for American pro-
" ducts in China, Japan, South America and the Orient."
According to Mr. Patten, we can build wooden sailing ships
cheaper and better than any other nation in the world. But it is cer-
tain-that an interoceanic crossing at Panama (because of "the Dol
drums " or calm belt) will not only prevent their construction in the
future, but will drive from the seas most of the sailing ships we now
possess, if iwe do not open up a route for them at Tehuantepec.
It is important, considering the unhealthiness of several parts of
the Isthmus, that, other things being equal, that location should be
selected which has the greatest climatic advantages. The testimony
in favor of the superiority in this respect of the Tehuantepec Isth
mus is overwhelming. Mr. J. J. Williams, whose valuable work on
the Tehuantepec Isthmus is considered an authority everywhere,
from his long experience as a civil engineer on the Isthmus, states as
follows on page 172 of his work entitled " The Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec :" —
" The conviction in the minds of those engaged in drawing up this
" report, and one founded on a residence upon the spot, is, that the
"climate of the Isthmus is a mild and healthy one, favorable to
"longevity, and free from many diseases incidental to more tem-
" perate latitudes. The health of those engaged on the survey was
" unusually good during their entire stay ; and although frequently by
" accidents wetted to the skin and remaining in wet clothes the whole
" day, and this occurring on successive days, with limited food at
" long intervals, yet none suffered in consequence — a strong proof
" that their health was due to the favorable climate.
" Compared with other places, selected for forming a junction

28
"between the two oceans, this Isthmus has peculiar advantages.
" With less alluvial land at the sea-level, it is more healthy than San
" Juan de Nicaragua, and from its more northern latitude, its mean
" annual temperature is less than that of Nicaragua or of Panama.
" The latter place has, indeed, a temperature and climate truly tor-
" rid, and partaking more of the character of a continent than of an
" island, which latter is the peculiarity of the position of this por-
" tion of Mexico."
His statement is supported by the report of Dr. Kovaleski, who
was surgeon of the party. The following are extracts from his
voluminous report :
" I took particular care to inquire among the inhabitants, what
" were the diseases from which they mostly suffered, and how
" strangers settling among them were affected, and I ascertained
" beyond doubt, that not only Minatitlan, but the whole plain of the
" Coatzacoalcos River, wherever inhabited, was a remarkably healthy
"country. * * *
" I met at Minatitlan several individuals who formed a part of the
" French colony, and who had resided there for twenty-two years ;
" they all assured me that they enjoyed uninterrupted health. The
" appearance of the natives proves the country to be healthy, and
" our small party had no reason to complain of sickness during its
"stay. * * *
" The plain of the Coatzacoalcos River, flat and low, with an
" extremely fertile alluvial soil, covered with thick forests, intersected
" by many rivers and here and there subject to inundation, although
" the least healthy, yet enjoys a high degree of salubrity, and no fears
" need be entertained, as proved by the experience of the French
" emigrants, for those who may in future settle permanently in
" this region, and much less so for those who may cross it as trav-
" ellers. " The region Of hills and mountains is as healthy as the most
" salubrious portions of Europe ; full of romantic scenery, it is even
" now highly attractive, and will, in progress of time, when inhabited
" by an enterprising and laborious population, become one of the
" most beautiful spots on the earth.
" Last, comes the plain of Tehuantepec, nearly as healthy as the
" hilly region, although warmer, presenting all the characteristics of
" a healthy tropical climate.
" All these three regions together form a broad surface of country
" from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of the Pacific, of a great
" variety of resources and of remarkable healthiness, a feature
" peculiar to the Isthmus, as the lands on both of its sides are very
" unhealthy ; such as Vera Cruz and Tabasco on the Gulf, Acapulco,
" Huatulco, and the coast of Guatimala on the Pacific shore. This
" peculiar and exclusive salubrity of the Isthmus, is, in my opinion,
" chiefly due to its configuration, which forms as it were a gate,
" walled on both sides by heavy masses of mountains, through which

29
"t pass currents of air, that render the country they traverse per-
manently salubrious."
Mr. Martin Van Brocklin, who spent two years on the Isthmus as
Chief Engineer of the Tehuantepec Railroad and one year as Resi
dent Engineer of the Ship-Railway, states in an official report to the
President of this Company as follows :
( "The country through which the line passes has a fine salubrious
^ climate, with the exception of the immediate valley of the Coatza-
" coalcos River, where malarial fevers are prevalent for a portion of
|' the year. By reason of the peculiar topographical formation of
" the Isthmus, there is an almost constant interchange of air currents
" between the two Oceans. The inhabitants are a robust and health-
"ful people." * * *
The writer's own observations on the Isthmus, and the experience
of engineering parties sent there by him, confirm the opinions just
given. These engineering parties, composed mostly of unacclimated
young men from the northern portions of the United States, went to
the Isthmus in March, at the beginning of the tropical rainy season,
worked continuously for seventeen months in the woods and on the
table-lands and plains of the Isthmus, exposed to hardships and
unprotected from the weather ; no case of sickness occurred among
them, and they came back to the United States, after completing
their work, in robust health.
In proof of the above is offered an extract from the report of Mr.
Deming J. Thayer, civil engineer in charge of our surveys for ten
months, and who has spent several years on the isthmus and in the
states, of Colombia :
" Hitherto it has been erroneously supposed that engineering par
ties could not remain in the field during the rainy season ; that the
increase in hardships would result in sickness among the men
employed, and this, in connection with the time lost when raining,
would render desirable progress impossible. Our experience
during an entire and unusually hard rainy season disproves this
supposition. No sickness showed itself among assistants or men,
little or no time was lost, and progress was nearly as rapid as
during the dry season."
Another advantage of great importance is the good harbors that
exist on each side of the Isthmus, the entrances to which can with
inexpensive works be deepened to any required depth. On the
Atlantic or Gulf side of the Isthmus there is a natural land-locked
basin, which has a depth of from forty feet to sixty feet. It is sev
eral miles in length, of ample width, and in which an immense fleet
can lie at anchor in safety. On the Pacific side two beautiful lakes,
comprising two hundred and fifty square miles with depths of twenty-
two feet, connect with the Pacific Ocean by a natural passage-way.
The deep water of the Ocean approaches within twelve hundred

30

feet of the shore line. Mr. Williams states as follows, in reference
to the harbor on the Atlantic side :
" As soon as the bar is crossed 'and the ascent of the river com-
"mences, it widens and deepens, and at seven miles from the Gull",
" the lead shows a depth of forty feet, which is preserved for some
" distance. * * * The superior advantages offered by this
" stream as a safe and convenient harbor for ships, early attracted
" the attention of the Spanish conquerors. Cortez, in his official
" despatches to the Emperor, Charles V, speaks of the importance
" of this river as furnishing the best harbor to be found on the Gulf
" coast of Mexico."
The voluminous report of Mr. Williams gives abundant evidence
that the country is well adapted for the construction of a Ship-Rail
way, and that the materials are conveniently at hand for con
structing the works ; and the report of Mr. Martin Van Brocklin,
under whose immediate direction the first complete instrumental
survey across this isthmus was made, gives conclusive evidence
that the railway can be built on solid ground, and that excellent
materials are found near at hand. The following quotations are
from his report to the President of this Company :
" Through a distance of thirty-five miles from Minatitlan, the line
" is in an extensive alluvial plain, composed in all its lower portions
" of a heavy tenacious clay. In the higher portions, and in the small
" ridges that are encountered, a clay loam is found, with an occa
ssional deposit of sand.
" The firm and tenacious character of the material upon which
" the road-bed will rest, and of which it will be composed, will
" secure the railway from any injurious effects of water. Leaving
" this plain, the line enters an undulating table-land, extending to a
"point fifty-five miles from Minatitlan, where it leaves the valley of
" the Coatzacoalcos River and follows a succession of broad valleys
" formed by the Jumuapa, Sarabia, Malatengo and Chichihua rivers ;
" between these valleys there are extensive table-lands, with no high
" or prominent dividing summit between them, but they are inter-
" spersed with isolated hills and detached ranges from one to five
" hundred feet in height, the whole forming an extensive interior
"basin, having a gentle inclination towards the summit, and
" bordered on its eastern and western sides by irregular mountain
" ranges, spurs of the main Cordillera that funs through the entire
" continent, and which makes at this point one of the most marked
" depressions to be found in its whole length. From this basin the
" line passes through a valley formed by a stream called the Pozo de
" Agua, to the plains of Tarifa, an elevated level plateau six miles in
" extent. Crossing these plains, the line reaches the Portillo de
" Tarifa, the lowest and also the most accessible of the many passes
"through this general depression in the main mountain chain.
" From the Portillo de Tarifa the line descends to the Pacific plains
" (reaching them 118 miles from Minatitlan) by a uniform grade,

31
"following a succession of valleys through the intervening foot-
" hills. These valleys are generally narrow, having very abrupt
" slopes on their sides. Fortunately the line can be kept near the
" bottom of the valleys, avoiding any difficult or questionable class
" of construction. The heaviest excavations will be in cutting
" through spurs of the hill sides, or through divides between adjacent
" valleys. Across the Pacific plains the line can be given almost any
" desired direction, the surface being remarkably even and uniform
" in character." * * * " Many varieties of valuable timber are
" found, very durable in character, and suitable for either permanent
" or temporary work in construction, throughout the entire line, with
" the exception of about twenty miles at each end of it.
" Good building stone is found near the line at short intervals
" after leaving the valley of the Coatzacoalcos River. Granite,
"limestone, sandstone and quartzite are among the -varieties of stone
" available for purposes of construction.
" The principal rock cuttings to be encountered near the summit
"will be in a clay slate formation, limestone appearing at a lower
" elevation, and granite in the higher ranges on each side of the
" line." * * * " A careful instrumental survey of the bar at the
"mouth of the river shows that there is at ordinary tide, . fifteen
" feet of water over it. Surveys and soundings made during the
" last thirty years give conclusive evidence that this bar has changed
" very little during that time. Borings to the depth of twenty-six
" feet encountered no other material than sand and clay, much the
" larger portion being sand ; a stratum of clay was found at the
" bottom of the borings. This bar has a striking resemblance to
" the bar at the mouth of the South Pass of the Mississippi^ River,
" except that it has less than one-fourth the distance across it, from
" twenty-six feet depth of water on the inside to the same depth on
"the outside, and it can be deepened by the same methods that
"gave such remarkable results at the mouth of the Mississippi
" River." Another important consideration is the strategic advantages which
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec has over any other possible route. It
is located nearest to the United States ; it is in the Republic of
Mexico, the strongest republic, next to the United States, on the
American continent, and connected with us not only by close
political and social ties, but also commercially by lines of railroads
built and building from our country into and through it, and by
several steamship lines to its ports in the Gulf and on the Pacific.
The Atlantic terminus of the ship-railway is in the Gulf of Mexico,
whose approaches from the Atlantic at the Florida Straits and the
Straits of Yucatan, can be easily defended by our navy in case of
war • enabling us to maintain uninterrupted communication between
all of our Gulf ports and the Ship-Railway, even though every Atlantic
port should be blockaded and the enemy's cruisers infest the high
seas The harbor at the Gulf can be thoroughly defended by
inexpensive fortifications on the high lands which rise immediately

32

above the entrance channel, and by torpedoes. Equally favorable
conditions for defense exist on the Pacific. From these facts it is
evident that, if Mexico and the United States unite to protect this
transit-way, no other power or powers could successfully interfere
with it.
In a pamphlet written by Mr. Alexander D. Anderson, on the
Tehuantepec Ship-Railway, in 1884, on page 11, the strategic
advantages are also stated as follows : " The railway system of the
" United States, which now amounts to 125,000 miles, has, during the
" past year, been extended to the City of Mexico by the completion
" of the Mexican Central road from El Paso to the City of Mexico.
" A second line, the Mexican National, is already half complete
" between Laredo and the City of Mexico, and three other lines are
"projected from the Rio Grande to the Mexican capital. These five
" lines are to be prolonged southward to Tehuantepec by a line
" already projected," and now, in 1885, being built by the Mexican
Government, " thereby placing that Isthmus within easy reach of.
'¦the troops of the two sister republics, should they ever have
" occasion to defend it. * * *
" By water, also, the Isthmus is equally accessible to the troops of
" Mexico and the United States by steamers through an inland sea
" which may easily be closed at the two passes between the Atlantic
" and the Gulf. These remarkable advantages as a defensive point
" may be seen by a glance at the Map of the World. It is in this
" respect in marked contrast with the Isthmus of Panama or Nicara-
" gua which would be exposed to attack."

38

CHAPTER V.
THE SHIP-RAILWAY, ITS PLANS AND PRACTICABILITY.
Many plans and projects have been brought forward for transport
ing vessels through or over the American Isthmus at various points,
but until recently these plans have all contemplated artificial water
channels. It was left for Mr. James B. Eads, after accomplishing
the important work of opening the mouth of the Mississippi River
to commerce, to propose and develop the plan of a ship-railway
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The important advantages of
every nature stated in the previous chapters, together with the fact
that an artificial water channel, either at sea level or by means of
locks, would be altogether too expensive, were the reasons for the
inception of the ship-railway.
The following description of the Ship-Railway was written by
Mr. Eads, for " Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia," ( Revised
Edition, pp. 252 to 256 :)
" After the publication, in 1879, of the estimates made by the
Ship-Canal Convention which met, at the solicitation of Count de
Lesseps, inTaris, the writer was led to investigate the practicability
of the transit of loaded merchant-ships of the largest class by railway,
to ascertain if a more economic method of transit than by canal
could not be thus secured. It was generally known that the trans
portation of sea-going craft overland had been accomplished at the
Isthmus of Corinth by the Athenians, 400 b. c. ; that in the Middle
Ages the Turks had transported ships of war in a similar manner ;
that a hundred years ago Swedenborg had carried three vessels of
war across one of the peninsulas in the Baltic ; that before the con
struction of the Suez Canal was commenced a ship-railway was pro
posed in lieu of it by Brunlees and Webb, two English engineers of
note ; that they had also in 1872 proposed and made plans for the
construction of a ship-railway across Central America for ships of
1200 tons burden ; and that, in 1875, Mr. H. G. C. Ketchum pro
posed a ship-railway across the Isthmus of Chignecto, between the
Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for vessels which would
weigh, with cargo and machinery, about 2000 tons. Hence the idea
of transporting ships by rail is not a new one. The plans hitherto
proposed for this purpose did not contemplate, however, the hand
ling of the largest merchant-ships. Crude estimates of the cost of
the practical devices for this method soon gave assurance of great
economy, in both money and time, in favor of the ship-railway.
Further studies led to such improvements in the carriage on which
to transport the ship, and the docks necessary to place it on the car
riage and railway, as assured the absolute safety of the largest loaded
ship during transit."

