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Lake Nicaragua or Cocibolca or Granada or ( , Lago Cocibolca, Mar Dulce, Gran Lago, Gran Lago Dulce, or Lago de Granada) is a vast freshwater lake in Nicaragua of tectonic origin. With an area of 8264 km2 (8264000000 m2), it is the largest lake in Central America, the 19th largest lake in the world (by area) and the 9th largest in the Americas. It is slightly smaller than Lake Titicaca. With an elevation of 32.7 m (107.3 ft) above sea level, the lake reaches a depth of 26 m (85.3 ft). It is intermittently joined by the Tipitapa River to Lake Managua. The lake drains to the Caribbean Sea via the San Juan River, historically making the lakeside city of Granada, Nicaragua, an Atlantic port although it is closer to the Pacific. The lake has a history of Caribbean pirates who assaulted nearby Granada on three occasions. Despite draining into the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean is near enough to be seen from the mountains of Ometepe (an island in the lake). Before construction of the Panama Canal, a stagecoach line owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company connected the lake with the Pacific across the low hills of the narrow Isthmus of Rivas. Plans were made to take advantage of this route to build an interoceanic canal, the Nicaragua Canal, but the Panama Canal was built instead. In order to quell competition with the Panama Canal, the U.S. secured all rights to a canal along this route in the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916. However, since this treaty was mutually rescinded by the United States and Nicaragua in 1970, the idea of another canal in Nicaragua still periodically resurfaces. Ecocanal is one of these projects. |