Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-02-08
For the Spectator.
Virginia Canal-No. 3.

There being a sufficiency Of water beyond all
doubt to supply the summit level Of the Canal
with more than three times as much as the
great Erie Canal can use, and having been pro-
nounced practicable to convey it to the sum-
NIT, by experienced engineers we will now look
at the cost necessary to complete the work to
the Ohio River.
Various estimates of the cost of construction
have been made with the many plans proposed
and the different capacities Of the Canal
La lS4l it was estimated by the principal engi-
3555 would complete the work, and perhaps it
would in the manner and of the capacity then
contemp plated, and no doubt it would have paid
good dividends on the investment, but it would
pay far better a larger outlay. The best Ca
nal that can be made on this route will pay the
largest dividends. The ca pacity Of this canal
will be the only limi. to the tonnage in less than
twenty years, even if constructed so as to use
to the full extent the enormous chambers OF
the locks mentioned heretofore 600 feet by 40).
A mud pike in the absence of any other road
will often remunerate the expense Of making
but where there is constant travel good Mac
adamized road will pay far better, and this Ca
nal, If it only has capacity given it, will be used
to convey about one third ,oi all the marketable
production, agricultural and mineral, and large
ly of the merchandise, forests and manufactures
of the nation. This water line can be SO con-
structed that Cincinnati can send her wheat to
Liverpool and have it sold there in about the
same time that it would reach New York by
the Erie Canal, or that it would get round the
Florida reefs by sending it down the Misslssip-
pi River, and at less cost than by any other
route, and thai it can reach the Atlantic about
as soon by this Canal as It could reach New
Y York by Railroad, and at less than one third of
the cost.
To enlarge the old work, and to complete the
hinted at here, would perhaps require some so
or 60 millions, but if once substantially made
would doubtless make better return in the way
of dividends than any thing inferior to some
thing ike this No water line can ever compete
with it either in time distance or low freights,
and although the Railroad will only exceed
it little in time, it will be at more than three
times the charges
It has been well said that the opening of this
water line of capacious size would justify the
expenditure of hundreds OF millions Of dollars
The estimate for completing the Canal from
Buchanan to the Ohio River Of the same d.
mensions as the enlarged Erie Canal which has
capacity to carry 7,O0O,O00 tons per annum,
viz: ~ feet wide at bottou 20 feet at the wa
ter surface with feet water in depth, the locks
100 feet long and 20 feet wide, to the Green
brler River, SO miles, and from there by locks
and dams on the Greenbrier and New Rivers
1913 miles to Lyken' shoals on the kanawha,
from where sluice navigation will be used to
the Ohio S5 miles, being EOS miles where the
chambers of the locks will be 200 feet long and
40 feet wide with feet OF water the whole
distance, and being 2S0 miles from Buchanan
to the Ohio The estimate also includes the
enlargement of the cid work from Richmond
to Buchanan 1877 miles, to correspond with the
new work to the Greenbrier, which in all makes
ASS miles from Richmond to the Ohio River.