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(Compare with chapter on railroads.)

During the last fifty years plans for establishing a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have been discussed. The Mexican Government in 1841 granted a concession to Don José de Garay to make a connection between the two oceans, provided that the grantee should make a survey, at his own expense, of the ground and the direction which the route should follow, and also of the ports which might be deemed most convenient from their proximity. A survey was duly made, and reports were published. But the route was not necessarily to be a canal, although Señor Moro, the engineer, based his operations upon this assumption.

Soon after the termination of the war with the United States, the franchise of Señor de Garay became the property of Mr. P. A. Hargous, of New York, who, in connection with a company organized in New Orleans, assumed the rights and responsibilities of the Garay grant. After negotiations with the Mexican Government and unavoidable delays, it was agreed that a railroad would be more practicable than a canal. Accordingly, a survey for a railway across the isthmus was made in 1851, under the direction of the late General J. G. Barnard, of the United States Army, who was detailed for that purpose. The surveys demonstrated that a railway would be feasible at a moderate expense; that the grades did not exceed 60 feet per mile, except at \