The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-07-08

Proposed Plans For Enlarging
Well Known Waterway.
IT pwARFs ALL OTHERa IN LEEaTR

1A tNs NorAu out OF comparison.
States Tonnage New Canal WIN
Carry Annually win Greatly Ex-
coed That OF the suez.
The canal system Of the state Of New
York now consists Of one trunk and
two branch canals. says NJ. NJ. Wilmer
In the American Review OF Reviews
for July. The main trunk canal is the
world famed Erie. extending from
Buffalo 70 Troy whence boats 90 by
the Hudson river to New York. The
oswego canal extends from 0nondaga
lake, near Syracuse, to Oswego, On
Lake Ontario; the Champlain, from the
Hudson river near Troy up the banks
OF the river to Fort Edward and thence
to Whitehall, on Lake Champlain.
The Erie canal is now 352 miles long
has depth Of from seven to nine
feet and width on the bottom Of
iifty-two and bali feet The capacity
Of its boats Is 240 tons The variations
In depth are due to the fact that the
Improvements begun in 1895 We're left
uncompleted. The Oswego canal is
thirty eight miles long, with the same
varying depth as the Erie, and the
Champlain canal is sixty-six miles
long. with seven feet as its greatest
and five as fits governing depth,
What is now proposed Is to enlarge
all three ofethese canals to uniform
depth OF twelve feet, with a minimum
bottom width Of seyenty-dve feet. MAX
ing them capable Of carrying boats 1850
feet long, % feet beam and with a
draft Of 10 feet. The cargo capacity
Of these boats viii be 1000 tons or
more than four times that of the pres
ent boats This amounts practically to
building a new canal system and for
considerable portions Of the routes fol
lowed 1t viii be a new canal, involving
tile total departure from and abandon
ment Of the present channels.
The S10i 100000 appropriation will
now next fab be submitted to the peo-
PIE 81 the state to be approved Or re-
jected finally. for under the eonstltu-
ton a referendum is required on all
appropriations for public improvement
involving an expenditure Of more than
| 100000
The canal opened to commerce by
Governor De Witt Clinton iii 1926 was
and is the longest in the world outside
Of China. At The time Governor Clin
| ton trayersed Ii, 1t was 40 feet wide
on the surface and IS feet wide on the
bottom. and its depth was feet. The
boats which it was built to accommo-
date were 1850 feet long, 14.46 feet
wide and dreA 80 feet Of water Their
capacity was seventy-hye tons. 4 man
could have waded across 1T at any point
without having to stop a conversation
for fear OF getting his mouth full Of
water.
From d seventy-tive ton boat to 4
1000 ton boat in about eighty years
seems marvellous when considered In
tile abstract but when considered in
connection with the general CONNER
cial growth Of this continent the con-
/ elusion must be that eighty years have
been much too long a time to wait for
this enlargement, II is now aeknowl-
edged by nearly all who admit any
need for canals that the day for the
| i coo ton boat has come Both the Re
publican aud Democratic parties in
| New York, at their state conventions
last September pledged themselves
substantially to enlarge the canals to
| this size
in 1885 the legislature authorized an
enlargement Of the canals similar to
the one now planned. The work drag
ged along for many years and was not
finally completed until 1862 1t nearly
doubled the size Of the four foot ditch
which had been built by Governor Clin-
ton, making its general dimensions and
capacity Of boats substantially what
they are now
Commerce Immediately showed the
effects of this Improvement The first
year after the enlarged canal was COM
nleted the amount Of produce carried
increased by more than 100000 tons.
During the ten years following, the ca
nails carried each year nearly double
what they had averaged In the later
years Of the seventy ton boat
The canal which has been planned
win be comparable with no other in
the world There are ship canals Of
more imposing dimensions SO far as
depth and width are concerned, but
even the great ship canals are dwarfed
when the length Of the New York wa
terway is taken into consideration. The
estimated cost Of this new Erie canal,
with its branches, is about the same AZ
that Of the Suez canal 1t may safely
be predicted that the tonnage which it
will carry annually will much exceed
that Of the Suez.
The trade already brought TO the bor-
ders Of New York and clamoring for a
cheaper outlet to the seaboard Is SO
enormous that figures fail to give an
adequate conception Of 1t. The traffic
which passed through the canals at
Sault Ste Marie in 1901 amounted to
Is, 403.065 tons, Of which 23,0e7 .742 tons
came east The Suez canal III 1901
passed 10,s28.S4 tons And the trade
that comes down from Lake Superior is