Ship Canal across the Isthmus of Suez [pp. 766-772]

SHIP CANAL ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. 769
distinguished engineers chosen ten years since by a company
formed to investigate this matter, adopted the indirect route
from Alexandria to Suez, making use of a barrage to cross the
Nile. He estimated the entire expense at $2,500,000 for the
canal, and $4,000,000 for the construction of a port and harbor
at Suez. The two other engineers associated with him were
Mr. Stephenson, of England, and Mr. Nagrelli, of Austria.
M. Linant Bey, who for thirty years has superintended the
canal works of Egypt with signal ability, and who has made
the union of the two seas by a canal the study of his life, proposes to cut the Isthmus in a line nearly straight and across
the narrowest part, constructing also a great interior port in the
basin of Lake Timsah, and making the passage from Pelusium,
on the Mediterranean, and Suez, on the Red Sea, practicable
to vessels of the largest size. Other eminent engineers who
have had the superintendence of the fortifications of Alexandria, and that stupendous work the barrage of the Nile, undertaken by the late viceroy, Mehemet-Ali, and the bridges and
roads of Egypt, concur in the opinion of the feasibility of the
proposed canal and its immense utility.
A careful examination will determine which of the routes indicated will be the best; and, the enterprise being admitted as
practicable, nothing remains but to make a choice. All parts of
the enterprise, however difficult they may be, fail to frighten
or discourage modern art; their success cannot be put in doubt.
It is now a question of pecuniary means, which the spirit of
enterprise and association will not fail satisfactorily to resolve,
if the profits which must follow are in correspondence with
the expense incurred. It is easy to demonstrate that the
expense of the canal, even upon the largest calculation, cannot
be out of proportion with the utility and the profits of this
great work, which will shorten the distance between the principal countries of Europe and America and the Indies by more
than one-half. This is made evident in the following table,
prepared by M. Cardier, Professor of Geology:
By the canal. By the Atlantic. Difference.
Constantinople, Leagues................. 1,800 6,100 4,300
Malta........................ 2062 5,800 3, 788
Trieste.................................. 2,310 5,960 3,620
Marseilles................................ 2,374 5,650 3,276
Cadiz.......................... 2,224 5,300 2,976
Lisbon.........................2,500 5,350 2,850
Havre............................ 2,824 5,800 2,976
London............................. 3, 100 5,930 27836
St. Petersburgh........................... 3,700 6,530 2,850
Liverpool................................ 3,050 5,900 2,850
Bordeaux.2 800 5, 650 2, 850
Amsterdam. 3,100 5,950 2,850
New York. 3,761 6,200 2,439
New Orleans............................. 3,721 6,450 2,726