ON THIS DAY IN 1869 , the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “The Suez Canal having been finished, the daily journals are considering the question of its value, and on this there is a wide difference of opinion. The London Times is disposed to belittle it and some American newspapers incline to the same view. It seems to be conceded that we don’t need the canal as we have a transcontinental railroad, and our western coast is washed by an ocean which opens a direct way to old Eastern lands. The Suez enterprise is important to us, however, as a stimulus to the long-contemplated work of cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. While enthusiasts anticipate a commercial revolution as a consequence of de Lesseps’ triumph, cold-blooded calculators insist that its benefits will be chiefly local.”

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