Henry Chauncey of Middletown A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama

Article From: Connecticut State Historian

Back when they taught such things in the classroom, many Connecticans learned this palindrome (a phrase that says the exact same thing read backwards or forwards) in geography class: ” A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama.” What we were not taught, though, is that men made plans to make transportation across Panama a reality over a half a century before the Panama Canal was built, and that one of those men was Henry Chauncey of Middletown. (Perhaps that’s because “A Man, A Plan, A Train: Panama” doesn’t have the same ring to it – or work as a palindrome).

In 1845, three businessmen – Henry Chauncey, William Henry Aspinwall, and John L. Stephens, realizing that the journey to transport goods and people east to west around South America could be shortened by 8000 miles by using the latest in transportation technology, started the Panama rail project by acquiring rights to build a train line across the isthmus from the government of New Granada. This was to be the world’s first transcontinental railroad and, if successful, it was sure to be a business windfall. Not only would a convenient overland route across Panama save travel time, it would mitigate the dangers associated with ship travel around Cape Horn.

The men’s timing was excellent, as gold was discovered in California in the late 1840s. On April 15, 1850, they signed a contract to secure land and begin the railroad’s construction.

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