Recent reporting, here and here.
Three Google searches, here, here, and here.
Wikipedia here.
This link. Library of Commerce link to papers of one player, overlapping the time the Panama Canal was built (see, Wikipedia, here). VOA, here. A brief historical note here.
Canal matters show up as part of an interesting Murray Rothbard item, here.
You can research online and find much else on your own about the Central American canal question in the early 20th cehtury - where the present Panama route and the Nicaraguan alternative were contested by battling US business and political factions; with the name of William Cromwell of the Sullivan and Cromwell firm being a player in the Panama option winning the day.
Last, two links re Panama and Nicaragua facing a third proposed freight route. Here, and here, (along with a link to an item about a present Chinese-Columbian preliminary proposal, here).