The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-12
Spillway Of the Delta Dam.

lay for rebuilding the moribund state
cana. system.
Pursuan. To- the popular mandate the
work was undertaken and is now in
progress No one has predicted when
1t Val be finished.
Strictly speaking the New York
barge canal should be called "A water
way rather than canal. for more
than half the route lies through lakes
and canalizrd rivers. Also. it should
be explained that the term barge canal
really includes "A system Of four canals,
the principal one Of which CUnnec,s
Niagara River with the Hudson. An
other passing through the city OF Os-
wegO connects the junction Of oneida
and Seneca rivers with Lake Ontario.
The third connects the new canal with
Ciyu-i AMI Seneca lakes, while the
fourth connects the Hudson with Lake
Champialu, making grand total of
i5i mile, Of waterways.
The most important, Of course, is the
waterway that replaces the Odd Erie
Canal. Starting at the Hudson River
the new canal, which is seventy-tive
fee, wide at the bottom and Is To have
a depth Of twelve feet of water at
once bans climb that as rough
comparison may be said to equal the
height of "A sixteen story building To
get up 'o the Mohawk River by means
Of a flight Of five locks, one Of which
is the largest mitred gate lock in the
world for il has lift of no less than
forty feet. After meandering up hill
and down dale just as IA railroad or a
wagon road has TO do, the canal makes
final climb to a height of 5G' feet
above sea level at its western terminus.
In addition to eXcavatlnG 90 600, 900
cubic yards Of material twenty-five
fixed and fourteen movable dams, two
great storage reservoirs and hundreds
OF bridge must be constructed. Whole
Villages viii he wiped out of existence.
old water powers destroyed and new
ones created. As an engineering spec
,acle the building OF the barge canal
is riva,,,d only by the Government at
traction al Panama.
Indeed II you get right down to the
facts, The ha 90 canal Is a bigger under
taking than the Panama Canal More
earth and rock must be eXCavated for
the hlr-r canal than for the Panama,
more masonry must be used and more
dams hl.,t In compleXity of engineer
'ng involved the New York undertaking
hardly second to that of Panama, for
% while '.r canallzat!on OF the Mohawk
Very different thing from the con-
FoI Of OPP, Chagrcs, they are both engi-
heern- nrobems of the first magnitude.
II cond Ions were the same the building
'ot the .tnama Canal would be easier
ana oNHror than the building Of the
pirg" ,ttl Because the barge canal
is ~ '.. cooperate zone, where ma
'rHal ..I labor are comparatively
aoundI' ana cheap, it will cost but a
W'fd ' what tn" lesser undertaking
On 'hD minus will cost.
van. r"asOns led the people Of New
loIk 'H udrrtake this vast enterprise.
FIRST 90 there was what may be
"fm'd .Hr continental consideration
"as Erie Canal that made New
'"N Empire state, and the people
AVE .r forgotten it. Either the
.'"'I' 4 10 be brought up to date or
.''y W bee Abandoned The Constltu-
'n .r the latter alternative.
An"' incentive to rebuilding was
we .."'uus activity of those ca
,,a'Ah ~ an outlay Of more than
''ooo 1 they built "A series Of canals
a'''h' .'Stra Falls and the rapids In
' Nrcucc so that a lake vesse
,,.'. .'S could go from Lake Erie
N' d right alongside the ocear
'''''' that inland seaport. Their
D." ""'. .tNhght and in the most oper
l' UT. lent manner those Canadian
'l.kcd off with as much OF
''.- grain trade AS suited thell
N.Y. not policeman in sight,