Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-06-17

bsns;on of injury to the banks Of canal by boats
moyinp on their surface with great velocity, the
remedy hitherto applied to prevent such injury,
is much less expensive than this Engineer sup
noses, who charges 5000 dollars mile for walls
calculated to protect the inner slopes of a canal
from washing. More than 10000 superficial
yards, one foot in thickness. Of such walls, have
already been constructed in the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal. at the cost Of less than is cents
yard, including the price transporting the stone,
some distance, by land. The residue of this work,
dant supply of materials, has been permitted to
await the introduc!ionof water into the canal,
that the stone may be transported by boats track
ed by horses. Allowing twelve cents
cubic yard for the transportation, but reducing
the height of the wall has been found expedient,
the cost of such an inner lining for four feet, on
each side of the canal Immediately below the
surface of the water, which is all that is necessa
nv for its object, would be reduced, from thous-
and to about 5S7 dollars per lie.
For several miles together, the Chesapeake anu
OHIO Canal has border of solid rock on one side,
which needs no lining for its protection In 9TH
err places, 1t is spread out to such breadth, by
single e,nbankment on the side nsxt the river,
that it needs no such lining along either slope.
When compressed, as it is, for less than single
mile on line of 48, within breadth under so
feet. it is always bounded by rock, which yields
stone for its inner pavement, free Of the cost Of
transportation, so as to save part OF the above
estimated cost
II is somewhat remarkable that the Chief En-
gineer IF the Railroad Company shonld add
81, 900 mile to the cost of the Canal at the
Point of Rocks for its inner lining of stone when
he takes care TO lodge it, as well as the Railroad
on bed Of rocks, and provides, IN an estimate,
of the joint cost Of the two works, for wall OF
three feet between them.
The residue of his comparison of Railroads
with Canals. is equally impartial with the preced-
ing, and obviously designed to withdraw the pa
tronage of the State of Maryland from her canal,
for it is hers unless she chooses to expel it from
her territory, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Tie far greater part of his facts are inconsist-
ent with each other; his assertions are without
proof; and his principles have been refuted by
experience, as we have seen.
! What shall be thought of the Judgment which,
under the climate of Maryland, and IN relation
to the Potomac, pronounces that (. from the com
bined effects of floods breaches, repairs, drought
and cold, the average duration Of the navigation
of a Canal, ia oar climate, is reduced to about
one half Of the year,"
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was easily
kept open for navigation, aud actually uavigated
with facility, when frozen to the depth Of very
near three inches. In the late bard winter, its
use was not suspended BY ice until after the mid
die Of January.
Does any man believe that the Potomac river
will not supply an adequate quantity of water,
in any drought, to feed Canal along its banks;
or that internal intercourse will be promoted,
and '.transfsrs and transhipments, adding to the
expense and risk of transportation, be pre- vent
ed," as this writer insinuates by substituting a
Railroad for Canal, along the margin Of river
which has already upon its stem and its branch
es above tide water navigation, perfect at some
seasons, of $50 miles; or that a country will
resort to Railroads instead Of Canals, which has
coast thus bordering nayigable water for 1900
miles, counting both shores Of this river, and Of
its often navigable tributaries
How we'll does it fit the occasion Of his letter,
to comprehend among the advantages of Rail-
roads over Canals, that the latter occupy the
best lands of country, when the very Railroad
which this Engineer Is endeavoring to exalt in
value above the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, is
seeking to establish right to pre-occupy the We.
ry ground along the Potomac SO often surveyed
for the construction of the Canal? Let Railroads,
| which are admirable time and labor saving in
ventiOns, be constructed wherever the trade
which they are designed to accommodate will de-
fray the cost of their construction and use, and
theytan either be rendered more beneficial than
Canals. or Canals cannot be made. The friends
of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal never sought
to obs,ruct the progress of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad. till the friends of the latter aim
ed moral blow at the former The former
| sousit n0t IL 'npede. or even delay, as they
Nigh tlI, ave done, the grant of the char
ter Of the Raj oad Company; not only was the
grant p.,iect.d without resistance, but the best
ieeiin cnited the friends of both enterprises,
| until ne route. originally contemplated or an
n"unted for the Railroad was changed. and the
attempt to seize the ground surveyed for the Ca
nal boldly made and justified, on the ground of
prior right
The allegations against the officers Of this
Company, so often repeated, in the late Report
Of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to
the Legislature of Maryland being groundless
in every respect, reco upon their authors, and
neither merit nor will receive reply, from this