Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-12-28
FOR FULTON
CENTENNIAL

citation, a body comprising about a
hundred of the most influential men
in the metropolis, has undertaken to
raise $600,0 600 for the purpose OF
erecting a suitable memorial to the
father of steam navigation and inland
waterways. Curiously enough, the
prime mover in this undertaking is
a descendant of the famous Commo-
dore Vanderbilt, who, by means o.
his early adoption of the steamboat
in connection with is ferry from New
York to New Brunswick, on the Jer-
sey shore, laid the foundation of his
colossal fortune.
Fulton lies buried in an almost
unknown grave in Trinity church
yard, and his founr grandchildren
now living have given the associa-
ton permission to remove the body to
whatever point may be decided upon
as the site of the proposed monu-
ment. The association is endeavor-
ing to have a combined tomb and
statue completed next year in time
for the hundredth anniversary OF
the launching of Fulton's first steam
boat. 1t has also been suggested
that it would be appropriate to place
a statue of Fulton at one end of the
Hudson Memorial Bridge, over the
Harlem, which will cost 100000
and which will be opened in 1909 dur
ing the ter-centennial of the discoy-
cry of the Hudson river.
Although Fulton is best known as
the inventor of the first successful
steamboat, it was as an advocate OF
inland navigation that he first at
tracted public notice. While in Eng
land, whittier he went in 1886, at
the age af 81, the Duke of Bridge
water, who had constructed a prof
liable waterway connecting the Trent
and Mersey, and as the result of tbs
acquaintance Fulton, in 1876, pub
lished a treatise on the improvement
of canal investigation in which he
forecast the great development of
American waterways. Fulton sent
a copy of this treatise to President
Washington, who acknowledged its
receipt in a f1attering note.
The year 1907 was the greatest
in all Fulton's career. The launch
ing of the Clermont and her sue.
cessful passage from New York up
the Hudson to Albany and back was
sufficient to make his name immor-
IA. but in addition to this achieve
ment he at this time proposed the
building of the big Erie canal. The
proposition was contained in a letter
W. ich Fulton wrote to Albert Gal
latin. then secretary of h treasury,
who had applied to the inventor for
information intended as a supplement
to a report to congress on the matter
of public roads and canals. Three
years later the New York legislature
APPOINTED a commission to look into
Fulton's proposal and report upon
it's feasibility. The following year,
Fulton himself was made a mem
Der of the commission, and in the
course of his work he addressed Il
letter to the president of the body,
Gouverneur Morris, in which he said:
Had it pleased the Author of the
Universe to have drawn Hudson S
river from Lake Erie, a calm and
gentle stream of ten feet of water,
the rejecting mind would contem-
plate with gratitude the Divine mu-
%nificence; and he who feels that 100
miles of navigation on Hudson's river
would be a blessing to this state,
would compare the successful range
- 1to-I11 6a.nAfo and drouy oyaCf
estimates of national wealth from
100 miles of easy communication to
the western extremity of Lake SUI
perior. For If Hudson's river, col
iecting freight from it's surrounding
country, and an interior not more
distant than Cayuga or Ontario, now
bears on it's waters nearly 100000
tons per annum, where shall the
mind be arrested; on what number
of tons shall it dwell, when coming
from the population of the nexi
twenty years, and the countries
which surround Lake Superior, Mich
igan, Huron and the canal of 800
miles through a fertile territory?
Compared with the trade now on
Isnudson's hiver. it can not be less
tlan a million tons each year.
1t is interesting to compare this
estimate with the statistics of the
present time, when the volume of
commerce annually passing through
the Erie cam, amounts to nearly e..
600 900 tons. Yet this is only u small
fraction of the torrent of trade
ing through the chain of Great Lakes.
whose commercial development Full
ton was one of the earliest to fore
see. During the present year, up to
November /, the domestic shipments
on the Great Wakes aggregated 64,-
ss0.763 tons, an increase of 7,OOO.-
900 over the corresponding move.
ment last year, and Of 100000
over that of the first ten months of
1904. Of this mighty volume OF
m a large percentage-51,-
G2G.O29 net tons-passed through
re Detroit river, and, further. to
emphasize the fulfilling of Fulton's
prediction regarding the development
OF waterway trade, no less thai 49,