The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-01-16
Great Canals Of the World.


The bureau of statistics of the
Treasury Department discusses in its
monthly summary the great canals of
the world. They are nine in num-
Der, namely:
First-The Suez canal begun in 1859 and
completed In 1868.
Second-The cronstadt and st. Peters,
burg canal, begun in 1877 and completed
in 1890
Third-The Corinth canal, begun in 1884
and completed in 1898.
Fifth-The Kaiser Wilhelm canal con-
Meeting the Baltic and North seas, COM
pleted in 1895.
Sixth-The Eibe and Trave canal con-
nectinE the North sea and Baltic, opened
In 1900
Seventh-The Wellen canal, connect
ing. Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.
Eighth and Ninth--The two canals, Unit
ed States and Canadian, respectively, con-
Meeting Lake Superior with Lake Huron.
The history of each of these great
works Is presented, and in view of
the canal work that Uncle Sam is
about to engage in the figures in the
article are interesting, and we will
here briefly reproduce them.
The Suez canal, now nearly fifty
years old, cost just about 100000
900. 1t is 81 feet deep, and its bottom
width is 10S feet. In the year 1900
vessels passed through 1t to the num-
Der of 3441, paying for the privilege
So per net registered ton. This canal
has been a great financial success,
and a good share of its stock is held
by the British Government.
The next most expensive canal Is
that which makes Manchester an
ocean port, although it stood forty
miles inland from Liverpool on an
insignificant creek. The ship canal
opened In 1894 is rs feet deep, with
a bottom width of 120 feet. 1t cost
5000, 900, and in 1900 it bore COM
merce amounting to 1,4s2,S2o tons.
The third canal in cost is the Kaiser
Wilhelm, which connects the Baltic
and the North seas through German
territory 1t, together with the Trave-
Elbe Canal, cost $46,OO0,000. The
depth of the Kaiser Wilhelm is 29h
with bottom width of 100 feet. Yes
sells to the number of 29,095 passed
through it in 1900.
The Cronstadt canal, which permits
large vessels to sail to st. Petersburg,
cost s1O,O00,o00; the Corinth canal,
which connects the Gulf of Corinth
with the Gulf of Aegina, cost $4,000
900. and the North Holland, which
gives Amsterdam a water line to the
sea, cost $7.oOO,OOo.
The other three great canals are
American. lucoe dlc 1hO WStiNntS
and the two canals at Sault Ste. Marie.
The Welland canal, which TANKS Nj
agara Falls was opened in 1888, and 1t
has been enlarged at least twice since.
1t cost about s3O,OOO,000. The two
canals at st. Mary's Falls, one on
each side of the river, cost about So
600 900 each. The number of boats
passing through the Welland canal
fell from GAPS in 1873 to 1902 in 1899;
but the number passing through the
st. Mary canals is annually increas-
ing. Last year the number rose to
2O,041, OF which 1887 passed through
the United States canal, and 4204
through the Canadian. The business
of the st. Mary Falls canals by far
surpasses in volume that of any other
canal of the world, the freight tonnage
of the two canals combined being last
year 24,62s,976 registered tons, while
the net tonnage of the Suez canal in
1900 vsls 9,S7S,152 tons, and that of
the Kaiser Wilhelm canal 4,2S2,094
tons.