34
" The methods fot raising, hauling and handling vessels, evolved
from five years' study of the subject, will now be given. At each
terminus is excavated a basin leading on the one side from the
river, and on the other from the lake, to a dock, which will be
walled on the sides and on one end either by masonry or by creo-
soted timber. In this dock will be placed a pontoon, which, like an
ordinary lifting-dock, will be capable of raising the vessels (Plate III.).
This pontoon will be made of steel plates, with bulkheads athwart-
ships and fore and aft, so as to render it strong enough to support
the weight, when out of the water, that it has to carry. Its size will
be about 450 feet in length, 75 feet in width, and from 12 to 15 feet
in depth. There will be built upon it, on each side, a water-tight
tower whose top will stand above the surface of the water when the
pontoon is submerged and resting on the bottom of the dock. The
pontoon is sunk by opening sluice-gates ; these sluice-gates are in its
sides, and are operated from the top of these towers. It is raised by
means of powerful pumps, which withdraw the water from the pon
toon and discharge it into the surrounding dock or basin. These
pumps are to be sufficiently powerful to raise the pontoon, with a
vessel upon it, in from 15 to 20 minutes. It is guided in its vertical
movement by large anchor-rods, which are secured in the foundations
of the dock. These rods pass freely through the pontoon, but are
separated from its water-spaces. The heads of these guiding-rods
prevent the pontoon from rising above a certain level, and also re
sist its buoyancy when the vessel has been run off of the pontoon on
to the railway. In order to lift a vessel without injury to itself and
to place it upon a cradle or carriage for transportation without any
possible injury to this carriage, it is necessary to distribute or equal
ize the weight of the vessel so as to bring no more weight upon one
part of the carriage than upon another. A vessel has not the same
weight per unit of its length throughout its whole extent, but, being
a girder capable of resisting the flexures and bending moments which
it must necessarily meet in its voyage on the ocean, it is capable of
resisting, without injury to its structural integrity, this necessary
equalization. In fact, when the vessel is in its natural element —
smooth water — it is not equally borne by the water per unit of its
length, from the fact that certain parts of the vessel are more buoy
ant than other parts. For instance, the bow and the stern of a
steamer, or of any craft, have a tendency to droop, and it is often the
case that after a vessel has been launched the ends of the keel are
found to be below its central part. This equalization is accom
plished by a series of hydraulic rams, or presses, which are built into
the oontoon, and are founded upon a second deck about 6 feet be
low the main, or upper, deck of the pontoon. These rams are ar
ranged in longitudinal and transverse lines, which are spaced in each
direction about 7 feet apart. The combined or total area of the
rams in any one transverse line is exactly equal to the combined area
of every other transverse line. There being seven rams in one of
these transverse lines in the midship section of the vessel, their area,
if combined into one ram, would be exactly equal to the one ram
under the bow or the stern of the vessel. As we approach toward

Plate III.— Perspective View of the Dock and Car,

37
the bow or the stern from the centre there are five rams in a trans
verse line ; as we approach still nearer to the bow or the stern there
are three rams in each ; and under the bow or the stern there is only
one ram for each 7 feet of the ship's length. These rams are all con
nected by means of water-pipes, through which pressure is applied
to the whole system of rams by means of a hydraulic pressure-pump
placed on the top of the towers on the side of the pontoon. These
rams have a vertical movement of 7 or 8 feet. When the principle
of hydrostatic pressure is understood, it will be seen that any mass,
whatever may be its shape, that rests upon this system of hydraulic
rams when they are under pressure, will be equally borne through
out its whole extent, providing it has a bearing upon all the rams in
the system. In the case of a vessel, either a sailing-ship or a steamer,
this equalization is so perfect that the excess of weight in the central
portion of the vessel when she is loaded will be taken up by the lines
of rams toward the bow and the stern, which have immediately over
them a weight less than that which they are able to sustain. This
system of rams is grouped by means of valves, so that, if necessary,
a greater pressure can be brought to bear upon one part of the ves
sel than upon another. In practice there would be a large number
of valves, so that the system could be applied to different sizes and
shapes of vessels as each might require. It will be seen, therefore,
that when the vessel rests upon this system of rams- she is water-
borne ; for she is resting upon so many columns of water under
pressure, which equalizes the weight of the vessel by a process which
is similar to that employed by Nature herself when the vessel is rest
ing in her natural element. Attached to the water-pipes is a pres
sure-gauge, which will serve to show the exact weight of the mass
borne on the system of rams.
" As a body floating under water has no stability, the pontoon which
raises and lowers the vessel has none when wholly under water. As
it will not always be possible to bring the centre of gravity of the
vessel fore and aft directly over the centre of the pontoon, there will
be a tendency for the pontoon to come up out of level if there is
more weight upon one end of it than upon the other. To obviate
this the pontoon is balanced, not by water let into the compartments,
as is the case with a balance-dock, but by mechanical appliances
. called ' hydraulic governors.' (See Plate IIL, a. a.) These governors
are located at the four corners of the pontoon, and at other points
along the sides of the pontoon if in practice it should be found to be
necessary. They consist of plungers working in cylinders. The
plungers are attached to the pontoon, and the cylinders to the dock
walls. On each corner there are an inverted cylinder and an
upright cylinder. One upright and one inverted cylinder on the
diagonal corners . are connected with each other by means of pipes.
The cylinders and the pipes are water-tight, and are filled with
water. Now, if there is, say, 100 tons more weight upon one
end of the pontoon than there is upon the other end, one-half
of this will be borne by each of the. two plungers secured to the
heavy end of the pontoon, and there will be brought upon the
Water in each of the two inverted cylinders secured to the dock

38
walls at that end, a weight of 50 tons. The pressure due to
this weight is immediately transmitted through the pipe to the up
right cylinder on the diagonal corner at the other end of the dock,
and the water in this cylinder instantly reacts with a 50-ton pressure
as a plunger upon the metal plunger in the cylinder, and thus com
pels this corner of the pontoon to go down with the same velocity
and to remain at the same level as the diagonal corner of the pon
toon with which it is connected. If the excess of weight be at the
other end, this action is reversed. By this means the pontoon is
made to rise and fall in a perfectly level plane, and consequently is
always so balanced as. to work freely upon the guiding-rods. A
pressure-gauge attached to the governor-pipes will indicate the
amount of excess of weight on either end of the pontoon. If it is
too great for the governors to balance with safety, or for the wheels
at that end of the carriage, the pontoon would be lowered and the
position of the vessel shifted. On the deck of the pontoon and be
tween the longitudinal lines of rams* are laid the rails for the carriage
which is to transport the vessel. These rails are six in number and
constitute three ordinary gauge-tracks, each 4 feet 8£ inches. The
outer rails are 29 feet apart between gauge-lines. The carriage (Plate
V.) to transport the vessel is built of steel girders. As the vessel is
equally supported throughout its length, it cannot be bent, and, as
the rails resting upon an immovable road-bed constitute a continuous
girder, the carriage is made with its greatest strength in its cross-
girders, the longitudinal girders being only of sufficient strength to
carry the trucks which are placed under them. The cross-girders are
spaced about 7 feet apart, exactly as the rams in the pontoon are
spaced. They are supplied with a system of supports, or keel and
bilge-blocks, for the vessel. The keel-block running the whole
length of the vessel is continuous, and is sufficiently elastic to con
form to any irregularities in the line of the keel. The supports
under the keel-block, and the other supports of the vessel, are made
of heavy steel rods in which a thread is cut for an adjusting-nut,
which can be run up or down on the rods. The upper end of these
rods, under the bottom and bilges of the vessel, is supplied with an
adjustable hinged batten (see Plate IV., Fig. 4:, top) on a universal joint.
These battens have an area of about 9 square feet each, and are
cushioned with rubber or other material, to prevent injury to the ves
sel when it rests upon these supports. The screw and batten may be
said to resemble in general shape a huge music-stand.
" The process of lifting a vessel is as follows : The carriage is run
from the railway upon the pontoon and secured in exact position on
it by means of locks. This insures each screw being exactly above
a hydraulic ram. The water is let into the pontoon by sluice-gates,
and it goes down, with the carriage upon it, until it rests upon the
foundation of the dock, or to a sufficient depth in the water to allow
the vessel to be floated in over it without striking the battens of the
carriage, which are previously let down by means of the adjusting-
nuts until the heads of the screws rest upon the girders of the
carriage. The vessel is then brought in over the pontoon and

Fig. 1 shows the process of running down the adjusting nut of the supports
to a bearing on the plates of the cross-girders. The details of the support are
shown in Fig. i, with the hydraulic ram' forcing it up to its position under the
vessel. A, is the rod with the thread cut ln It ; B, the adjusting nut ; C, feo
girder ; D, the ram.

Plate IV. — Details of the Lifting Dock.
l?ig. 2, Cross-section of the pontoon, towers and carriage. A, is a side sup
port ; B, G, F, the adjustable hinged girth ; D, the ram ; Ij 1., the towers for
the pressure pumps which are on the top of the towers ; I, is the pipe through
which the water is withdrawn from the pontoon by the centrifugal pump ;
J, is the reservoir from which the water is taken to force a pressure through
the pipes to the rams; K., is one of the cylinders for the hydraulic governors.

Fig. 3.

43
located as near as possible with its centre of gravity over the centre
of gravity of the pontoon. Adjustable guides from the side of the
dock, working by hydraulic power, quickly and gently bring the
vessel so that its keel is directly over the keel-block of the carriage.
The pontoon-pumps are now set at work, and the pontoon, with the
carriage upon it, comes up under the vessel. Just before the keel-
block and battens come into contact with it the hydraulic pumps on
the towers of the pontoon, which actuate the rams, are set at work,
and they gently force up under the keel, the bottom, bilges and
sides of the vessel the whole system of supports. The valves are
then closed, to prevent the water-pressure from escaping from
under the rams, and the pontoon-pump continues to lift the pontoon,
with the vessel on it, up out of the water. As the vessel rises,
resting upon the system of rams, its weight upon them becomes every
moment greater and greater, some of them being slightly depressed
and some slightly elevated, and the equalization through the system
goes on as the vessel rises, until, when it is entirely out of the water,
its whole weight is equally distributed from stem to stern. While
it is still resting upon the screws, which have been pushed up and
are held by the rams, the adjusting-nuts are run down on the thread
of each screw until they have a firm bearing upon the plates of the
cross-girders. When this adjustment has been made — which would
require only a few minutes for ten expert men to accomplish — the
valves are opened, the water-pressure escapes from the rams, and
they recede downward into the pontoon. The weight of the vessel
has now been transferred from the rams to the carriage, and the
equalization of the weight upon the carriage is as perfect as it was
upon the rams themselves. As the girders of the carriage are spaced
the same as the transverse lines of rams, if we arrange the same
number of wheels with each girder, we will then have the same
weight imposed upon every wheel, which is intended to be not over
eight and one-half or nine tons, which they will be able to sustain,
for each wheel will be tested to twenty tons when it is manufactured.
As it is a common practice for the railways of this country, and
especially so for those of England, to impose a greater weight upon
the driving-wheels of locomotives, it will be seen that this is an
admissible load for the wheels, which will be arranged in a very simple
form of trucks without bogies. As it is necessary for the carriage
to move on practically straight lines, the wheels can be arranged
with two flanges instead of with one, as a precaution against de
railment, although the breaking of one wheel or of several wheels will
not affect the integrity of the carriage. Over each axle is a powerful
spring, (see Fig 3, Plate V.) which will also be tested to twenty tons
before' closing. It has a vertical movement of six inches. When the
maximum load— a 5000-ton weight— is placed upon the carriage,
these springs will be closed to within three inches. This gives an
elastic bearing for the vessel and the carriage, and will serve two
purposes— one, to take up any slight irregularities there may be in
the track ; the other, to prevent any possible jar to the carriage or
to the vessel. When the load has been thus equalized upon the

44
carriage, it is evident that there will be no more weight brought upon
the rails at any point than there is brought upon , them by a
locomotive on an ordinary railway ; so that, so far as the strain
upon the rails is concerned, a rail of ordinary dimensions would
answer the purpose. But, to avoid the possibility of undue strain,
the rails will weigh from 100 to 120 pounds per lineal yard, which is
about twice the weight of an ordinary railroad rail. These rails
will be of steel, and will rest upon long steel ties which extend under
the whole six rails of the railway. They will have a large bearing-
surface, will be securely fastened to the rails, and will rest upon the
best quality of ballast or concrete. The road-bed itself will be
constructed of the very best materials obtainable, and in the most
thorough manner. The road-bed will be from forty-five to fifty
feet wide.
" The motive-power for hauling the loads will be furnished by
powerful locomotives, which will have imposed upon the driving-
wheels of each at least 100 tons, to give great traction-power. As
the maximum load, including the carriage, will be only 5,650 tons,
it will not be difficult to haul it over the grades of the railway. The
ordinary consolidated engines of the day will pull from 1,500 to
2,000 tons without difficulty over grades up to twenty feet to the
mile. Three such ordinary engines would therefore haul the
maximum load ; but, with locomotives of double the power of these
engines, no difficulty is apprehended in performing the work
required, and at ten miles per hour.
" A carriage constructed after the manner described must necessarily
move on practically straight lines. It will, however, permit the use
of a curve of twenty miles' radius, which is practically a straight
line. At points on the line where such a curve as this would
necessitate very heavy construction-work in the shape of mountain-
cuttings or very high embankments, a change of direction will be
obtained by means of turn-tables. (See Plate VI.) These turn-tables
are very simple and economical in construction, maintenance and
operation. By their use a large amount of money will be saved in
construction. The location of the railway, which has been made
with great care by instrumental surveys and detailed examinations of
the country, is, through the rougher portion of the isthmus, along a
succession of valleys between high hills and mountains. In order to
pass from one valley to another and take advantage of the natural
lines of the country, these turn-tables are employed. Five of them
only are necessary. They are built as follows : A segmental basin
of masonry is arranged to receive«a pontoon and a certain quantity
of water. This pontoon is so centered in this basin that it will
revolve around a central pivot, although it does not rest upon it.
When not revolving, the pontoon rests upon concentric bearing-
surfaces in the bottom of the basin. In order to turn a vessel, it is
run on to this pontoon, into which the water of the basin has been
admitted ; the water is then pumped out from the pontoon into the
basin again by means of a powerful centrifugal pump until the
pontoon floats sufficiently to be lifted from its bearing surfaces. (See
Plate VII., Figs. 1 and 2.) It is then, by means of stationary engines

Plate VI.— Perspective View of the Floating Turntable.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

 DLJ at -» * * « ,.
aJMMfeF----- . r nilla

t- ".

