During the 1840s newspapers published reports and rumors of a proposed canal or railroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the Isthmus of Panama. These articles reported debates over whether a canal or a railroad should or could be constructed and variously identified the project as one that England, France, or the United States should undertake. By 1845 the rumors had grown so common that one observer noted that “different kingdoms and governments had so long theorized upon the subject of a canal or railroad between the two oceans that it had almost ceased to enlist the public attention.” (“National Institute Papers,” Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 23 May 1845, [1]; see also, for example, “Later from England and France,” North American and Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 22 Feb. 1842, [2]; “National Institute Papers,” Daily National Intelligencer, 17 July 1844, [1]–[2]; “National Institute Papers,” Daily National Intelligencer, 14 Aug. 1844, [1]; and “To the Editors,” Daily National Intelligencer, 21 Sept. 1844, [2].)

Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.

North American and Daily Advertiser. Philadelphia. 1839–1845.