Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-07-12

ROUTE OF THE OHIO AND ERIE CANAL.
of New York, was completed. 1t was then
and still is the most important ma made
waterway on the American cor inent
Connecting with it were built seV IL lat
eral lines of canal to serve as commercial
feeders to its traffic.
In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio. In
diana and some additional states O. ler ar
tificial waterways were dug. On most Of
them boats carried passengers as well as
freight and when at their best w.rc i'm
pOrtant elements in the progress of ne age.
But steam came along, offered to race
with the canalbOats and quickly showed
its superiority in speed. The re lit was
bad for the canals One by one til later
ais of the Erie were Abandoned; little by
little the traffic on the other cana grew
less 1t was late in the sixties or carly in
the seventies when the Chcnango extern
sion of New York states system WIS aban-
doned half dug, that the building Of canals
practically stopped in America, and since
then, with the exception of those connect
ing important bodies of navigablc water,
the traffic of the artificial WATERWAYS has
steadily declined
In Europe also, although less marked,
there has been contemporary period of
railroad domination, but in Europe the
canal has never lost its hold SO colaplctcly
as in America. In France the cnnstruc-
ton of new canals and the improvement
of old ones have gone on almost unintcr
ruptedly. In England canal tn lie ha,
never declined as it did here, and tlc same
is true of most continental count1Ir,
Curiously enough, the United states has
been behind the rest of the world in this
matter. Until the beginning of the big
ditch in Illinois, to be used both for drain
age and navigation PURPOSES no canal dig
ging of any cOnscq was done in
North America after the last shovel of
earth was thrown out of the abandoned
Chenango extension. Now, however, the
canal era seems at last to have well
begun in North America. A ship canal
has recently been opened connecting
the II udson river AID Long Island sound,
the Canadians lave just begun to use their
new canal at the Sault Ste. Marie there is
considerable talk aAd some possibility that
the long delayed Nicaragua canal viii be
put through the agitation for waterways
between the lakes and the Atlantic is be
coming stronger every day and there arr
many other more or less ambitious canal
schemes in the air
One of the most important of these IS
for the cutting of channel large enough
to admit good sized lake vessels between
the Ohio river and Lake Erie. Pittsburg
seems to have made up its mind that with
out the construction of such canal it
must lose much of its present commercial
| Importance. AS far back rs 1881 IA pre-
! liminary survey by way Of the Beaver and
! the ShenangC rivers was made at a cost Of
| $40, 600, appropriated by the legislature of
! Pennsylvania. Al the present time ii gov
eminent survey is in progress, $50, 600
having been appropriated to defray the ex
pense by the last river and harbor bill,
and, in addition, Pittsburg's chamber of
commerce has three corps, each number
ing IL men, working ON the route
If this canal is built, it will be 1O5 miles
long, l52 feet wide, with "A depth of 1872
feet in the canal prism. There will be
80 locks 10 feet wide and 3l5 feet long
each, with a maximum lift Of 20 feet. The
total estimated cost will be from $50 0OO,
900 to S27, 900, 600. Pittsburg has already
put $l75, 600 into the scheme, and the sol
! id business mon of that city are enthusi-
astic in their belief that it will ultimately
go through. Their engineers report that
| 1t will be necessary to cut an absolutely
new channel for only about 80 miles; that
nature seems actually to have provided Il
string of connecting valleys for the express
! purpose of waterway route and that
there are many sources from which the ca
nal when built, can be fed with water,
If the plan is realized, great revolution
will be wrought in the coal and iron traf-
hc, since then it will be possible for the
mine operators of Pennsylvania and south
eastern Ohio TO furnish their wares to GUS
toners anywhere upon the shores Of the
great lakes and through Lake Erie and
the Erie canal to New York and the east
at much cheaper rates than can now be
done The influence of the Pittsburg canal
upon the railroad coal and iron traffic can
hardly be estimated, but of necessity it
cannot be otherwise than very damaging.