OiuiaW

mmtfj^f

Plate VII. — Details of the Floating Turntable.

49
worked by a cable or other means, turned about the central pivot,
while floating in the water, until the rails of the deck of the pontoon
correspond in line with those of the railway in the new direction.
The water is then admitted to the pontoon by means of sluice-gates
or valves, and it is again grounded upon the concentric bearings in
the bottom of the basin. The vessel is then run off the pontoon
upon the railway until it arrives at the next point where a change of
direction by this means is to be made, when the same operation
again turns the vessel in another direction. At three of the five
turn-tables, examinations show that water 'under a head from the
mountain-streams can be utilized to perform the work without the
use of the pumps. These turn-tables, while they are a necessity,
will also be employed for two very important purposes — one, as
passing-places for vessels going in opposite directions. A vessel
moving from the Gulf of Mexico toward the Pacific meets at one of
these turn-tables another coming from the Pacific, and is on its
arrival run across the turn-table on to an extension of the track.
The turn-table is then revolved to take on the vessel coming from
the opposite direction, which then goes on its way. The first vessel
is then run back upon the pontoon and sent on its course, the whole
movement occupying but a few minutes. It will be seen that, the
weight of the vessel having been equalized upon the carriage by the
hydraulic rams, if the centre of the carrriage is brought over the
centre of the pontoon, the latter will be balanced when it rises from
the bearing-surfaces in the bottom of the basin ; but if the pontoon
is not exactly balanced, it can be brought level by letting water into
one or more of the compartments on one or the other end of the
pontoon. The second purpose that the turn-tables will subserve will
be as dry-docks where vessels can be run out on tracks radiating
from the segmental basin, on which they can be cleaned, painted or
repaired, as the case may be, and where they can remain as long as
necessary. (See Plate VII., Fig. 1, D.) As every iron ship must be
taken out of the water twice every year, the expense of docking —
which is considerable for a large vessel — will be saved. There will be
one of these turn-tables at each terminus of the road, near the dock, to
facilitate the handling of the business at those points, and they will
be located also at other points on the line where the operation of the
road may show meeting-points for vessels to be required.
" The changes in grade on the railway will - be made by very flat
vertical curves. The elasticity of the vessel isself and the movement
of the springs will allow a change practically of about two inches in
400 feet. A curve established on this basis has been applied to the
working profiles of the railway and found to be perfectly practicable
in construction." ********
"In the discussion of the mechanical appliances, it is only
necessary to refer to the very thorough and substantial manner in
which a sea-going vessel must necessarily be constructed to withstand
successfully the various strains to which it is subjected on the ocean.
The flexures in both directions, the torsional strains, and a

50
combination of these different strains which every vessel undergoes
in a seaway, make it absolutely necessary that the vessels should be
built with a large factor of safety. Then, again, their decks and
beams and plates and ribs stiffen the whole structure for passing
through those shocks and impacts which they receive on a voyage,
without injury to their structural integrity. The greatest strain
which a vessel could possibly undergo when lifted and transported in
the manner we have described bears no comparison to those which
the same vessel must undergo in its natural element. It will be seen,
also, that by the very large number of broad-surfaced supports on
which the vessel is carried she cannot be strained in any part of her
bottom or bilges or sides, and even one that is old and tender can
sustain no injury in transportation. A large number of experts in
designing, building and handling vessels of all kinds and sizes could
be quoted to show that in their minds there exists no practical
objection to the plans as herein described." (See Report of Senate
Committee, pp. 70 to 80.) " Obstacles, one after another, have been
overcome, by study and by using principles and appliances, with
perhaps new adaptations, that are already in use in the world for
the same purposes, though perhaps on a smaller scale."
In this age such wonderful progress has been made in mechanical
appliances that any proposed work required for the good of man
kind seems to be in the power of man to accomplish. In railway ad
vance, especially, the development in power, speed, economy and
adaptability to the wants of man, is marvelous. In a recent address
before the British Association, by Mr. B. Baker of England, we find
the following statement :
" Fifty years ago the chairman of the Stockton and Darlington
" Railway, when asked by a Parliamentary committee if he thought
" any further improvements would be possible on railways, replied
" that he understood in future all new railways would have a high
" earthwork bank on each side to prevent engines toppling over the
" embankments and to arrest hot ashes which continually set fire to
" neighboring stacks, but in other respects he appeared to think per-
" fection was attained. Shortly before the introduction of loco-
" motives, it was also thought perfection was attained when low
" trucks were attached to the trains to carry the horses over the por-
" tions of the line where descending grades prevailed, and all the
" newspapers announced, with a great flourish of trumpets, that a
" year's experience showed the saving in horse flesh to be fully 33
" per cent."
In remarkable contrast with this is the record of a train recently
hauled over the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway. This
train ran several miles at the rate of forty-three seconds per mile,
84 miles per hour. The weight of the train was 155 tons, and the
average running speed for the whole distance- — 426 miles — was 57 •
miles an hour.
It is interesting to note the remarkable advance also in locomo
tive construction during the last fifty years. The first engine built

51
by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1832, named " Old Ironsides,"
weighed something over five tons ; the cylinders were 9£ imches in
diameter by 18 inches stroke ; the wheels were made with heavy cast
iron hubs, wooden spokes and rims and wrought iron tires ; the frame
was of wood placed outside the wheels, and the boiler was 30 inches
in diameter. The Philadelphia Chronicle of November 24, 1832,
noticing a trial of this engine, stated :
" This engine will draw 30 tons gross on a level road."
The locomotive was set at work on the railroad, and the following
appeared in the newspapers :
" Notice. The locomotive engine (built by M. W. Baldwin of this
" city) will depart daily when the weather is fair, with a train of pas-
" senger cars. On rainy days horses will be attached."
In remarkable contrast with their first locomotive built 53 years
ago is the immense " Decapod," or ten-wheeled coupled consolidated
locomotive, built by the Baldwin Works recently for the Dom Pedro
II. Railway in Brazil. Its general dimensions are as follows : Total
weight of engine and tender ready for work, 224,000 lbs, equal to
112 net tons ; diameter of boiler, 64 inches ; heating surface, 1943
square feet ; cylinders, 22 inches by 26 inches, and it is guaranteed
to haul 3600 gross tons on a level track.
On December 7th, 1885, a freight train over one mile long and
weighing 3253£ gross tons was hauled into Nev/ Orleans over the
Mississippi Valley Railroad, by one engine weighing 55 tons.
We can see from the above with what ease the locomotives of the
¦day, built for ordinary railroads, can haul a loaded vessel over the
Ship-Railway by attaching as many as may be required to the car
according to the size of the vessel.
Advances as remarkable have also been made in the construction
of railways, and in the various kinds of rolling stock. In other
departments of mechanical science, especially in the employment
of hydraulic appliances there has also been a great advance.
There is now building in Scotland by Messrs. Sir John Fowler
and B. Baker, civil engineers, the greatest bridge in the world.
Two of its spans are each one thousand seven hundred and ten feet
in length, and the top chord of the bridge is over three hundred and
fifty feet above high tide. The superstructure will require forty-six
thousand tons of steel, all of which, mostly composed of plates, is
being bent into shape by hydraulic presses of various descriptions.
In the address of Mr. Baker alluded to, we find the following :—
" Hydraulic appliances are also an indispensable part of the
" scheme for erecting the great seventeen hundred foot spans. Massive
" girders will be put together at a low level and be hoisted as high as
" the top of St. Paul's Cathedral by hydraulic power. Continuous
" girders, nearly a third of a mile in length, will be similarly raised.
" Not only the girders, but workmen, their sheds, cranes and appli-
" ances will be carried up steadily and imperceptibly as the work of

52
" erection proceeds, on platforms weighing in some instances more
" than one thousand tons.
********
" Not merely in the superstructure, but in the construction of the
" foundations, were hydraulic appliances of a novel character indis-
"pensable at the Forth bridge. Huge wrought iron caissons, or
" cylinders, seventy feet in diameter and seventy-two feet high, were
" taken up and set down as readily as a man. would handle a bucket.
" * * * It would be possible, indeed, with the appliances at
" the Forth bridge, to arrange that the simple opening of a valve
" should start digging" (by hydraulic power) "at the bottom of the
" sea, riveting at a height of nearly four hundred feet above the sea,
" and all the multifarious operations of bending, forging, hoisting, and
" extending over a site of a mile and half in length."
With this wonderful adaptation of hydraulic power to moving heavy
masses before us, who can doubt that it may also be applied to the
lifting and handling of heavily-loaded vessels, and in the distribution
of their weight, as has been described above.
• That the vessels on the docks or on the railway will not be subjected
to strains injurious to them, or in fact greater than they undergo in
an ordinary voyage, is evident on a little reflection by those who
have carefully studied the illustrations and description. It may
not be known, even to those who are accustomed to travel
on the ocean, that a vessel undergoes strains in her ordinary voyages
very severe compared with any she will possibly meet with on the
Ship-Railway. The following letter is from a gentleman of high
scientific attainments and large practical experience as an engineer,.
and his observations may be implicitly relied upon : —
The Cornell University,
Department of Civil Engineering,
E. A. Fuertes, Dean. Ithaca, New York, Nov. 3d, 1884.
Dear. JV£b. Costhell : — Not knowing the address of Captain Eads, I have
been unable to send him the following, which was undertaken as an abstract
experiment ; but dedicated to him, when found to bear strong testimony to his
foresight. I was on board the Str. Germanic, a staunch ship of the White Star line, in
the Fall of 1881, homeward bound from Liverpool. On the first Sunday after
leaving England, the wind was blowing at the rate of sixteen to eighteen miles
per hour, rather gustily, with a moderately high sea. It then occurred to me to
measure the deflection of the ship, being impressed not only by the effect of the
waves upon her length and sides, but also by the strain upon her frames,
imposed by the enormous moments of her huge spars. I had with me a
reconnoitering field glass (provided with cross hairs, power 30) which I secured
to a convenient angle in the wood work ; and soon became satisfied that the
deflection was large enough to be measured with the means at my command.
I then counted 55 steps (each 39") from the telescope to an awning post
painted white, and 109.5 steps to a rope in the rigging ; and to the rope I tied
a piece of white tape in range with the telescope.
I now tied a piece of black string to the white post, in the range of the tele
scope and the distant white tape in the rigging, adjusting it when I thought
there was no deflection. By observing the nature of the waves, this adjust-

53
ment was found much simpler than I anticipated. I then found the central
deflection, by keeping the pointing on the distant tape, and observing the up
and down motion of the blaok string (on the post) across the field, measuring
the amplitude of this motion by the position of particles of dust adhering to the
cross-hairs of the eye piece (negative). After many trials I measured on the
white post, the distance subtended (from the telescope end of the line) by the
dust particles above mentioned, and found for the middle "total deflection"
nearly 13 inches. _ Also, it was evident that the flexure was greater when bow
and stem were raised, than when the midship section was raised as determined
by observing the position of the ship upon the waves she was riding at the
time ; this shows that the deck was stifier in extension than in compression.
I must here say, that the measurements were difficult to make, but are sub
stantially correct to establish beyond doubt the large amount of absolute deflec
tion. It is not claimed that they are accurate enough to give with precision the
relative deflection. However, the line being nearly two hundred and sixty-
four feet long ; the white post at its middle point ; and supposing the concave
and convex flexures to be about alike, the mean deflection was : Mt ' x 12" = 487
6.5"
of the length.
The weather was only a little rough, and very far from what must be encoun
tered by any sea-going ship ; yet I am sure no railroad bridge, short of expos
ure to a cyclone is ever subjected to the strain suffered by the Germanic on this
Sunday, with absolute safety.
Though a short span bridge is thumped considerably by a fast moving train,
it cannot be compared to a ship when a sinking or receding sea instantly with-
draws the enormous water pressure against her sides, and the reaction of her
frame is reinforced with equal suddenness, by the outward pressure of her
cargo. Also the sea strikes blows with concentrated force upon restricted
areas of the ship's surface, causing the " dreaded tremor" from stem to stern,
and teasing her joints and timbers with all kinds of flexures, torsion and im
pacts. Only those who have personal experience with the sea in a hurricane can
realize the stiffness required in a sea-going vessel. It is strange to see how
strongly intolerant popular misconceptions get to be in questions of this kind.
No one would doubt for a moment that a railroad bridge can be • transported
safely over any railway by resting its extremeties upon trucks, used as moving
abutments ; and yet, I know of no railroad bridge of the ordinary types, that
would not break to pieces if the abutments used were two floating scows made
to stand the surging and blows of a stormy sea, even if the scows were supposed
-to be rigidly connected. While a ship must be trussed so that it may stand
safely on end, or shaken violently when held in the middle or by her extrem
ities, the popular prejudice against the ship-railway is based upon the unjusti
fiable assumption that all ships are wanting in the very quality that they must
possess, and do possess in the highest degree, viz : Stiffness, compared to which
the stiffness of a railroad bridge is as that of a flexible reed.
The deflection of the Germanic surprised me to such an extent, that I went
to her engine room to study the expedients adopted to counteract the effect of
this deflection upon the moving lines of her engines. I found the engine
frames had been devised with an evident previous knowledge -of an expected
large deflection. I venture to say that the future history of total side support
-to ships in railway transit will' be like that of many previous phantoms; like
the dangers of the railroad wheel tire, and the introduction of steam and gas
into dwellings. I expect to see the day in which a 5000 tonner will cross the
American Isthmus loaded with coal, resting on her keel, with only enough side
support to keep her deck level, and especially iron vessels or ships built on pur
pose for this traffic.
Wishing you God Speed, believe me,
Faithfully your friend, E. A. FUERTES.
The plans described on the preceding pages are completely illus-

