im, besides a very valuable concession for building
the ship-railway, its cordial assistance in his surveys. It was at this
time that Mexico requested his aid in improving its two harbors, and
when he returned home, sent him in the Mexican man-of-war, the
Independencia. The next year he proposed to Congress to build the
ship-railway at his own risk, and to give the United States special
privileges, which had been arranged for in his Mexican charter,
provided the government would, as he proved the practicability of his
plan by actual construction and operation, guarantee part of the
ship-railway's dividends. Although this arrangement would have laid as
little risk on the government as the jetty arrangement had, it was not
accepted.

Strange and even unnatural as the idea itself appeared, it was adapted
from perfectly simple ship-railways already in existence and in
satisfactory use. Science, he said, could do anything, however
tremendous, if it had enough money. In the magnified form contemplated,
the plan provided for a single track of a dozen parallel rails, and a
car with 1500 wheels. On this car was to be a huge cradle into which
any ship might be floated and carefully propped. The car having then
been hauled up a very slight incline out of the water, and monster,
double-headed locomotives hitched to it, by gentle grades it and the
ship were to be drawn across to the other ocean a hundred miles away,
where the ship could be floated again. To obviate any chance of
straining the ships, all curves were to be avoided by the use of
turn-tables.

Nevertheless, many people believed that such a journey would strain a
ship so much that it would never float afterwards. On the other hand,
there is so imposing an array of names of distinguished engineers,
shipbuilders, and seamen, who declared that the plan was feasible in
every particular, that it is hard to think they could all have been
mistaken in thus supporting the leading engineer of the day. It may
easily be supposed that every other imaginable and unimaginable
objection was raised, but to one and all Eads gave an answer that
sounded conclusive.

As usual he was willing to back up his ideas with money, and he had the
most elaborate surveys made, and remarkable models prepared to show the
working of the ship-railway. He preached this new crusade of science
with his customary vigor. So many men were financially interested in
the project, or were ready to be, that it wo