in 1846, josé augustin palácios and rudolf oscar kesselring convinced authorities in bolivia that the best way to secure access to the atlantic ocean was through the amazon. bolivia had access to the pacific ocean, which was later lost to chile in the war of the pacific in 1884, but the lucrative trade routes with the united states and europe were in the atlantic in 1851, the government of the united states became interested in access to bolivian products (notably rubber), and contracted lieutenant lardner gibbon to study the viability of a rail link between the navigable amazon river and bolivian production centres. gibbon's study concluded that a railroad along the madeira river rapids would allow efficient transport of goods from the bolivian capital of la paz to us markets.