6G 
THE TEHUANTEPEC SHIP RAILWAY 
some permanent structures. Since 1878, including the last con- 
tract and excluding interest, Mexico has silent on the route 
$16,000,00(1 in gold and $2,670,170 in Mexican silver. 
The completion and o})eration of this railroad will greatly fa- 
cilitate the construction of the ship railway when the time arrives 
to build it, as it ma}' with great advantage be employed to dis- 
tribute supplies, materials, and laborers along the line of the ship 
railway, and thus be used as an auxiliary line, which Mr Eads 
had intended to build in advance for this pur^jose. 
Permit me now to state the part taken by Mr Eads in solving 
the problem of interoceanic transit. In a letter to the New York 
Tribune, June 10, 1879, he advocated a ship railway at Panama 
instead of a shi}> canal. As against the douldful in-oject of a 
ship canal and in favor of a ship railway" he said : 
“ My own studies have satisfied me of the entire feasibility of such tran.s- 
])ortation by railroad, and I have no hesitation in saying that for a sum 
not e.xceeding one-third of the estimated cost of the canal, namely, about 
$.■>0,000,000, the largest ships which enter the port of New York can be 
transferred, when fully loaded, Avith absolute safety across the isthmus, 
on a railway constructed for the purpose, within twenty-four hours from 
the moment they are taken in charge in one sea until they are delivered 
into the other, ready to depart on their journev.” 
I le urged the construction of a ship raihvay on De Lesseps, but 
the great Frenchman said, “A canal at sea level or nothing.” He 
found nothing, at a cost not of $120,000,000, but of $2.50,000,000. 
IMr Eads then turned his attention to the much more advan- 
tageous route at Tehuante'pee, only 800 miles from the Mississipj)! 
jetties, and it was my good fortune to 1 >e henceforth associated Avith 
him until his death. 
The concessions of INIay, 1881, modihed in 188.5, provided for 
the construction and operation of the ship railAvay for 99 years. 
Many liberal provisions Avere included, such as the donation of 
about 2,700,000 acres of land, ample rights of Avay, right to col- 
lect tonnage and Avharf dues. Far the most valuable grant was 
the guaranty that one-third of the net revenue of the coinpaii}’’ 
for fifteen years from the opening of the raihvay should amount 
to $1,2.50,000, Avith the right to secure a similar guaranty for 
$2,500,000 to cover the remaining tAvo-thirds of the interest from 
foreign nations, but Avith the understanding that this guaranty 
should be sought from the United States. 
IMr Eads made the plans Avith his customary skill, and after 
obtaining the approval of many ijrominent naval architects and 