54
trated in a working model over thirty feet in length. The argument
enforced by this model is unanswerable, and it has led many, who
at first doubted the practicability of the plans, to express entire con
fidence in their success. The two letters which follow are charac
teristic of many that might be offered, and they speak for them
selves : " A. K. Miller & Co., Ship and Steamship Agents,
" 37 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, June 18, 1885.
"E. L. Cokthkll, Esq., 34 Nassau Street, New York.
" Dear Sir : — I am in receipt of your esteemed letter of the 15th inst., and
am much pleased to note you are quite well, and trust your enterprise will
meet that support which it so justly deserves.
" In this connection, permit me to make some observations regarding your
railway project for the transportation of ships across the Isthmus.
" As a practical seaman and commander of ships for many years, during
which time I have had the occasion to raise and repair large ships in different
styles of docks, marine railways, etc., I had formed, or rather had come to the
conclusion that to raise a loaded ship in the manner proposed by Capt. Eads,
and to transport her as suggested, would subject the ship to such strain that it
would be simply impracticable, and could not succeed.
"While your ship-railway model was on exhibition at this city, I visited it
on several occasions, and after a thorough examination of the manner of raising,
application of rams and distribution of lifting power, I have but one opinion re
garding the question — which is, that ships of the largest class, loaded with full
cargoes can be safely lifted, and transported in the manner proposed without
subjecting them to any more strain than they would undergo during a sea pas
sage, and in fact much less fatigue than they would encounter during gales of
wind such as ships are at times subjected to in all oceans of the world. I trust
you will be enabled to push your work to a speedy and successful issue. Tour
ship-railway would largely develop trade in this quarter of the globe, and
would also increase shipments and traffic from the Pacific coast.
" Very truly yours, A. K. MILLER."

" Washington, June 25, 1885.
"E. L. Corthell, Esq.
" Dear Sir : — Your letter of the 15th inst. came duly to hand. Sickness
and excess of business must be my excuse for delay in answering.
'* In reply to your questions, I would state that I was manager and Superin
tendent of the Marine Railway at Nassau, N, P., Bahamas, for ten years, and
during that time — as near as I can remember — I. hauled out and repaired be
tween 800 and 900 vessels, about one-third of which were steamers, and perhaps
one-fifth of them loaded.
" As we charged so much per ton for cargo on board, as far as practicable the
vessels were discharged before being taken out.
" My experience was that it was easier and safer to take out a loaded vessel
than one in ballast. The railway was about 800 feet long, and similar in all
respects to your model, the principle beingthe same. There was not one dollar's
damage done to any vessel in hauling out while I had charge of the railway.
" This, I believe, answers all your questions.
" Yours respectfully, Epes Sargent,
"388Penna. Avenue."
The address delivered by the author, August 26, 1885, before the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, on " The
Interoceanic Problem and its Scientific Solution" has brought many
letters from various parts of the world confirming its statements.
The following is characteristic of these letters ; it is from a gentle-

55
man who is considered as an authority in mechanical engineering,
and is a prominent writer on subjects kindred to the ship-railway,
having been selected to write several important articles in Spon's
Dictionary of Engineering, on Mechanical Engineering subjects
[Translation.] " Lausanne, Oct. 6, 1885.
" Mr. E. L. Corthell, Civil Engineer, New York.
' ' Sir : — I have to thank you for the honor you have done me by sending me a
copy of your address before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science on ' The Interoceanic Problem and its Scientific Solution. '
" I see with great interest that you and Mr. Eads meet with approval and sup
port in the bold project of an interoceanic passage of which you are the pro
moters. " The science you have displayed, the correctness of your principles and the
breadth of your views lead me to hope that you will be enabled to accomplish
this great work.
" As you have said, it is necessary only to develop and perfect by all the
mechanical resources which the science of the present day possesses — what has
already been done under other forms on a smaller scale.
" This will not be the first time that your country has shown to the world
what grand enterprises can be accomplished by a young and enterprising na
tion full of life and faith. Accept, sir, the expression of my high considera
tion. J- GAUDARD."
As to the comparative cost of transportation by ship canal and
ship-railway, the proofs can be easily adduced that the latter is
the least expensive. In discussing this subject of economy of
the ship-railway, we will divide it into two parts, the theoretical and
the practical. The following is abstracted from the paper on " Canals
and Railroads, Ship Canals and Ship-Railways," presented by the
author to the Annual Convention of the American Society of Civil
Engineers, June 25, 1885 :
" The boat or steamer in its passage through the water in a re-
" stricted channel creates a hill up which it is constantly climbing.
" The more rapid the speed the 6teeper the hill. Thus the boat is
" absolutely compelled to move at a very slow speed ; in fact, it
" would be almost impossible to attain in a narrow and shallow canal
"its normal ocean speed."
Proof of the above is found in the well known valuable work on
Naval Architecture by J. Scott Russell, and the following extracts
are from chapters 31 and 32 of that work :
" The water excavated from the way of the ship causes a con-
" tinual accumulation of water in the region of the canal, towards
"which the ship is moving. * * * *
" If the wave travel ahead of the ship, only one-fourth of _ the space
" of the ship, the accumulation will be quadrupled ; one-eighth will
"make it eight-fold and so on, until the progress of the ship becomes
" extremely difficult, or impossible. _ ,-,•., a
" This is what constantly takes place, as the rise of the ship and
" the pace in a narrow and shallow canal become greater. Practical

56
" working at high speed becomes, not difficult or costly, but imprac
ticable. * • * *
" The consequences of this rapid increase of head accumulation,
" which takes place as the speed of the wave in advance of the ves-
" sel diminishes, are very serious. First, it throws the ship's head
" up out of trim ; next, it increases the pressure of water on her bow ;
" third, it makes her travel up-hill ; fourth, it produces a backward
" current along her sides. And these hindrances to speed accumu-
" late rapidly — much more rapidly than as the square of the resist-
" ance, until the amount may become insuperable ; that is, many
" times the resistance due to the law of the square of the speed.
• * * *
" It is now necessary to notice the complimentary effect to that of
" accumulation in advance of the vessel ; it is subsidence of water
" astern. It being known that the excavated water is sent on in ad-
" vance of the vessel, it becomes plain that the channel out of which
" this water has been taken must have its height lowered by the sub-
" sidence of the water into the vacant canal out of which the ship
" has been drawn. * * * *
" Not only is the section of water-way affected by head accumula-
"tion, but the skin of the ship is affected by it, as the additional
" head and hollow give rise to an increased speed of water, running
" from stem to stern, causing additional friction. * * *
" It must not be forgotten, that these last conditions do not
" affect sea-going ships in their ordinary duty. But in the navigation
" of shallow waters, rivers like those of India, ship canals and all
"sorts of inland navigation, they are all important."
In reference to the practical part of this subject, the records of
canals and railways are full of evidence to show that the theoretical
reasons above given have been at work during the last fifty years
reducing the cost of transportation on railways and preventing any
reduction on barge and ship canals. In a report before a select
committee of the House of Commons on canals, Mr. James Allport,
who was for many years manager of the Midland Railway Company,
testified particularly in regard to the transportation of coal. He
stated : " In thirty years the railway-borne coal into London has in-
" creased from 377,000 tons in 1852 to 6,546,000 in 1882." Also, that
the amount of sea-borne coal to London remained nearly stationary
during that time and that " during the whole of the years of canal-
" borne coal into London, although the canals had independent routes
" not under the control of railways, the total of the canal-borne coal
"was 7,964 tons against railway-borne coals 6,750,000." The fol
lowing is his opinion in general : " I am quite sure of this,
" and I say this after upwards of forty years' experience as a railway
"manager, that the canals cannot compete with the railways,
" whatever they do."
Canal construction has been nearly discontinued in England, and
he states as a fact as follows :
" I do not remember a single canal being constructed during the

57
" whole .of my railway career, unless it be some short branch of a few
miles in length."
From carefully prepared tables of canal and railway transportation,
we find that in every instance on canals, and even rivers, in England
and France, the cost of " conducting transportation" is greater than
it is on many first-class railroads.
In reference to canals in the United States, the latest report of the
Census Bureau, based on the census of 1880, " Vol. IV, Transporta-
^°n,'VooVe«y sugSestive- The following extracts are taken from it :
Page 729, sketches of the abandoned canals of the country are
given, together with a supplemental table which, in a measure, shows
the influence of railroad competition upon these great works of the
past generation. * * * Adding together the
totals of the operating and abandoned canals, as shown in tables one
and two, we have a grand total of 4,468.60 miles of canal. * * *
Of these 1,953.56 miles are now abandoned and a large portion of
the remaining 2,515.04 miles is not paying expenses. This is largely
due to railroad competition. * * * In New
York State, 356.66, miles of lateral canals, costing $10,235,314 have
been abandoned. In Pennsylvania 447 miles are abandoned, costing
$12,745,780. In Ohio, 205 miles, costing $3,000,000 have been
abandoned. Indiana with the aid of her creditors, constructed 379
miles of canal in 1851, costing $6,325,262, all of which were
abandoned upon the construction of railroads along the lines of the
canals. The most enterprising and sagacious men in the country
were engaged in projecting and building these canals, but their
expectations with regard to them were never realized."
The Ohio' Canal, running the whole length of that State, is shortly
to be abandoned, on the recommendation of the Engineer of the
Board of Public Works ; it not being self-sustaining.
The average ratio of expenses to the gross receipts on all the
canals operated by the State and corporations in the "United States is
sixy-five per cent., which is greater than that of first-class railways.
The following extracts in reference to the cost of transportation
by canal and railway in this country are from two prominent and
experienced railroad managers :
If the tonnage which passed through this canal " (Erie) " was
" delivered for transportation to the West Shore Railway," (New
York, West Shore and Buffalo) " it could be hauled and delivered
" more cheaply than by the water route, and in less than one-quarter
" of the time now required."
********
" The contest between, the canal and the rail has always interested
" me. Ten years since I became satisfied that the abandonment of
" medium-sized canals, such as the Erie, the Delaware and Hudson
"and Delaware and Raritan, would simply be a matter of time.
" * * In regard to the Erie, two classes of expenses are
" rarely noted when a camparison is made with the rail ; one being

58
" the maintenance of way, which the State pays for, or rather the
" increased taxes of the people ; the other a depreciation and renewal
" of equipment, which the boatman does not count, as for some years
"there have been no renewals and but slight repairs. The only
"expense returned is that incurred in actually running the boats,
" equivalent to the railroad charge of ' conducting transportation '.
" Now, making the necessary allowance, the West Shore can transport
"at least thirty per cent, cheaper than the canal."
If we take up the subject of ship canals, we find the same resistances
to overcome, and a great increase of expense with the increase of
speed. In Volume 66, page 162, Proceedings, Institution Civil
Engineers, Great Britain, the following statement is made :
The Warrior " steamed through the Suez Canal in 1870 in twelve
hours fifty minutes, or at the rate of 6.85 knots per hour. She was
380 feet long and her midship section was 1,219 feet, with an
indicated horse power of 5,469, and with a speed upon the sea of
14J- knots per hour. The retarding current which the Warrior was
obliged to overcome was nearly 11 feet per second."
On page 261, the statement is made by Captain John Steele from
his own experience, that with a ship drawing 20 feet, a speed of
more than 4 knots an hour would result in mishaps. The speed
through the canal is restricted by rules to five knots an hour. In a
paper recently read before the Austrian Society of Engineers, on the
Suez Canal and its intended improvements, it is stated :
" The long time occupied in passing the canal is a serious objection.
" The maximum speed allowed is five knots per hour. This, and
" the time lost in turn-outs, makes the trip a long one ; and greater
" speed, which would be better for steering the vessel, is prohibited
" on account of the dangerous wave action on the shores. Notwith-
" standing these precautions, these slopes are damaged continually,
" although a considerable length of the slopes has been protected by
"rip-rap. The area of the cross-section of the canal is 3,956 square
"feet. This is too small for vessels with a displacement of 645
" square feet, and is the reason for running many vessels ashore.
"(From 1870 to 1883, eleven per cent, of all vessels went into the
"shore.) These stranded vessels are pulled off by three powerful
" steam tugs, at the expense of the Canal Company ; this work
"usually consumes five hours."
On the Welland Ship Canal in Canada, the average speed is one
mile per hour, and it is the same on the North Holland Ship Canal
from the Helder to Amsterdam.* The estimated time of passage
through the projected Huron and Ontario Ship Canal, 100 miles
long, was four days.\
Numerous experiments on railroads, on the ocean, and on barge and
* See Internal Commerce United States, 1885, page 494.
f See Report New York Produce Exchange, 1872-1873, page 66.

