The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-07-14
WASHINGTON THE ExpLoRER.
The First Prophet Of the Central New York
Route to the West.
BY ARCHER BUTLER HUBERT,
Author of Historic Highways of America. y
'Washington and the West,' etc.

Author or hlStOflC highways OI AmcIiCos
'Washington and the West," etc.
1t is an interesting and remarkable
fact that George Washington should
have foreseen and prophesied the flu
ture of the great. natural chanuel OF
commerce through central New York;
in a real sense he was the father of
the idea which in turn gave America
her first successful river Improvement
company, her first canal and, lastly,
a great railway.
Said Professor Herbert B. Adams,
whose reputation was as great as his
memory is precious to those who
knew and loved him, 'It is sur
prising fact that George Washington
was !; I; = the first to predict
the commercial success of that route
through the Mohawk Valley which
was afterward taken by the Erie
Canal and the New York Central
Railroad.
After the French and Indian War,
in 1850, Washington took his bride,
Martha Custis, to his home at Mount
Vernon, and went diligently to work
caring for his own estate and that
which came to him by the marriage.
But, in addition to managing the plan
tatiors that already belonged to him,
he soon began investing money in
lands in the West. BY the time OF
the opening of the Revolution Wash
ington had become the owner of some
80, 900 acres west of the Alleghanies
(including the bounty lands that fell
to him because of his service in the
old French War). In fact he was
probably the largest private land
holder in America at the beginning
of the Revolutions his plantations
were scattered through what IS now
Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York,
Virginia and Florida.
It was because of these great in
vestments that Washington became
interested in commercial routes, espe-
cially those running westward from
the Atlantic seaboard. Being strong
Virginian he favored the Potomac
River route, for he believed that this
river could be connected with the
Ohio River. But he was not mar
row man he desired passiouately,
one can almost say, the Improvement
of his whole country, and nothing
shows this SO plainly as his repeated
letters to prominent men in every
State calling their attention to the
commercial routes which, when i'm
proved, would bind the land together
by the strongest human tie-self in
tereSt.
In Washington's day the rivers
were almost the only commercial ave-
nues-roads were only sloughs-im-
passable most of the time. Before
the Revolution Washington had Sue
ceeded in getting Virginia and Mary
land to plan the improvement OF the
Potomac but for the Revolutionary
War they would have entered upon
this work in ITS or 1776. AS it was
the war put an end to all these minor
plans and for seven years the fight for
freedom engrossed the attention OF
the world.
No sooner was the end of the war
in sight, however, than Washington S
mind reverted with prophetic insis'
tence to this old problem. He was
then, in 1882, located at Newburgh,
New York. During the long lul
which preceded the signing of the
preliminary Treaty of Paris he wa:
compelled foreman idly at headquar'
tiers, and it is clear that then he begar
a reconsideration of a greater scheme
of internal improvement than evel
before if this was needed when the
colonies were dependent, there wa:
much greater need for it after inde
pendence had been achieved. Ac
cordingly, he decided to make tour
to the northward, including Lake
George, Lake Champlain and the
Mohawk River. Noninally his mis-
sion was to visit the northern posts
and the New York frontier; in reality
it seems clear that he wished to view
the far-famed Mohaw River which
was to become the rival of his beloved
Potomac as a mighty thoroughfare
Our canals and railways in large par'
follow the waterways, and it can b.
said with perfect truth that Washing
ton was then studying the very prob
lem of later rivalry between the two
great canals that were built beside
both the Potomac and Mohawk, or o
the railways that now follow them.
Governor Clinton, of New York
was Washington's companion on thi
trip which began, probably on Jul,
nth the party went by boat iron
Newburgh to Albany. Saratoga
with all its historic associations, wa
next visited, and Eight boats" wer
in readiness on Lake George to con
vey the travellers to Ticonderoga an
Crown Point these posts were in
spected and the battle fields abou
them visited. Returning soutnwar
the party proceeded by horse up th
historic Mohawk ito have a view,
Washington wrote, "of that tract {
country which is so much celebrate
for the fertility of its soil and tn