Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-01-19

fling consideration, and as the spare power of
the engines may be employed in manufacture
ing in many cases to advantage, the expense
Of maintaining them viii not be very impor-
tant.
Surprising each stationary engine should on
ly overcome lift offfty feet, but, in many ca
ses, lift of one hundred may be overcome with
one engine, one hundred engines would over
come 5000 feet ofrise and fall, and on canal,
allowing each lock TO have 8 feet lift, it would
require 625 locks to overcome the same rise
and fall, and the occasional dips, such as must
occur in making canal between the Susque-
hannah and the Schuylkill, by way Of the val
ley Of Lancaster, would greatly add TO the num-
Der Of locks.
If the whole number of locks between ohila-
delphia and isittsburg should amount to 700, OF
eight feet lift each, overcoming rise and fall to-
gether Of $500 feet, the cost Of constructing
locks, estimating them at 1000 dollars per foot,
would be $4,000 per lock, and amounrto 5000
900 dollars for that part Of the work alone.
Without taking into calculation the army Of
attendants that such number of locks would
require, the immense expense of yearly repairs
from breaches, freshets, SC. the damage done
to farms and mills, the total stoppage of trade
in the winter, and the impossibility of one or
even two distinct canals, conveying the trade Of
the west, when it is known andacknowledged
that lock, in regular business, cannot pass
more than 40 boats day-regardless Of all these,
we will take the matter upon one point alone
The saving OF time. A trip from Philadelphia
to Pittsburgh and return, by the rail road, would
occupy week. Thus the mail, and as many
passengers as nigh, offer, would be carried from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg in days; by canal
500 miles in length, with 700 locks to pass, the
voyage to Pittsburg and back, would occupy
weeks. If cargo Of Is tons be conveyed on
rail road by locomotive engine, with one man
and one boy as attendants, in thee days and
three nights 10 Philadelphia, which we must al
low TO be equal to six men and six boys per day,
and a like cargo be conveyed by canal In three
boats, each having man and boy-we say no.
thing about the horse-and twenty-one days are
required to perform the journey, il is equal to
six,y.three men and sixty-three boys, SO that Of
human labour, without saying any thing OF the
army Of attendants at the locks, il is saving Of
time and expense, in favor OF the rail road, as
IL is to 1876; and, believe, if had time, could
make il appear that throughout the whole, the
rail road would bear the same ratio OF advan-
tage over canal, through that particular tract
Of country.
OF the expense OF constructing such road,
would not be willing to estimate it at much less
than 10000 dollars per mile. Cutting through
hills, making causeways across hollow ways,
building bridges and culvcrts, and perhaps oc-
casionally boring short tunnel, must involve
considerable expense, independent of tracks,
stationary engines, and inclined planes: But
DO not conceive that rail road, and all its at
tendant expenses, would amount to one half the
cost Of canal to obtain the same object; and
believe that the end would be attained in one
third the time, and that the cost Of conveying
merchandise would not be more than one half
the charge now demanded on Canals
In proposing this rail-route, do not conceive
that il would at all do away the necessity ofim-
proving our main rivers. The railroad would
cross country IN which canal is impractical
Die, and il would intersect our Susquehannah at
right angles, rather aiding and rendering more
important the improvement Of that river and its
branches, by conveying its coal and lumber into
districts which require them, and where canals
struction. It only by canal or railroad be-
coming the great thoroughfare of general and
extensive trade, that either can be profitable
AS it respects another point, may indulge
little in speculation. do not think, nor did
ever think, that the proposed canal to unite the
Potomac and the Ohio, will succeed. II may be
made, but if Pennsylvania does her duty, it ne
yer Can become the thoroughfare of the Eastern
and Western trade Summit levels 5000 feet
above tide water may be attainable, but sti ong-
ly doubt whether they can be of much utility;
and If our preferable route should offer, by
which time and expense Of transportation shall
be saved, such elevations will be deserted
Pennsylvania has all this in her power, and
more. She has it in her power to wrest from
the state of New-York the trade of Ohio The
same line which judiciousy connects Pittsburg
and Philadelphia, secures the trade of Ohio and
Kentucky; nay, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois,
and Missouri, will be ours; and even the trade
OF Lake Erie, as soon as channel is open into
the Allegany, will seek the market of 2hila-
delphia. You will perceive that Baltimore
must and will have chance, do as we will, to
participate in all this trade.
have said that no one canal can accommo-
date the Western trade; but this objection does
not hold against railroad. The route is ne.
yer SO long, and the carriges travel with al least
three times the velocity that boats do on canals
There are no stoppings Of consequence. The
train Of wagons may be continual, and as much
property as the road can contain may be in con-
slant and regular motion, wagon succeeding
wagon in close array, 10 the point Of destina-
ton. The New York Canal can pass but forty