A map from 1904 of the Panama Canal showing terrain relief of the isthmus, noting the 'Canal always follows the line of the Railroad’ from Colon to the city of Panama. "For generations the Panama Canal had been the dream of man and for 50 years had been a practical problem for engineers, diplomats, and financiers. When the De Lesseps Company actually began work in 1881, the enterprise seemed finally about to be carried out. The disgraceful and disastrous failure of the French corporation seemed to put to an end, for a generation at least, to the hopes of the Panama people for their long wished for canal. American citizens in the meantime were pushing with reasonably good success the Nicaragua Canal Company. But the Nicaragua Company in turn proved a failure. The Spanish-American War and the subsequent acquisition of distant possessions, demonstrated the almost absolute need of a canal for the better defense of American Atlantic and Pacific seaports. It had been thoroughly evidenced that private enterprise could do little that was efficient; consequently the United States Government took matters into its own hands. After a good deal of discussion the Nicaragua route was decided upon; and a bill to that effect was introduced in the House and passed unanimously. However, before the final steps were taken, the Panama idea was again agitated; and as a result of investigation of the relative of the relative advantages of the two courses, and of clever political moves on the part of leaders in favor of Panama, the President was instructed to adopt the Panama route, if he could make the necessary arrangements in given time. During this period, the government of Columbia gave the United States every reason to believe that a treaty could be arranged on reasonable terms. But it was only a concession to its demands for a large sum of money and the guarantee of sovereignty over the canal territory, that the treaty was signed." - Wark 1904.