59
ship canals, show that generally the increase of resistance to railway
trains is very small with the increase of speed ; to vessels on the ocean
as the square of the velocity, and in the restricted channels of barge
and ship canals, as the cubes of the velocity / e. g. If the resistance is
ten pounds per ton at two miles per hour on a railroad, it would be
nearly the same at four miles per hqur on the railroad ; on the ocean
forty pounds, and eighty pounds on the barge or ship canal.
Having stated the theoretical and practical proofs in regard to the
cost of transportation on railroads and canals, let us extend the
development of the railroad to the greater work of transportation by
ship-railway, and we will find proofs of the statement that a still
greater decrease in cost of moving goods will result.
Ordinary sea-going steamers transport freights at a cost of about 0.5
mill per ton per mile, running expenses alone considered, and not in
cluding interest, insurance, depreciation of steamer, and profit, or 0.3
mill by the best examples of sea-going steamers. The cost on a ship
. canal at two miles per hour (assumed as the economical speed), as
against twelve miles per hour on the ocean, and with the same
power required, would increase the cost six times, or to 3.0 mills
per ton mile. The cost of hauling on a railroad on the same
basis would be about 0.6 mill — one fifth as much only. It may
be stated broadly that railroad transportation in this country has
been so far reduced in cost as to make it possible to haul freight
at about four mills per ton per mile including all expenses, even
the terminal and other handlings of local as well as through freights,
also expenses of repairs and renewals, general expenses of manage
ment, and the many other charges that go to make up the details
of the cost of transportation. The cost of handling freight is not
perhaps appreciated by even railroad managers, for, while immense
and continual reductions are being made in the cost of hauling,
but little advance has been made in reducing the cost at terminals
and stations. It costs as much to handle a ton of goods at the New
York terminals as it does to haul it to Albany or Philadelphia.
Another important item in the cost of ordinary railroad transpor
tation is the labor. An army of employees is required for all the
various duties devolving upon railroads ; hundreds of returns and
reports require a large clerical force. The relations and connec
tions with other roads in cars, goods, back charges, &c, make a
large amount of work necessary. The assorting of goods for differ
ent destinations, the handling of cars on sidings, and in terminal
and division yards require not only a variety of labor, but expen
sive power also.
The expense of doing all this work is however so systematically
performed and recorded, on the best railroads of the country, that
the cost of the various items is fully known. We need not have
further to do with it here, but enter at once upon the Ship-Rail
way method, and its great advantages over the ordinary railroad.

60
The estimated cost of operating the Ship-Railway is as follows
at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec :
JPvrst. The maintenance of the permanent way. The cost of main
tenance in this country on a first class double track railroad,
including sidings, yards, buildings, &c.,in other words, every
thing but rolling stock, is about $1700 per mile of railroad,
sidings being at least 35 per cent, of the whole. The wear on
the rails and ties, switches and frogs, is constant and expen
sive. On the ship-railway, the speed being slower, the line
straight, the rails heavier, and the whole superstructure more
nearly perfect, there will be much less wear and none of the
expense arising in this country from frost and snow. There
is, however, a greater rainfall, probably more deterioration of
materials in wooden structures, and an increased cost of labor;
also, 50 per cent, more track to be kept up. It will be fair to
estimate the maintenance at $2500 per mile, or a total for the
whole distance (134 miles) of  $335,000
Second. The cost of operating the terminals, from a careful
detailed estimate of cost of labor, coal, materials and repairs,
will be $350 per day, or for 365 days, $127,750 ; and for two
terminals, per annum,  • 255,500
Third. The cost of operating the five ship-railway turn-tables,
at $300 per day ....... . . 109,500
Fourth. The motive power for hauling vessels, per annum,
4,000,000 tons at 0.52 mill per ton per mile, .... 278,730
Fifth. Telegraph expenses, . . . . . 20,000
Sixth. Incidentals, . . . . 40,000
Seventh. General expenses, . . . 50,000

Total,  $1,088,720
Add for other expenses and contingencies, 10 per cent. ; the
total then reaching $1,197,592, or in round numbers, $1,200,000,
or 30 cents per ton on 4,000,000 tons.
The cost of operating the Ship-Railway, may be ascertained by
another method, as follows :
The cost per ton per mile on the best railroads, is not over 3
mills per ton per mile for through freight. From this should first
be deducted the cost of such work as does not pertain to the
Ship-Railway. All such items of cost appear on page 81, Penna.
Railroad Report of 1885.
Deducting irrelevant items we can properly reduce the cost 48
per cent., or to 1.56 mills ; but a still further reduction is proper.
Much larger loads are carried, the ratio of paying to non-paying
loads is greater, the frictional resistance per ton to the motive
power is reduced at least 30 per cent., the rails are straight, the
track perfect, the grades light, and greater results are obtained
with less fuel and service.
The history of railway transportation has conclusively shown,

61
that "the cost of railway transport diminishes as the Unit of dis
patch is increased."
1cJohe aver,a,g? Paying load on the New York Central Railroad in
Iaq ' WaS t0ns' the averaSe non-paying load, 350 tons, total
i 0°™" The averaSe load on the Ship-Railway may be assumed
at 1,800 tons paying load, or 3,000 tons total load ; or about nine
times as much paying load as on the railroads. The above favor
able conditions allow us to reduce the cost to / mill per ton per
mile. * *
Fifty per cent of the cost of operating is labor, which should be
doubled for a tropical country, increasing the cost to 1.5 mills, or
for 134 miles, 20.1 cents, which it should be remembered is the total
cost, not simply the cost of carriage.
The cost at the terminals will be as follows :
If ten ships are handled daily, of 1,500 tons each, the. labor at the
dock will be per day, ...... $174.00
The coal, stores, wear and tear of machinery, , 15o!oO
Total. ....,, $324.00
To cover contingencies, say, . . , $350 00
Or, per ship, ....... 35.OO
Or, per ton, ..... 2J^c.
Or, for two terminals, ..... 49<jC.
_ The cost of operating the five turn-tables in making changes of
direction (which, however, will not be more than the cost of operat
ing the sidings on railroads) will be two cents per ton for all.
The total cost per ton will therefore be, 20.1 cents plus 4.66 cents,
plus 2 cents, equal to 26.76 cents. Adding, however, 15 per cent, to
cover any unexpected expenses, we have a total cost of about 30
cents per ton.
This estimate, though made on an entirely different basis, agrees
with our previous statement.
In comparing the Tehuantepec Ship-Railway with the Ship Canal,
the cost of construction will be $75,000,000 for the Ship-Railway,
and probably $400,000,000 for the Panama Canal, and $200,000,000
for the Nicaragua Canal (Major McFarland's estimate for the latter
was $140,000,000 with labor at %i.oo per day, while the average cost
on the Panama Canal is $2.00.) The cost of maintenance will also
be much less.
The road-bed of the Railway is above the water, and is nowhere
subject to the dangerous floods or engulfing slides from immense
cuts. The road-bed is 50 feet in width, whereas the prism of the
canal must be at least 200 feet wide, from which all washed-in
material must be removed by very expensive means.
The Suez Canal, where the rain-fall is about 2 inches per annum,
required in 1883, in the canal proper, the dredging of 781,282 cubic
yards. The cost for cleaning the canal was about 2,000,000 francs
($400,000). The total expenses for maintenance and working the
canal, were $2,7-84,860. The material in this canal can be cheaply

62
thrown out on either side by the dredges, and only 40 per cent, of
the distance is through cuts over 10 feet high above the water line.
The expense at Panama will be largely in excess of that at Suez,
as the prism of the canal will be exposed to a rain-fall of about 120
inches per annum, falling on enormous clay slopes, one of them over
400 feet in height.
¦ At Nicaragua the length is 181£ miles, about 30 miles only of
which is open water of full depth. The remainder is a dredged,
excavated, embanked, or walled channel, with several locks to be
maintained. The cost of towing sailing vessels through either canal
will be considerably more expensive than hauling them on the Ship-
Railway ", and the cost of propelling a steamer by her own power will
be, as has been previously shown, 3.0 mills per ton per mile, as
against say 0.5 mill per ton per mile transported by the Ship-Rail
way. The history of transportation in the last half century proves con
clusively the vast superiority of the railway over the canal in speed,
economy and convenience.
The inevitable development of the railway in the next half cen
tury will be as marvelous as in the past. These results will be
obtained by improvements in the road-bed and its superstructure,
in alignment, in the increase of load and power of the motors that
haul it, and in lessening the expense of handling ¦ goods at stations
and terminals.
- All these advantages the ship-railway method possesses in a
greater degree than an ordinary railway could ever expect to have.
The same causes that have dried up the beds of the ordinary
canals, whenever railroads have come into competition with them,
will produce similar results wherever ship-railways shall compete
with ship canals.
" George Stephenson set in motion forces that have already proven
more beneficent factors in the world than his wildest fancies ever
pictured ; but those forces will yet produce results that will far out
reach all that has been hitherto accomplished. We are but entering
upon the era of cheap and rapid transportation. The principles
that ,have proven most potent in the past, in developing the ordinary
railway, and in reducing the cost of transportation, will be most
efficiently applied in the ship-railway.

63

CHAPTER VI.
DISTANCES SAVED— TONNAGE EXPECTED— GOVERNMENT STATUS OF THE EN
TERPRISE—BENEFITS TO 1HE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO DURING
CONSTRUCTION -GENERAL RESULTS.

The following distance tables were computed by the United States
Coast Survey, and show the great advantage of the Tehuantepec
route over present routes :
TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES.
Excess over
Total Tehuantepec
Distance. Route.
FROM NEW YORK TO HONG KONG.
Via Cape Horn  20,3.79 miles. 8,777 miles.
Cape of Good Hope  16,945 " 5,343 "
SuezCanal  13,596 " 1,994 "
Panama R. R  12,953 " 1,351 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  11,602 " ....
NEW YORK TO YOKOHAMA.
ViaCapeHorn  19,802 " 9,796 "
Cape of Good Hope  18,085 " 8,079 "
SuezCanal  15,527 " 5,521 "
Panama R. R  -  11,256 " 1,350 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  10,006 " 
NEW YORK TO AUCKLAND, N. Z.
ViaSuezCanal  16,871 " 7,447 '*
Cape of Good Hope  16,719 " 7,295 "
Cape Horn   13,890 " 4,466 "
PanamaR.R  10,305 " 881 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  . ...  9,424 '*
NEW YORK TO MELBOURNE.
ViaCapeHorn  15,215 " 4,150 "
SuezCanal  15,171. " 4,106 "
Capeof Good Hope  15,019 " 3,954
PanamaR.R  11.826 " 761
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  11,065 "
NEW YORK TO HONOLULU.
ViaCapeHorn  15,826 » 9,163 «
PanamaR R..%...  7,939 ( 1,276 <f
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  o.oocs ....
NEW YORK TO SAN FRANCISCO.
ViaCapeHorn  15.687 « 10,797 »
PanamaR. R  6,063 1,173 (
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  4,8ao 
LIVERPOOL TO HONG KONG.
Zr. rwcr,™  20,606 " 5,353 "
ViaCapeHorn  -ic/wi « i ois ««
PanamaR.R..  ]6f\ ,. . ^ „
Cape of Good Hope  15,722 466 f<
Isthmus of Tehuanteiw -  lO.^Od

TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES.
Excess over
Total Tehuantepec
Distance. Route.
LIVERPOOL TO YOKOHAMA.
Via Cape Horn  19,400 miles. 5,945 miles.
Cape of Good Hope  17,653 " 4,198 "
PanamaR.R  ,  14,540 " 1,085 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  13,455 "  "
LIVERPOOL TO AUCKLAND, N. Z.
Via Cape of Good Hope  16,221 " 3,412 "
SuezCanal  14,645 " 1,836 "
CapeHorn  ;  13,897 " 1,088 "
PanamaR.R  13,312 " 503 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  12,809 " .... "
LIVERPOOL TO SAN FRANCISCO.
ViaCapeHorn  16,552 " 8,250 "
PanamaR.R  8,885 " 609 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  8,276 "  "
NEW ORLEANS TO HONG KONG.
ViaCapeHorn  20,804 " 10,531 "
Cape of Good Hope  17,485 " 7,213 "
SuezCanal  15,108 " 4,835 "
PanamaR. R  13,308 " 2,035 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  10,273 " .... "
NEW ORLEANS TO YOKOHAMA.
ViaCapeHorn  20,227 " 11,590 "
Cape of Good Hope  18,625 " 9,988 "
SuezCanal  17,039 " 8,402 "
PanamaR. R  10,611 " 1,974 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  8,637 "  "
NEW ORLEANS TO AUCKLAND, N. Z.
ViaSuezCanal  18,381 " 10,286 *'
Cape of Good Hope  17,259 " 9,164 "
CapeHorn  14,314 . " 6,219. "
PanamaR.R   9,659 " 1,564 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  8,095 " .... "
NEW ORLEANS TO MELBOURNE.
ViaSuezCanal  16,683 " 6,947 "
Cape Horn  15,640 " 5,904 •*
Cape of Good Hope  15,560 " 5,824 "
PanamaR.R  ...11,181*" 1,445 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  9,736 "  "
NEW ORLEANS TO HONOLULU.
ViaCapeHorn  16,251 " 10,917 "
PanamaR. R   7,294 " 1,960 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  5,334 "  "
NEW ORLEANS TO SAN FRANCISCO.
ViaCapeHorn  16,112 " 12,551 "
PanamaR.R  5,418 " 1,857 "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec   3,561 " .... "

