Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1865-10-26
Ships from Chicago to New York.


Mr.. S, Dewitt Bloodgood is the author
of pamphlet proposing ship canal to
connect the great lakes with the harbor
of New York. He takes the ground that
there is so great an increase of Western
and neutrality-suspicious. which seek ac-
cess to tide-water, that it is absolutely
necessary that the New York canal facili-
ties should be enlarged.
Lake Superior is connected with Lake
Huron by the Sault st. Marie canal. Lake
Erie is connected with Lake Ontario by
the Welland canal. The St. Lawrence
canal connects Ontario with the sea. But
there is another lake not yet connected
with its fellows-Lake Champlain. Yet
the barriers which isolate it, are easily
removed. The lake affords ship nayigS-
ton OF one hundred and twenty five miles
and its course is from the direction of the
st. Lawrence towards the Hudson
The project of Mr.. Bloodgood is almost
altogether an enlargement of the works
already in existence. At the northern
end of the lake, the Chamblee canal is al
ready in operation. At the Southern end
the Champlain canal unites the lake with
the Hudson river. Even now vessel of
one hundred and twenty tons can sail
from Chicago to the Hudson. In 1849, |.
convention was held in Saratoga, for the
purpose of building of a ship canal from
Lake Champlain to the st, Lawrence In
1855 the project was approved by Mr..
Chabot, Canadian commissioner of public
works, and by Mr.. John B. Jervis, of New
York, connected with the Erie canal and
Croton water-works. The cost of the
work was estimated at $4,000, 900. The
navigation Of the lake is complete. Be-
tween it and the Hudson there is canal
lake to the Summit level, and thence de-
scending l25 feet to the Hndson. Mr..
W b. Taylor, estimated the cost of this
canal at IS, $4,000. This sum could
build it SO that it would be adapted to
gunboats $50 feet in length, rs feet beam
and feet draught. Mr.. Jervis estimated
that the cost of the Improvement, and
that of the Hudson for twenty miles
below Troy, at $780, 600. Since then
the upper Hudson has been improved
In 1863 the engineer of the state of New
York showed that the channel of the river
might be easily and permanently improy-
ed at a moderate COST upon the plan which
has been 50 successfully adopted upon the
Clyde in Scotland, by which vessels such
as the largest class of Cunard steamers
the Scotia, Persia and Cuba-are enabled
to reach Glasgow. In fact these vessels
were built in the shipyards of that city.
1t appears that, in the last ten years
1887, 661 tons, or more than'on fourth of
the tonnage of the Erie canal, passed
over the Champlain to the Hudson. Gov.
Seymour brought the plan to the noticeof
the legislature Of New York in his last
message. The completion of this work in
the chain of water communication be-
tween the west and the east, would put
down the present rates of freight, and Of
course, tend materially to the develop.
ment of our agriculture and commerce.
We want all the competition we can have
between the Northwest and, the sea. Mr..
Bloodgood's plan is evidently one which
for its feasibility recommends itself to-
the commercial community, especially to.
that of the state Of New York, whose in
terest it is to attract much Of the western
trade as it can.