Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-06-14


- SubdioiSiun 10th From the head OF the
Great Falls to tide, below the Little Falls,
Distance III miles-descent l73 ft.-22 locks.
From Cumberland,
1885, 578 "a
ssThe breaking of the Potomac through the
granite ridge, at the Great Falls. presents, at
first sight, difficulties Of the greatest magnitude
Tile river gradually narrews its channel as 1t
approaches its perpendicular pitch. At this
point, and little below, the width does not ex-
coed one hundred yards, at Il moderate stage
uf the stream. Here the perpendicular rocks,
so or 70 feet high, forming the banks, the deep
water at their foot, the violence and great rise
of the freshets, render truly appalling the idea
of supporting canal along this pass by means OF
walls. Most happily there is no necessity for
such plan: a rayiue, or rather two ravines,
which can be rendered continuous by compare
lively little labor, extend for the whole distance
between what is termed Bear Island and the high
bluffs forming the Maryland shore. -
''This fortunate circumstance will not only
enable to make the canal here at much less ex
pcnsc than through the pass Of the stream, but
it will also procure to the work security which
neither ingenuity nor expense could afford on the
other alternative.
"Be.ow the Great Falls, the ground, with the
exception of some portions of easy execution,
is generally difficult, requiring large extent of
walling and Of steep, side cutting, for about 7
miles: it is TO say, as far down as the head Of
the actual canal around The head 81 the Little
Falls"
Although the location of this line was improv-
ed by subsequent examination, yet on no canal in
America, and on very few, if any. in the world,
and certainly on no part of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal. do there remain TO be encountered
obstacles more appalling than have been here over
come: SO thew were regarded By the distinguish
ed foreign Engineer then at the head of the
United States Board of Interna! Improvement,
whose language has been quoted above.
In the compass of eleven miles, along preci-
pices of granite, bounding river which bore last
Winter on is bnsom ice and snow, ele, aed, for
several miles, thirty feet above its ordinary neght,
canal was to be constructed, to overcome rise
of 128 feet, being more than eleven feet in each
mile. For part of this way, a pathway could
not be formed but at great cost; and many hund.
red acres Of huge and craggy rocks, piled Oh each
other, chilled the enterprise which attempted to
subdue them. Earth was to be derived from re-
mote distances to construct. embankmcnts, and
the embankments, to precede the transportation
of the stone and other materials required for the
construction of 6 Of the l6 locks The beds of
not few of these either to be sunk in the uneven
rock, or to be lifted up high above it, and
sustained by lateral walls and entertainments. 1t
is not wonderful that the United States Engineers,
who first traversed, described, and estimated the
route for this canal, along the north bank of the
Potomac, around the Great Falls, should have es-
tinated its costs at near eighty thousand dollars
a mile, surprising their canal to be 48 feet wide
at the surface Of the water, and live feet deep,
except where g reduced CONSIDERABLY" as often
as peculiar difficulties, which here occurred at
every step of their way, required that breadth to
be diminished.
But areproof is given TO those perseverlng MIS-
representations, which swell the actual to very
near the estimated cost of this work, by the spec
tacle of canal in use between the same termin
on the Potomac, completed at cost 100000
mile less than that estimate-constructed, too,
with breadth exceeding every where, in that
distance, 4s feet, often more and seldom less
than 60 feet, anal depth never short of teet-
having, beneath it, numerous culverts, some large
enough to serve as yiaducts to every species of
conveyance, with Is cut stone locks, laid in hy-
draulic l,me-7 of which are of hard granite
blocks; and 9 of free stone transported from 10
to 60 miles by water and land; while the canal,
ITSELF IS, for several miles Of the eleven, lined
along one or both of its inner slopes with neat
stone pavement, supported on the outside by mas
sy walls go feet high, to guard it from abrasion,
and has, moreover, included in its cost, more
than $4,000 expended on its improvement, exclu-
sive of its repairs, since the opening OF Its navi-
cation.
Several benefits would accrue to the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal Company from close analysis
of the causes of the actual, compared with the
estimated cost of this enlarged and difficult line
Of the canal. Among them, would be, general
conviction that too much has not been expended
in repeated surveys, preparatory to its final oca.
ton, by eminent practical civil engineers, nor if
the number, variety, and quality, of its works
be regarded in multiplying, to the necessary ex-
tent, the corps Of engineers, by whom its actual
construction was to be vigilanty and constantly
watched.
With all this circumspection, not one of those
engineers believes, nor any officer of the compa-
nv vii, maintain nor do the Pre- ,ident & Directo
pretend, that errors have not been committed In
the location, as well as the construction Of this
work; by the timely correction of which, if per-
ceived, its cost might have been reduced, and its
IL Il