65
TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES.
Excess over
Total Tehuantepec
 _ Distance. Route.
NEW YORK TO VALPARAISO.
ViaCapeHorn  10,051 miles. 3,682 miles.
PanamaR.R  5,'417 "  "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  6,369 "  "
NEW ORLEANS TO VALPARAISO.
ViaCapeHorn  10,476 " 5,436 "
PanamaR. R  4,772 "  "
Isthmus of Tehuantepec  5,040 "  "
On these eighteen routes the aggregate saving in distance by the
Tehuantepec Route is over 125,000 miles.
The sailing distances saved are about fifty per cent greater than
those given in the tables, the latter being steamer distances.
The great advantage of this route is still more appreciated from
the fact that it saves nearly two and one-half months time to nearly
every vessel which now goes around Cape Horn, and about $12,000
on the cargo.
During the last few years there have been made several estimates
of the tonnage that may be expected to pass through a ship canal or
over a ship railway. The following table is made up from informa
tion taken from reliable sources. It agrees very closely with that
made in 1879 by the statisticians of the Panama Canal Congress:
Detailed Statement of Tonnage expected oyer the Ship-Railway in 1889.
Tons 1883. Tons 1889.
Estimated from
ratio ot increase of
Actual Tonnage commerce on the
Routes by WHICH COMMERCE MOVES. carried toy steam routes from 1879 to
and sail on routes 1883, and from new
longer than via business to be
Tehuantepec. developed.
1. Panama Railroad  77,958 60,000
2 U S. Pacific Coast with Atlantic via
' CapeHorn  237,341 359,081
3. Atlantic ports with Countries west of
CapeHorn  349,454 489,135
4 U S Pacific Coast with foreign Coun-
tries ea^t of Cape Horn. ... .*  1,433,737 2,135,605
5. European Countries with Countries west
of Cape Horn, other than U.S  1,828,621 2,285,776
6- BnEurhope0!,!n!b!a. ?.f^. . ^Tl. T^. 135,000 235,000
7. Slow bulky 'freight's' now going over
Transcontinental lines  .-•¦ 400,000 oUU.UW
8 Fifty per cent, of tonnage now going
from Asiatic Countries to Europe via
Cape of Good Hope  •¦•¦ 400>000 m'W0
9. New trade to be developed by Ship
Railway between Gulf Ports of U. S.
and Mexico and Pacific Ocean   l.wu.uw
Total  4,842,111 7,564,597

66
This amount may not be realized immediately after the opening of
the railway, but we are confident that it will be developed in a few
years. It is safe to assume that at the outset the Ship-Railway will
carry at least 3,000,000 tons which will probably increase to 6,000,000
within five years from the time of opening the railway for business.
A special committee of the Board of Trade of San Francisco, in
1880, stated :
"Ten years since the estimated tonnage that would use the
" American Interoceanic Canal was placed, by the best official
" authority in the country, at 4,100,000 tons per annum. Careful
" estimates made by your committee place it at 5,250,000 tons at
"this time."
The following are the provisions of the Ship-Railway concession
granted by the Mexican Republic to Mr. James B. Eads, May
28, 1881 :
It provides for the construction and operation, for ninety-nine years,
of a ship-railway with its corresponding lines of telegraph across the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The right of way is granted eight hun
dred metres wide ( 2624 feet, or nearly half a mile ) across the
Isthmus. This width is reduced in town lands to four hundred
metres, and is increased where stations are necessary to sixteen
hundred metres. The public lands within this belt are conceded
gratis to the company. Full authority is given for the prompt
condemnation of all private lands needed. Four thousand two
hundred square kilometres of public lands, equal to a million acres,
are granted in aid of the enterprise. The right is given to import,
free of duty, all kinds of machinery, instruments, coal and materials
necessary for the construction, operation and maintenance of the
works during ninety-nine years.
Vessels, passengers, and merchandise in transit, will be free of all
kinds of duties, general as well as local, during the time of the con
cession. The property and capital invested in the enterprise, its bonds and
shares of stock, are exempted from all taxation or contribution of any
kind, except that of revenue stamps, the Constitution of Mexico
prohibiting the release of the latter tax by Congress.
Authority is given to collect a maximum toll on each vessel, not
exceeding five dollars per cubic metre, for each metre contained in
a parallelopipedon, of which the dimensions shall be the greatest
length and the greatest breadth of the vessel measured at the surface
of the water, and her greatest immersed depth. This would be
about $8.oo per ton on the cargo carried. For each passenger
carried across, a sum not exceeding $15.00 may be charged.
Gold and silver and precious stones may be charged a maximum
rate not greater than one per cent, of their value.
The right is granted to collect wharfage dues and tonnage dues,
not exceeding $1.00 per registered ton.
The tariff of charges for telegrams, for a message of ten words, not

67
counting date, direction and signature, is fifteen cents for one hun
dred kilometres ( about 62 miles) in distance.
The vessels, troops, and all things belonging to the Mexican Gov
ernment, including telegraph messages, shall be carried free.
Passage over the railway shall be open for all the vessels of all' the
nations not at war with Mexico,' and the Republic binds itseif not to
close to ocean commerce, during the term of the concession, either
of the two terminal ports of the ship-railway, one in the Gulf, the
other in the Pacific, except in case of war.
The directors, agents, employes and workmen of the company
shall be exempt during the whole period of the concession from
all military or civil service, and considered as invested with all the
exemptions and privileges granted to the employes and workmen of
other railways in the Mexican Republic.
The company, which may be organized by the concessionaire,
may exercise all rights, powers and privileges in relation to the issue
of bonds and other guarantees, not in conflict with the laws of
Mexico, and may enjoy any concession which it may obtain in
Mexico or elsewhere, provided the same be not in conflict with the
provisions of the concession.
, The company is forbidden to sell, mortgage or alienate, to any
foreign government or governments, any of their property or
rights conveyed under this concession ; but in consideration of the
magnitude of the work, the company may obtain aid from any for
eign government, either in money or guarantees, and hypothecate
the net revenues to it, and may transport its mails, ships, property
and appurtenances, free of charges, and may reduce the tariffs on its
commerce and the prices of passage, in such case making the same
reduction to the commerce of Mexico.
In the event of failure on the part of the company to comply with
any such stipulations made with a foreign government, such foreign
government shall have the right to enforce its claims before the
courts of Mexico, in accordance with the laws of Mexico, but in no
case can such foreign government acquire the ownership of the
works, or the rights emanating therefrom.
The concession provides that the company shall be Mexican,
even though some, or all of its shareholders, be foreigners, and shall
be subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the Re
public, in all matters of which the cause and action may take place
within its territory ; and its shareholders, employes, or successors
shall not be permitted to allege, with regard to title or property and
other matters connected with the company, rights as foreigners under
any pretext whatever. They shall have those rights, and the means
of making them valid, which the laws of the Republic confer on its
own citizens, and consequently not subject to interference on
the part of foreign diplomatic agents.
Work on the railway shall commence within two years from May
ist, 1881, and shall be finished within' twelve years from the same
date, no obligation existing to construct any definite amount of the
work during any particular year.

68
The following valuable provisions have recently been added to
the concession by the Mexican Government :
First : The Government of Mexico agrees to guarantee that one-
third of the net revenue of the company for fifteen years after its
railway is in successful operation shall amount to $1,250,000 per
annum, and it gives the right to the company to secure a similar
guarantee to the amount of $2,500,000 in addition, from one or
more foreign governments which may be disposed to aid the enter
prise. The net revenue in all cases shall be assumed as one-half of
the gross receipts of the railway.
Second : Authority is given to the company to admit to the
Board of Directors members appointed by the guaranteeing foreign
government, to represent its interest, equal in number to those ap
pointed by the Government of Mexico, namely : two-ninths of the
whole number or four-ninths of the board on the part of the two
governments. Provision is made that when the net revenue
reaches a certain amount these government directors shall have the
right to reduce the tariff of charges, and with the sanction of their
respective governments establish lower rates.
Third : The Mexican Government also gives to the company the
right to establish coaling stations at each end of the line for the
supply of vessels in transit over the railway, with the right to import-
coal for this purpose free of duty.
Fourth : It extends the time for completing the railway two years
beyond the terms of the original concession, or to 1894.
Fifth : It increases the original land grant one million seven hun
dred thousand acres, the total being two million seven hundred
thousand, about one-half the area of the State of New Jersey.
A proposition to incorporate the "Atlantic and Pacific Ship-
Railway Company," is now before the Congress of the United States.
The following are its more important provisions :
The Government is asked to guarantee that two-thirds of the an
nual net revenue, for fifteen years after the. railway is completed and
in operation, shall amount to $2,500,000 ; the United States to make
up any deficiency in this amount ; the guarantee not to take effect
until a vessel weighing, with cargo, 3000 tons has been taken from the
water, transported over the railway at a speed Of not less than six miles
per hour, and launched in the harbor on the other side of the isthmus
without injury to the railway or vessel ; — this test to be made to the
satisfaction of a commission appointed by the President of the United
States. The amounts, if any, advanced under the guarantee are to
be refunded to the Government out of the receipts of the railway ;
the Company to issue bonds binding itself to pay the sums advanced j.

69
one-third of the excess of annual net revenue over the amount of the
guarantee to be paid by the Company to the Secretary of the Treas
ury. The amount advanced is, therefore, a reimbursable loan, for
the payment of which the Government has security in the bonds of
the Company and the receipts of the railway until the whole amount
is refunded. The Company agrees to transport during the fifteen
years, all Government vessels, property, mails and officials, and
transmit all Government telegraphic messages, for the nominal gross
annual sum of $500. The Company also agrees that, during thirty
years after the completion of the railway, it will transport vessels
belonging to the citizens of the United States, and registered under
its laws, engaged in coast- wise commerce, for 75 per cent, of the
regular tolls aud charges imposed upon the commerce of all other
nations excepting Mexico. The United States is to have the right to
be represented by two-ninths in the Board of Directors of the
Company. When the annual net revenue shall exceed 10 per cent.
of the total indebtedness, the Directors of the United States and
Mexico may establish a tariff of reduced rates. The Company is
prohibited from transporting any vessels of war, ammunition, troops,
or contraband of war, of any nation at war with the United States or
Mexico. The above proposition is thus seen to be in all its pro
visions fair and reasonable. For an obligation comparatively insig
nificant in amount, the United States will secure immense benefits
to its commerce, its industries and its general welfare.
The beneficial effect upon the manufacturing industries of this
country will be felt from the commencement of the work. There will
be required in the construction of the railway over 10,000,000 feet of
lumber ;, 4,000 tons of iron bridges : 70,006 tons of steel rails, splices
&c. ; 8,000 tons of steel in the docks and basins ; 12,000 tons in the
carriages ; and 10,000 in the floating turn-tables ; besides a great
variety of other materials and plant which can be drawn from this
country. The benefits to Mexico will be the employment of probably
10,000 of the Isthmian population, who are robust, active and faith
ful laborers. The provision of the concession which permits all coal
to be imported free of duty for the use of the railway and for supply
ing steamers in transit, will open a large and profitable market for the
coal of Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Penn
sylvania. In conclusion, the company urge this government to en
courage this great undertaking, confident of results grandly bene
ficial to our country.
The language of a memorial to the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives, presented by the Board of Trade of San Francisco, in
1880, is eminently appropriate in 1885 :
" Your memorialists therefore pray, that when an organization
" with proper guarantees applies to you for recognition and official
" encouragement, the Government of our country will assume the
" protection, and support with its moral influence, the execution of

70
" this great work, upon which so much depends. Your sanction
" and your encouragement will make this essentially an American
" Enterprise, and afford such a guarantee of success as will attract
" the capital of Europe to complement our own. Our coast, our
" country and the world are ready for this great and beneficent
" enterprise."

CHAPTER VII.

