The canal is now one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. It allows ships to travel between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean avoiding having to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, saving time and fuel.
“It is known that the Viceroy of Egypt has, for many years, cherished the hopes of seeing executed a means of transit for European commerce and correspondence between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, more efficient than the clumsy and inconvenient means at present used. This project, however, has been obstructed by causes arising out of the conflicting interests and reciprocal jealousies of the great European states. It was the object of Mehemet Ali to surmount these obstacles, by inducing the several Goverments to join in the execution of so grand an enterprise. In this, however, he failed. He then had recourse to the more promising expedient of trying to awaken the spirit of private enterprise among the great commercial and financial interests of Europe, and in this he seems to be at the point of success. The last dispatches from the Levant brought intelligence that the agents of a joint company, formed of capitalists and merchants of London, Paris, and Vienna, had arrived, or were en route for the theatre of the projected operations. Mr Stephenson represents the English interests; M. Talabot, the French; and M.Negrelli, engineer of the Vienna and Triest railway, the Austrian. The purpose of the colossal project is to cut a canal between Suez and the ancient Pelusium, following very nearly the course of the ancient canal, the traces of which still exist on the isthmus. The projected canal is to have width and depth sufficient to float a first-rate man-of-war.”
The Stamford Mercury, 22nd October, 1847.