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I'm guessing he just wants it as a hypothetical, but it's not like it was beyond everyone's technical ability before the 1860s (unlike the Panama canal, it's really just a big ditch) -- it's just that no one had both the opportunity and the willingness to commit the substantial resources.
I think it would make an interesting mod to allow a nation in control of Suez the opportunity to construct a canal, at a suitably exhorbitant cost in cash and time.