STRONG APPROVAL OF THE SHIP RAILWAY ROUTE AND METHOD, AND OF
GOVERNMENTAL ENCOURAGEMENT, BY TWO COMMITTEES OF THE
46th CONGRESS.
The conclusions of the Committee of the House of Representatives
(46th Congress, 3d session, Report No. 372,) are given in the fol
lowing unanimous Report of the Senate Committee of the same Con
gress. The examinations of these two Committees were thorough and ex
haustive. The testimony taken by them in favor of the practicabil
ity and economy of the Ship-Railway was from the highest sources.
The proofs are convincing, and the conclusions of the Committee are
irresistible. The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (S. No.
430, 46th Congress,) to incorporate the Interoceanic Ship-Railway Com
pany, and for other purposes, have had the same under consideration,
and beg leave to submit the following report :
The first question the committee considered was as to the practi
cability of constructing a railway for the purpose of transporting
ships and their cargoes. The testimony before the committee con
clusively demonstrates the fact that such a railway is entirely practi
cable, and that loaded vessels can be transported over the same with
absolute safety and economy.
The committee does not consider it necessary to enter into the de
tails of the proposition thus stated, but refers to the following testi-

71
mony upon the subject, given by the most prominent and able
engineers and naval architects in the world.
_ In the first place the committee would refer to the testimony of
Sir Edward J. Reed, K. C. B., late chief constructor of the British
navy, who, in passing through Washington, kindly appeared before
the committee at its invitation, and gave it the benefit of his views.
The statement of Sir Edward Reed will be found, printed in full in
the testimony taken before the committee. Specific reference will
now be made only to some of the matters therein contained.
In one part of his statement he says :
I have no hesitation in saying that the modern ships of to-day are vastly
stronger everywhere than they were half a century ago, and that they are
now, as a rule, perfectly capable of being docked in dry-docks with their
cargoes on board. Of course, if they can be docked in a dry-dock (a gra
ven and sunk dock,) they could be docked upon an iron lifting or hydraulic
dock. Again he says :
I should like to say at first that, as a naval constructor, I have no fear
whatever of a ship undergoing any strain in the process of lifting out of
the water (as would be necessary in the case of a ship-railway,) that she is
not liable to at present in ordinary docking. I would say, further, that I
am quite sure that the processes of ordinary docking, as carried on in a vast
number of private establishments, are very negligent and insufficient in
comparison with those which would be adopted in the case of the hy
draulic lifts connected with the proposed ship-railway.
In speaking of the docking of armor-clad ships upon the celebra
ted hydraulic docks at Bombay, Sir Edward says :
Therefore to dock an armor-clad ship is really to dock a ship with the
principal part of her cargo on board, and under very unfavorable condi
tions, because the cargo of an iron-clad may be said to consist of her ar
mor chiefly, and that is all situated upon the extreme outside of her, and
acts with great leverage as regards the keel, whereas an ordinary cargo is
laid over the bottom of a ship, and is more or less equally distributed.
This dock at Bombay has been in operation several years, and has docked
her Majesty's ships several times, and some others, and there has been no
sort of accident or complaint of any kind. On the contrary, everybody
has been surprised to find that in no case has an accident occurred, whereas
accidents in ordinary docks are not uncommon.
In speaking of the hydraulic docks at Malta, Sir Edward says :
I have here a letter from the secretary of this hydraulic dock company
giving a list of some of the vessels which have been docked with cargo on
board I will only pick out two or three of these. There is a vessel called
the Volmer, of 1,531 gross tons, which went in with a cargo
of 1 200 tons' weight. A ship of 2,134 tons' gross tonnage went
on the dock with 1,700 tons of cargo aboard; a ship of l,55o gross
tons went into dock with 1,500 tons of cargo, and others of like proportion
of cargo to the size of the snip. ,,,,,_, ... , „ .
I would call attention to the fact that although ship-owners were at first
afraid of docking ships in that way, with their cargoes on board, they
have discovered by the experience of years that no sort of injury does re
sult therefrom. The ships that are in the Indian trade now voluntarily
employ these docks and go upon them with their cargoes on board for the
nuruose of getting their bottoms cleaned and coated on the voyage, instead
of having to lie in a more expensive dock in London for the purpose.

72
Again he says :
I would not like to dwell longer upon what I believe is the perfect
practicability of docking wooden or iron ships with cargoes if they are
docked with care.
Again he says :
I would like to mention what I think would be the view which I would
take of this question if I were an American citizen, even if there were
doubts about the perfect security with which you could take some of your
not very strong wooden vessels across the isthmus. I should say that the
time had come when it would be worth the while of this country to take
command of its own transit by such a route as this, or rather to give en
couragement to it for the purpose of developing in America that which
America ought to possess, namely, the means of conducting the transport
of its own produce from one port to another.
* * * * * * *
I should say, as an American, if our ships are not adapted for this pur
pose at present, let them be made so.
*******
It would be very improper for me to press the adoption of this system
upon gentlemen like you, because to tell the truth, I am not anxious that
it should be adopted in the form in which Captain Eads put it. Looking
to the enormous shipping interest which we have (we are 60 per cent, now
in England of the carrying power of the world), I am quite satisfied that
this enterprise can be dealt with by British ship-owners and capitalists, and
I am quite sure also that when dealt with in the present day, and with in
terests of the kind we now have at home, they would obtain the protection
of the government for their enterprise. The premium of having half rates
for the whole British shipping passing over that isthmus would be so great
a temptation that I would like myself to get Captain Eads to come over
and ask us to take this thing up. But, however, as an American enter
prise, I think it has great merit, and cannot fail, if constructed under the
auspices of the United States Government, to greatly benefit your com
merce. Again, in speaking of the allegation made by some that in the
transportation of ships by railway there would be much jerking
and vibration, which would be liable to cause damage, Sir Edward
says :
They seem to think there are some vibrations or jerking, or forces of
some kind the ship would be subjected to on the railway that she is not
subjected to at sea. That feeling, I know, is a pretty general one. I can
only attribute it to the fact that the gentlemen who so think are not ac
quainted with the strains that ships undergo at sea.
Again he says :
The next thing I would say is that we have ships on railways, and we
have them in the worst form. Nothing is commoner than heaving up
slips upon which ships are pulled up out of the water. They have to take
their bearing first at the bow, and gradually come up until they get upon
the solid, and are then hauled up by chains.
That has been done everywhere, all over the world, thousands of times
in this country, and it is now carried on to a very large extent indeed.
With docks for shipt of 3,000 or 4,000 tons, nothing is thought of pulling
these ships up, and nothing is thought of any strains they undergo under
the circumstances.

73
In speaking of the liability of ships while in transit to be blown
over by violent stoims, Sir Edward says :
If it is sufficient on a ship-railway to provide against something like the
worst hurricanes at sea, then I have no hesitation in saying that it is per-
• 7 ^Possible for these ships on the railwav to come to any grief from
wmd, because the resistance to hold the ship upright on her cradle on the
railway track is, I think, very many times greater than the forces which
keep her upright at sea.
After speaking of the track and locomotives which would be re
quired for the ship-railway, Sir Edward says:
With a track like that, and with locomotives adapted to it, there would
be no difficulty in transporting ships. It would be best to avoid a very
high rate of speed. It would not be necessary, I should think, to move
these ships at a greater speed than eight or ten miles an hour, although I
am quite prepared to believe that, with a proper track and locomotives,
vessels could be transported very much faster. I think the ship-railway
would be likely to develop as much as the ordinary railway has done, and
create as many surprises ; but m any case 1 cannot, for the life of me, un
derstand where is to enter in the danger to a ship upon a car traversing a
road such as may be made and would be made for this purpose.
I have searched for it in vain, and I cannot find the element of danger.
In answer to inquiries in relation to the economy of the ship-rail
way as compared with a canal, Sir Edward said :
I have made some calculations as to the weight of the car and the weight
of the ship, but as those calculations are set forth in a letter, which, per
haps, the committee may do me the honor of reading, I should not like to
go back upon memory for those figures.
In the letter to which he refers, Sir Edward says :
As regards the comparative economy of transporting a ship's cargo by
canal or railway, I am inclined to believe that the railway would prove
the more economical of the two.
It was stated in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons,
by the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway Company, on the 7th March,
1878, that coals could be profitably transported by this company at the rate
of Jd per ton per mile ; and this was confirmed by the locomotive superin
tendent of the Northwestern Railway, on the 21st of March, 1878. If we
assume that the total distance to be hauled across the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec is 150 miles, it would appear that a ship's cargo can be profitably
carried for that distance, in the ship, over a first-class railway, for $0.75
per ton. I arrive at this conclusion from the following considerations :
1st, id, or one-half cent, per mile gives $0.75 per 150 miles ; and 2d, the
weight of the ship and car upon whieh she is 'transported appears to bear
about the same ratio to the cargo carried in the ship when fully loaded,
that the weight of the coal-car bears to the weight of coals it carries. It
was also stated in evidence, on the occasion above 'referred to, that the
weight of coal carried on one truck is 7i tons, and the weight of the truck
ii tons. The paving load is, therefore, about 58 per cent, of the total ;
and this is about"the proportion that the cargo would bear, in many ships,
to the total weight of the ship, car, and cargo. These facts are sufficient to
show that the transport by ship-railway, over a first-class road with easy
gradients, in a country where fuel is abundant and labor not excessively
dear, ought to be about the same per ton per mile, for the cargo carried,
as in England. If, however, we assume it to be twice as expensive, the
rate would then be $1.50 per ton across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. I am
credibly informed that at this time $20 per ton is being paid for the
transport of grain from California, round Cape Horn, to Liverpool

74
It should be borne in mind that there are two elements in the ship-rail
way plan proposed by Captain Eads which tend to greater economy than
is obtained in the railway system of England : 1st, the ship-railway will be
devoid of all curves ; and, 2d, the cargo transported will be handled wholly
by machinery, and in vast bulk.
The committee will not, however, occupy more time in quoting
from the testimony of Sir Edward J. Reed. The whole of that tes
timony is very valuable and instructive, and will well repay perusal.
But the question of the practicability of a ship-railway does not de
pend alone upon the testimony of one engineer, however distin
guished. Mr. Eads submitted to the committee a number of letters
and certificates from the most distinguished engineers and naval
architects abroad and in this country. Attention is called to the
following extracts from some of these certificates and letters.
Nathaniel Barnaby, C. B., present chief constructor of the British
navy, in a letter dated London, October 8, 1881, says :
I note, therefore, the question you wish to put to me, which is : " Do I
think the problem insoluble of constructing a car on which a fully loaded
ship can be safely transported over such a railway as could be built through
a tolerably level country ? "
In reply to this, I say not only that it is soluble, but that the solution is,
in my opinion, fairly indicated in your plans, as laid before the committee
on interoceanic canals and shown to me.
Ships which would be strained by ordinary docking would be liable to be
strained also when suspended on a car not specially designed for their
crazy condition, but such ships would be still more strained in their or
dinary sea passages.
Mr. William John, who was for some years the scientific adviser
of the committee of Lloyd's Register of British Shipping, London,
and who built the Inman steam liner the City of Rome, in a letter
dated October 6, 1881, says :
The practice of lifting a ship of large size clean out of the water has be
come an every-day occurrence. The further step of lifting her to a con
siderable height is not a great one, especially if you can start with her
floating in a considerable depth of water. Beyond these the conveyance
of her over a railway, provided the latter is moderately level and moder
ately straight, is a simple matter, which is certainly not outside the reach
of civil engineers.
Mr. John Fowler, who was consulting engineer of the Egyptian
Government, engineer in chief of the Metropolitan (underground)
Railway-of London, and who is a past president of the Institute of
Engineers in England, says :
You will be interested to know that about eight years ago, when acting
as consulting engineer to the Egyptian Porte, I was instructed to prepare a
project for the transport of steamers and other vessels from one level to the
other at the first cataract of the Nile.
After a very careful investigation of the alternative plans of canal and
ship-railway on the spot, I decided in favor of the railway, having satisfied
myself that there was no mechanical difficulty in carrying ships of any
size, without injury to themselves, on a properly designed car or cradle
over a solidly constructed railway.
Mr. George Fosbury Lyster, a member of the Institute of Civil

75
Engineers, in England, and engineer in chief of the Liverpool docks,
in a letter dated November 2, 1881, says :
In reply to your letter of the 16th ult., referring to the several interviews
1 have had with you during your recent visit to this country, on the inter
esting subject of your proposed ship-railway across the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec, as also to the papers which you were good enough to leave with me,
further illustrating your opinions on the point, I have now been able to give
the whole matter, as far as its engineering features are concerned, very care
ful consideration, and have concluded that if the permanent way, cradle ar
rangements, and general details are carried out in the ingenious and sub
stantial manner you described, there will, in my judgment, be little or no
difficulty in transporting properly constructed ships from sea to sea with
entire convenience and safety.
_ Mr. E. Leader Williams, a member of the Institute of Civil En
gineers in England, in a letter dated September 5, 1881, says :
_ I believe that your ship-railway only requires carrying out into execu
tion to prove most successful in every way.
The firm of Clark & Standfield, distinguished English civil en
gineers, one of the members of the firm (Mr. Edwin Clark) having
been the chief assistant of Robert Stephenson in building the cele
brated tubular bridge over the Menai Straits, and who introduced
the hydraulic vertical-lift system, in a letter to Mr. Eads, dated Lon
don, September 6, 1881, says :
Referring to our interview on the subject of the proposed ship-railway
across the American isthmus, we now beg to say that our works are likely
to be so much occupied during the next year that we should scarcely be in
a position to execute any works out of England in connection with the
proposed railway, but we should be very happy to prepare the drawings
for the construction of the terminal works, for lifting the vessels at the
Atlantic and Pacific Ports.
We understand it will be requisite to transport loaded vessels of the
weight of 4,000 to 6,000 tons, more or less, on the railway, at the rate of
about six miles per hour, on a gradient of one or two per cent., and that it
will be required to raise the vessels on a railway car out of the water to a
variable height, not exceeding 46 feet, and deposit them on the rails in a
time not exceeding thirty minutes. These conditions may be fulfilled in
two different ways, and we need not say that it is a plan in which Mr.
Edwin Clark has entire confidence, and in which he will take the fullest
interest in arranging the details. The hydraulic system would probably
be the most rapid, but probably the more costly. At the Bombay hydraulic
dock we have lifted weights up to 12,000 tons, with 72 presses, 14 inches
diameter, and 36 feet stroke. The Victoria and Malta hydraulic docks
have been many years in constant operation.
At the canal lift at Fontinettes we employ presses with rams, 6 feet 7
inches in diameter, with a 50-f eet stroke. Each of these presses will raise
a dead weight of 1,000 tons through a height of about 50 feet in three min
utes. The weight is a movable portion of the canal, about 132 feet long,
containing the water and a barge floating in it. This work is now in
course of construction for the French Government, and it is to be erected
near St. Omer, in France, and we are now designing a set of four similar
canal lifts for the Belgian Government, in which the weight raised will be
somewhat larger. It is evident that a few presses such as these would
more than accomplish the work required.
Our ordinary depositing dock, similar to that at Sebastopol, which raises
vessels of 6,000 tons, would also meet the requirements of the case very
satisfactorily. We are now constructing a second of these docks, of 10,000
tons, for the Russian Government at Vladivostok, and a third, of 3,000

