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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 States 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 ClayHenry Clay ( April 12, 1777 June 29, 1852) was a U. statesman and orator, and was one of the most important figures in U. politics during the first half of the 19th century. Few public characters in the United States have been the subject of more heated c in 1826Events February 11 University College London is founded, under the name University of London''. April 1 Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine. June 14- 15 The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny. The poverty and political instability of the region, as well as the rival strategic and economic interests of the BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly government, which controlled both British Honduras (later BelizeBelize is a small nation in Central America, on the Caribbean Sea bordering Mexico to the northwest and Guatemala to the west and south. Honduras lies 75 km away at the two nations' closest point across the Gulf of Honduras to the east. In the Spanish lan) and the Mosquito CoastThe article is about the geographical area. For the film or novel see The Mosquito Coast. The Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area of present-day Nicaragua long dominated by British interests. Although its name sometimes applies to the whole e, prevented the canal from being built.

On August 26August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). There are 127 days remaining. Events Monday, August 26, 55 BC Julius Caesar invades Britain Saturday, August 26, 1071 Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the, 1849Events January 23 Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor January 31 Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom February 14 In New York City, James Knox Polk be, 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.

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.

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.