File:Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation (1920) (14574395027).jpg

Identifier: elementsoftransp00john (find matches)
Title: Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Johnson, Emory Richard, 1864-
Subjects: Transportation
Publisher: New York, Appleton
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
n to service from New York and other Atlantic ports to the Caribbean shore of the Isthmus of Panama and also between the bay of Panama and California, passengers and freight being transferred across the Isthmus by small boats up the Chagres River and by pack trains over the divide separating the Chagres Valley from the bay of Panama. This route was soon improved by the construction of a railroad, which was opened in 1855. Another Isthmian route much used was across Nicaragua via the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, from which there was a portage of thirteen miles to San Juandel Sur on the Pacific Ocean. This route was developed by Commodore Vanderbilt who ran a line of steamers between New York and Greytown, and between San Juan del Sur and California ports and transferred passengers across Nicaragua by steamboats and stages. In 1850 and for some years thereafter, it was supposed that the best route for a canal across the Isthmus was one via the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, because it 232
Text Appearing After Image:
^t^^OO DIXN^^^ 234 ELEMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION was thought that the San Juan River could be made navigable for ocean ships. This route, however, is 184 miles in length; whereas the distance from ocean to ocean at the Isthmus of Panama is but 41 miles. As time went on, the San Juan River silted up badly and ocean vessels were built with much greater draft. Thus it was that when a French company decided, about 1880, to build a canal they chose the route across Panama. At that time, it was sup-posed that a sea-level canal would be constructed. This was possible at Panama, whereas a Nicaragua canal must have locks. The French company failed in its effort to build the Panama Canal; and the same was true of the efforts made by an American company, from 1885 to 1893, to put a canal across Nicaragua. The Panama and Nicaragua canal companies having failed, the United States Government began to consider the construction of an isthmian waterway; and was at first disposed to select the Nicaragua route; not

Note About Images