76
tons, for the Barrow and Railway Company, at Barrow-in-Furness, to be
afterwards increased to 5,000 tons. We have designed one of these docks
for the Italian Government, to raise ironclads of 15,000 tons' weight with
a lift of 30 feet. There would be no difficulty in modifying the proportions
so as to render it suitable for a Uft 46 feet, and this form of dock raises
the vessels out of the water and deposits them on a gridiron stage in a
most convenient manner for railway transport.
It will probably depend to a great extent on their relative cost as to
which of these systems may be adopted, and we shall be prepared at any
time to go into the necessary calculations, and render every assistance in
our power towards the accomplishment of the great work in which you
are engaged.
We apprehend no difficulty in perfecting the necessary details of > the
plans so as to insure the safe transportation of the largest loaded ships on
the railway cars with absolute safety.
The firm of Emerson, Murgotroyd & Co., who were the con
structors of the hydraulic docks at Malta and Bombay, say, in a letter
dated October, 1881 :
James B. Eads, Esq., C. E. :
My Dear Sir : When you are ready to commence the construction of
your ship-railway, we shall be pleased to undertake the building and com
pletion of the necessary works tor placing the ship, with her cargo, on the
railway track, ready for attaching the locomotives to her, and after tran
sport across the isthmus to lower her safely again until she is afloat. A
lifting apparatus will be required at each side of the isthmus which will
lift or lower ships as required. This portion of the work we are fully pre
pared to execute with the greatest promptness, on the same terms on which
we built the hydraulic docks at Bombay and Malta, and the Anderton
Canal Lift in Cheshire.
We have no hesitation in guaranteeing the lifting of a fully-loaded ship
or steamer of 8,000 or 10,000 tons' weight on a railway car from the sea or
harbor level to that of your permanent way in thirty minutes, with absolute
safety to the ship and the works, where the lift is not over fifty feet verti
cally. We will undertake to construct all the plans and works necessary
to do this at each end of your line, and complete everything ready for at
taching the locomotive to the car on which the ship is to be lifted and
transported ; this car, or any number of them, we will furnish also.
The locomotives and railway construction are not in our line ; but if it
were a matter of importance to cover, in addition, the construction of the
locomotives, turn-tables, &c, and ten miles of railway, as proposed by
you to the United States, we have no doubt we could unite with us some
other responsible parties engaged in that kind of works, to execute them
and guarantee the safe transportation of the loaded ships of the weight
mentioned, over the railway;
Mr. William Pierce, sole proprietor of John Elder & Company's
works, Govan, Glasgow, and who built the Arizona, the Elbe, the
Alaska, and others of the largest and finest steamers afloat, in a letter
dated August 26, 1881, says :
I am of the opinion, from what I know of the working of iron floating
docks that I have designed and built, that iron steamers of 4,000 to 5,000
tons' displacement may be docked loaded, without any injury whatever.
It is also my opinion that a ship-railway for vessels of this size may be
constructed and worked successfully, provided the land is solid and the
line moderately level.
Captain Edward Hartt, United States Naval Constructor, says, in
a letter dated Orange, N. J., January 22, 1881 :
With a substantial road-bed for your railway, on the easy grades across

77
Tehuantepec, which, I understand, do not exceed one or two feet in
the hundred, there can be no mechanical difficulty in the way of trans
porting loaded ships by railroad with entire safety to the vessel, whether
they be built of wood or iron.
Mr. H. L. Fernald, another constructor in the United States Navy,
says :
Having carefully examined the plans and papers pertaining to your pro
posed ship-railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, I do not hesitate to-
say that, in my judgment, there will be no difficulty whatever in trans
porting, in the manner you propose, any properly built vessel with abso
lute safety.
Gen. Q. A. Gilmore, of the United States Engineers, says :
In my judgment the construction of a ship-railway across the Mexican
Isthmus, in general accordance with your plan, is not only feasible as an
engineering problem, but the successful maintenance and operation of
such a road is entirely practicable as a business enterprise.
Major Charles R. Suter, of the United States Engineers, says :
The project has great and obvious advantages to recommend it ; and
from an engineering point of view, it is, in my opinion, perfectly practi
cable. Professor E. A. Fuertes, dean of the department of civil engineer
ing in Cornell University, and chief engineer in the survey made
by Commodore Schufeldt, of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and who
was for eleven months upon the Isthmus, says :
When your ship-railway project appeared, and was ridiculed by in
considerate engineers, I made computations which proved conclusively to
my mind that the Great Eastern could be carried safely overland upon
rails with less strain to her timbers than in any of her sea voyages.
Again, in speaking of the grades which would be encountered
upon the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Professor Fuertes says :
I can assure you, npon knowledge of every inch of the ground, that you
will find no difficulty about curves, grades or bridges. The ascent of the
Atlantic slope will offer no more difficulties than the Hudson River Rail
road, and on the Pacific side, either one of three passes in the neighborhood
of Tarifa or Chivela will allow of no steeper grade than twenty-five to
thirty-five feet per mile to bring you down to the Pacific Plains. The
ground offers you fifty miles to get down in, and as much more as you may
wish by following the hillside. All the bridges required will be of com
paratively short spans. You will find very little anxious work on either
terminal harbor, very little tentative work being required, and perma
nence without ulterior complications will reward almost any kind ot attack.
The drainage of the works, building materials (including exceUent cement
yielding dolomitic limestone, between San Miguel and Tariia), abundant
native labor, a remarkably healthy climate, &c, will be all you may
desire. Don Francisco de Garay, whom the French Government made a
member of the legion of honor in recognition of his abilities as a
civil engineer, and who was detailed by the Mexican Government
(he being the engineer of the valley of Mexico), to make a survey
of the Isthmus after the concession was granted to Mr. Eads, in a
report to Mr. Eads, dated Mexico, September 22, 1881, says :
Now with regard to grades : I have no grade on my line above two per

cent, and for no greater distance than two and a half miles. The ascent
to the summit, as well as the descent, are constant, but divided in different
short sections.
To resume what we have said, we See :
1st. That the line traced and located by our commission for the present
is only a study that may be improved and perhaps even abandoned for a
better line, if, in subsequent surveys more favorable ground is found.
2d. That such, as it has been traced and located, the line from the Pa
cific to the Chichihua River has only one break in a distance of fifty miles.
3d. That in all the line there is no grade greater than two per cent., and
in no greater distance than two and a half miles.
4th. That the greatest cutting is 312 feet in maximum depth, and 2,500
feet in length.
5th. And, finally, that the results obtained have demonstrated the entire
practicability of the ship-railway.
General G. T. Beauregard, formerly of the United States Engineer
Corps, says :
I take pleasure in communicating to you, in as few words as possible,
my views relative to the practicability and economy of a ship-railway
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. I feel no hesitancy in saying that I
see no difficulty in constructing a railway strong enough to carry out the
object referred to. It is only a question of the strength of the cradle to
hold the ship, and the division of weight on a sufficient number of rails and
wheels, which can certainly be accomplished by any engineer of ability
and ingenuity.
As to the danger a loaded ship would incur in being transported on a
smooth and well-built railway, it is all imaginary, for it would be well-
braced and cushioned in a strong car or platform, supported by spiral
steel springs on a very large number of wheels, which, being separate from
each other, could be easily replaced if broken during the trip. Moreover,
the breaking of one or a few of them out of so many would not endanger
the rest.
With regard to the economy of such a ship-railway, I would remark that
the tonnage carried over it being moved entirely by machinery, and the
ratio of paying cargo to dead weight being much greater than that on ordi
nary railroads, the cost of operating such a railway must be much less. The
cost of maintenance should also be less in proportion, for the road would
be substantially built and short in comparison to the amount of tonnage
carried over it. Moreover, the machinery used should be simple and sub
stantially made. It is, therefore, safe to assume that the current expenses
and those of maintenance would not exceed fifty per cent, of the gross re
ceipts, which would be more profitable than from a canal costing probably
two or three times more than a ship-railway, and requiring three or four
times longer to build, thereby increasing greatly the amount of interest
alone on the actual cost of the canal.
A ship-railway has other important advantages over a canal, such as the
facility with which the number of trucks could be increased to accommo
date the demands of commerce; the rapidity of transit and the greater
number of vessels per day that could be transported than through a
canal ; the practicability of building a railway where a canal would be
impossible; the ability of estimating correctly for the first, while the latter
if partially built under the water, or liable to be submerged or interrupted
by water, would be very difficult, if not impossible, to be estimated for as
to cost and time of completion.
Mr. H. D. Whitcomb, civil engineer in charge of the works for
improvement of the James River, says :
The idea is worthy of the age, and to make it a success you have simply
to improve and expand the details of the old marine railway and make it

79
more perfect. I have the greatest confidence in your ability in this par
ticular, and hope you will have the opportunity to demonstrate it.
Mr. William F. Buckley, president of the New York Balanced
Dock Company, in a letter to Mr. Eads, dated February 14, 1881,
gives the following list of vessels taken out on his dock with cargoes
in them :
Ship Great Victoria 3,386 tons ; ship Triumphant, 2,046 tons ; ship
America, 2,054 tons ; ship Hagerstown, 1,903 tons ; ship S. C. Blanchard,
1,903 tons ; steamer Colorado, 2,765 tons ; steamer Rio Grande 2,565
tons ; steamer Thingvalla, 2,436 tons ; steamer Monarch, 3,366 tons ;
steamer Lepanto, 2,310 tons ; steamer State of Nevada, 2,488 tons.
And says :
We do not refuse any class of ships or steamers, even with their coals
and cargoes on board, whose length does not exceed the length of the dock.
In every case in which we have taken up steamers with cargoes in, it has
been done without the least strain or injury to the vessel. As the rule is
to make a charge for raising cargo in the vessel, they usually come with
out cargo.
The above are some of the witnesses as to the entire practicability
of a ship-railway. There are many others of equal distinction in
their profession who have expressed the same views, but the commit
tee does not consider that it is necessary to quote further. The tes
timony upon this subject is so overwhelming and conclusive in its
character that the committee has no hesitation in reporting that the
construction of a ship-railway and its successful operation are en
tirely practicable.
But even if there were doubt as to the practicability of a ship-
railway, the Government of the United States could with perfect
safety to itself pass the bill desired by Mr. Eads, because under
the provisions of that bill the Government guarantee cannot attach
or have any force or effect until the practicability of the project shall
have been fully and satisfactorily demonstrated.
The next question arising is as to the best route for ,a transit-way
for vessels across the Isthmus. During the third session of the
Forty-sixth Congress a special committee of the House of Represent
atives charged with the duty of considering all questions relating to
Isthmian transit, after the most full and exhaustive investigation, re
ported in favor of Mr. Eads' ship-railway project, and selected
Tehuantepec as by all means the most preferable route for the tran
sit-way. In this report the committee say :
Mr. Eads has selected the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and your committee
unhesitatingly finds and reports that, of all the routes across the isthmus,
Tehuantepec is essentially the American route. A glance at the map will
at once demonstrate the correctness of this assertion. If a vessel leaving
the mouth of the Mississippi river bound for California or the Orient,
cross the isthmus at Tehuantepec, her voyage will be 1,250 miles shorterin
distance than if she crossed at Nicaragua, and 2,200 miles shorter than if
she crossed at Panama. If a vessel leaving New York, bound 'or the
same destination, cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, her voyage will be
750 miles shorter than if she went by Nicaragua, and 1,250 miles shorter
than if she went by Panama. Inasmuch as this large saving of distance

80
chiefly affects only the commerce of this country and that of Mexico, and
not the commerce of Europe, it must be at once apparent that the location
of a transit-way at Tehuantepec is of vital importance to the commercial
interests of the United States.
The saving of distance is synonymous with cheap transportation. Both
at Panama and Nicaragua, at various periods throughout the year, calms
prevail to an extent which would greatly decrease the value of either of
the routes for sailing vessels. Such, however, is not the case at Tehuante
pec, as favorable winds always prevail there, thus affordmg a guarantee
of no serious detention to sailing vessels seeking a passage by that route.
The committee has considered the testimony taken before the
House committee, and fully indorse the statement that Tehuantepec
is the American route, and that the transit-way should by all means
be located there in preference to any other point upon the Isthmus.
* * * * * * * * *
Without going into further details, the committee are of opinion
that the concession is all that could be desired by our government,
The special committee of the House, before referred to, after enum
erating in its report some of the details of the concession, says :
In the opinion of your committee, it would be a great mistake for the
Government of the United States to fail to recognize, in a substantial way,
the overtures thus made by Mexico. The duty of our Government in the
premises is a plain one, whether viewed from a selfish or unselfish stand
point. If viewed in the former light, it must be apparent to any one at
all familiar with the enormous commercial interests which will be affected
by the great work proposed that any liberality exercised by our Govern
ment will be returned a hundred fold in the increased benefits resulting
to our commerce. Of the valuable and growing commerce of Mexico the
United States now enjoys but 5 per cent. ; 95 per cent, of it is enjoyed by
other nations. The markets of Mexico are to-day practically closed to the
products of our soil and industry, while there is no good reason that they
should not be open to both.
The combined commerce of British India, Australia, China, Hong-Kong
Peru, New Zealand, Chili, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Tasmania, and the
Hawaiian Islands amounts to $1,435,953,000 annually. Of this vast com
merce the United States only enjoys 4 per cent., and the Mississippi Valley"
comprising a territory equal in extent to six-tenths of the total area of the
thirty-eight States of the Union, is wholly debarred therefrom. An increase
of our trade, nearly doubling it in this quarter, would more than conmen
sate the United States for the guarantee asked by Mr. Eads.
Leaving out of view the question of interest, it would scarcely be con
sistent with the dignity and magnanimity of as great a country as ours to
reject the friendly proffers of a sister republic, and refuse to lend anv as
sistance to a great work like that proposed ; especially so in view of the
revived fraternal feeling now. existing there towards us.
********
Believing that the commercial interests of this country will h
largely benefited by the construction of a ship-railway, that it will
have a tendency to infuse new life into our now languishing com
merce, and that it is essential that if our government would retain
the respect of its own people and of foreign nations, that it should
now practically demonstrate its determination to forever discourage
foreign control upon this continent, the committee report back the
bill favorably, with certain amendments, and with the recommenda
tion that it do pass.