THROUGHOUT the history of Mexico, and more particularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, various plans were proposed for the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. At different times a ship railway, a canal, and a railroad, or combinations thereof, were suggested. Ultimately, in the last years of the nineteenth century, a transisthmian railroad was constructed between Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf coast and Salina Cruz on the Pacific.