The Nicaragua Canal is a proposed waterway that would connect the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans through Nicaragua, in Central America. Such a canal would follow rivers up to Lake Nicaragua, and then cut across the isthmus of Rivas to reach the Pacific.

Construction of a canal along this route was proposed in the early colonial era, due to the favourable geography of the area. Plans by the United States to build such a canal were abandoned only in the early 20th century, after the purchase of the French interests in the Panama Canal at a reasonable cost. Speculation on a new canal continues, however; the steady increase in world shipping, together with the possibility of establishing shorter shipping routes, may make this a viable project. Alternatively, a railway, or a combined railway and oil pipeline, could be built to link ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Route

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Several possible routes have been proposed for a canal in Nicaragua, all making use of Lake Nicaragua, the second largest lake in Latin America. Three routes have been discussed to carry traffic from the Atlantic up to the lake, which is at an elevation of 32 m (105 ft) above sea level:

• from Bluefields, up the Rio Escondido and then an artificial canal to the lake

• from Punta Gorda, up the Rio Punta Gorda and then an artificial canal to the lake

• from San Juan del Norte, up the Rio San Juan — with improvements and new locks — to the lake

An artificial canal would then be cut across the narrow isthmus of Rivas, whose lowest point is 56 metres (183 ft) above sea level, to reach the Pacific Ocean at San Juan del Sur.

History

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The idea of building a canal through Central America is a very old one. Under the colonial administration of New Spain, preliminary surveys were conducted. The routes usually suggested ran across Nicaragua, Panama, or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.

The Nicaragua canal was seriously proposed by the newly established United Provinces of Central America in 1825. That year the Central American federal government hired surveyors to chart the route and contacted the government of the United States of America in the hopes that the U.S. might contribute the financing and engineering technology needed for building the canal, to the great advantage of both nations.

A survey from the 1830s stated that the canal would be 278 kilometers (172 miles) long and would generally follow the San Juan River from the Atlantic to Lake Nicaragua, then go through a series of locks and tunnels from the lake to the Pacific.

The Central American proposal made a favorable impression in Washington, D.C. and was formally presented to the Congress of the United States by Secretary of State Henry Clay in 1826. The poverty and political instability of the region, as well as the rival strategic and economic interests of the British government, which controlled both British Honduras (later Belize) and the Mosquito Coast, prevented the canal from being built.

On August 26, 1849, a contract was signed between Cornelius Vanderbilt, a U.S. businessman, and the Nicaraguan government. It granted the Accessory Transit Company, which Vanderbilt controlled, the exclusive right to build a canal within 12 years and gave the same company sole administration of a temporary trade route in which the overland crossing through the Rivas isthmus was done by train and stagecoach. The temporary route operated successfully, quickly becoming one of the main avenues of trade between New York City and San Francisco, but a civil war in Nicaragua and an invasion by freebooter William Walker intervened to prevent the canal from being completed.

Continued interest in the route was an important factor in the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. The Nicaragua Canal idea was discussed seriously by businessmen and governments throughout the 19th century. In 1897, the United States' Nicaraguan Canal Commission proposed this idea, as did the subsequent Isthmian Canal Commission in 1899. However, the commission also recommended that the French work on the Panama Canal should be taken over if it could be purchased for no more than $40,000,000. Since the French effort was in utter disarray, the U.S. was able to make the purchase at its price.

Ultimately, the decision on which canal to build was made in a 1902 Senate vote. Prior to the vote, lobbyists for the Panama Canal sent each senator a Nicaraguan postage stamp, featuring the Momotombo volcano. While the extent to which they affected the vote is unknown, these postage stamps did capitalize on Senate concerns about investing a large sum in a volcanic region. As a recent eruption on the island of Martinique had killed nearly 30,000 people, these circulated postage stamps were likely the final reason for the abandonment of the Nicaragua Canal. In the vote, the decision to build the Panama Canal passed by four votes.

At the start of the 20th century Nicaraguan president José Santos Zelaya attempted to arrange for Germany and Japan to finance the canal. This was opposed by the U.S., which by then had settled on the Panama route.

After the Panama Canal

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At various times since the Panama Canal opened in 1914, the Nicaragua route has been reconsidered. Its construction would shorten the water distance between New York and San Francisco by nearly 800 kilometers (500 miles). Under the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916, the United States paid Nicaragua US$3 million for an option in perpetuity and free of taxation, including 99-year leases of the Corn Islands and a site for a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca. Costa Rica protested that Costa Rican rights to the San Juan River had been infringed, and El Salvador maintained that the proposed naval base would affect both it and Honduras. Both protests were upheld by the Central American Court of Justice in rulings that are not recognized by either Nicaragua or the U.S. The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was repealed by Nicaragua in the 1980s.

Present day

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As of 2004, the Nicaraguan government is again proposing a canal through the country, large enough to handle post-Panamax ships of up to 250,000 tons, as compared to the 65,000 tons or so that the Panama Canal can manage. The estimated cost of this scheme may be as much as 25 billion dollars; this is 25 times Nicaragua's annual budget. President Enrique Bolaños has sought foreign investors to support the project. The scheme has met with strong opposition from environmentalists, who protest the damage that would be done to the rivers and jungle.

In addition to the canal proposal, there are private proposals for a land bridge across Nicaragua. The Intermodal System for Global Transport (SIT Global), involving Nicaraguan and Canadian investors, proposes a combined railway, oil pipeline, and fibre optic cable; a competing group, the Inter-Ocean Canal of Nicaragua, proposes building a railway linking two ports on either coast. It is possible that these schemes could exist in parallel to the proposed canal.NICARAGUA: Plan for Inter-Ocean Canal Reborn, an analysis of several proposed land and water routes for cargo across Nicaragua, from Inter Press Service. Retrieved March 7, 2006.

References

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Canals | Transportation in Nicaragua | The Banana Wars

Nicaragua-Kanal | Canale del Nicaragua | Nicaraguakanaal | Canal da Nicarágua