172 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 22, 
which he himself devised. ‘The military services which he was 
enabled to render his country were very great. With his trained 
eye, Eads saw that, should the United States become engaged in 
war with a European power, the latter might endeavor to do the 
United States great injury by seizing and using to its own 
advantage a ship-canal. He feared that it would be very diffi- 
cult for our Government to protect against great hostile fleets 
an interoceanic canal at Panama or at Nicaragua. Such a canal 
could be very easily rendered useless for long periods in a time 
of war. A single torpedo would be enough to destroy a lock, 
and to let loose a flood of water which might greatly injure the 
canal. A single vessel intentionally sunk in a canal might make 
it impassable for a fleet of war-ships. Damage done to a ship- 
railway could be more quickly repaired. Hads had plans by 
which the Gulf of Mexico would be practically converted into an 
American lake. By defending its entrance he would defend 
Tehuantepec. He devised a plan for the defence of the ship- 
railway which would practically make it secure against attack by 
any fleet likely to attempt its capture. It was also to be in such 
close connection with the railway system of Mexico and of the 
United States, that large bodies of soldiers could be sent to its 
defence at very short notice. 
On the eastern side, the approach to the ship-railway is to be 
for twenty-five miles by the beautiful Coatzacoaleos River. On 
the Pacific side, it will be through a large lagoon. The length 
of the railway was to be about one hundred and thirty-four 
miles. 
Captain Eads had the pleasure of seeing his plans for a ship- 
railway at Tehuantepec approved by eminent engineers. Con- 
structors-in-chief, alike of the British and of the American 
navy, as well as eminent builders of ships and of dry-docks in 
Great Britain, united in giving their indorsement in an official 
manner to the practicability of transporting ships across the 
American isthmus by means of Hads’ ship-railway. A commit- 
tee of the United States Senate, after listening to whatever ob- 
jections the advocates of an interoceanic canal had to offer to 
Eads’ plan, made a report on March 6th, 1882, in the course of 
which it was said: ‘‘ The first question the committee consid- 
ered was as to the practicability of constructing a railway for 
the purpose of transporting ships and their cargoes. ‘The testi- 
mony before the committee conclusively demonstrates the fact 
that such a railway is entirely practicable, and that loaded ves- 
sels can be transported over the same with absolute safety and 
economy.” In the course of this report, the committee, after 
quoting from testimony given by American engineers respect- 
ing the practicability of constructing a ship-railway, continued: 
