Aniceto Garcia Menocal

Background

Aniceto Garcia Menocal was born on September 1, 1836 in Cuba, and was the son of Gabriel Garcia Menocal, a wealthy planter, and his wife, Carmen Martin Monte Rey.

Education

Menocal came to the United States to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated in 1862 with the degree of C. E.

Career

Almost immediately after his graduation, Menocal became assistant engineer and later chief engineer in charge of construction at the waterworks of Havana. In 1870 Menocal left Cuba, returning to the United States. After two years in the Department of Public Works of New York City, he entered the service of the United States Navy Department, being commissioned chief engineer in the navy on July 15, 1874. During his connection with the Navy Department, he was chief engineer of all the surveys made at Panama and Nicaragua, with a view to the construction of an interoceanic canal, but he is chiefly remembered as an early and persistent advocate of the Nicaraguan route. This he mapped in 1872-74; and in 1874-75 he pointed out the impracticability of a sea-level canal at the Isthmus. Convinced of the merits of his first proposals, he induced General Grant and others to organize the Provisional Interoceanic Canal Society (1880), which was later (1887) merged in the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua. Although, as chief engineer, he secured the necessary concessions, the project came to nothing because Grant's failure led to that of the Company. Unable to obtain further support in the United States, Menocal turned to the government of Nicaragua, under whose auspices he carried out improvements at Grey Town, on the Rio San Juan, and at Lake Managua. He also investigated conditions at Panama. At length, in 1887, he became chief engineer of the newly organized Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua and again secured concessions from Nicaragua, as well as from Costa Rica. Although work, beginning propitiously, continued until 1890, he was once more thwarted by a financial panic; and, in spite of his efforts to obtain capital in Europe or to secure government aid for the undertaking, it ended in disastrous failure. Nevertheless, his activities were not without fruit. In 1881 as consulting engineer for the bureau of yards and docks he had designed the naval gun plant at Washington. After his retirement from the navy, Sept. 1, 1898, with the rank of commander, he continued to be called upon for assistance. He served on the board appointed to take charge of the properties surrendered in Cuba; he went to the Philippines to aid in the establishment of a naval base; and, in 1902, he investigated the sites available for a coaling station in Liberia. He was also retained by the government of Cuba and in the last two years of his life developed an irrigation system for the northern provinces of that country. He died in New York City.

Achievements

• Menocal is known as one of the most renowned Civil Engineer Corps officers of the last century. He was intimately involved in one of the major engineering feats of the late 19th century, the building of a trans-isthmian canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Through his reports Menocal kept the advisability of a canal before important groups; and through his papers read at the International Conference at Paris (1879), before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Fourth International Conference on Inland Waterways at Manchester, England (1890), and at the World's Columbian Water Commerce Congress (1893), he appealed to a wider audience. His efforts helped to awaken the public interest which eventually made possible the construction of the interoceanic canal, though the route adopted, through Panama, was not that he had favored.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Nicaragua Canal: Its Design, Final Location And Work Accomplished (1890)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Report of the U. S. Nicaragua Surveying Party, 1885 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Report of the U. S. Nicaragua Surveying Part...)

Connections

On June 16, 1866, Menocal married Elvira Martin, who survived him. They had four children.

Father:

Gabriel Garcia Menocal

Mother:

Carmen Martin Monte Rey

Wife:

Elvira Martin

Son:

Adolfo J. Menocal

Born on 11 May 1867.