Nicaragua Canal

Nicaragua Canal, proposed waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. One often considered route would be 172.8 mi (278 km) long and would generally follow the San Juan River, then go through Lake Nicaragua near the southern shore and across the narrow isthmus of Rivas to the Pacific Ocean. First proposed by Henry Clay, the U.S. secretary of state in 1826, the route was an important factor in negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850). In more recent times the route has been considered as an adjunct to the Panama Canal; it would shorten the water distance between New York and San Francisco by nearly 500 mi (805 km).

Under the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty (1916), the United States paid Nicaragua $3 million for an option in perpetuity and free of taxation, including 99-year leases to 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 were infringed, and El Salvador maintained that the proposed naval base affected both it and Honduras. Both protests were upheld by the Central American Court of Justice. The court rulings were ignored by Nicaragua and the United States. The action was bitterly criticized by Latin Americans and others as an example of U.S. imperialism. A possible route was surveyed in the early 1930s, and a barge canal was proposed later in the decade. In 1970 the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was rescinded.

In 2013, Nicaragua granted the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. a 50-year concession for the building of the Nicaragua Canal. The company subsequently proposed (2014) a route that would begin at Punta Gorda on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast (more than 40 mi/65 km N of the San Juan River's mouth), cross Lake Nicaragua, and then enter the Pacific at Brito.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Latin American and Caribbean Physical Geography