Evening star., 1943-06-27
cunoIs Open Inland
Cities to Commerce
BH Frederic J. Haskin.

Cidtc0 Wttil tilc seas, uut tiiEIe 1S UOudy
an inland romance of water craft that
Is writing a startling chapter in the
countrys history of commerce. This Is
taking place on the New York Barge
Canal, that blue channel linking this
country's great inland waters with the
picturesque little craft of old, whose
master pilots steer a course not only
along the fairway of the canal, but on
through two of the lakes to the port
cities Of the Midwest.
Modern craft on this waterway are
weighted to their load line with valu-
able cargoes on voyages extending 500
to TOO miles inland from the Atlantic.
Such a range the old Erie Canal, fore
runner and now part Of the New York
Barge Canal, never knew. For single
boat to cruise under its own power from
New York to Cleveland or Detroit, with
out transferring its load, never was pcs
sible to the slender little waterway which
wrote itself into history as the Erie.
Yet such voyages are now being made
and are remarkable not only for the dis.
tance covered, but for speed compar-
able to that of cargo ships on the open
sea. Motorships and other types of
modern carriers have developed new
race of canal boatmen. They have
caught a vision of wider prospect
spreading beyond the ripples of the
canal. The old canal ended at Albany,
but the modern Barge Canal dips into
the Atlantic, which Is the highway to all
world ports.
The procession of ships through the
New York Barge Canal has been length
ening for some years. 1t was opened on
its new and enlarged scale only in 1918,
and with few exceptional periods the
traffic has steadily increased. In these
days Of great necessity for civilian and
war supplies, this ribbon Of blue water Is
bearing record loads from the Great
Lakes to the sea. There are motorships,
with strange array Of red piping on
their decks. filled from tankers at the
seaboard. They spread white wakes
up the Hudson, and along the middle of
the State, on the lakes. Still other mod
ern craft pick up merchandise brought
from the seven seas, plying under their
own Diesel power to Detroit, slipping out
from the canal to meet the buffeting Of
lake winds-navigators of a new sort,
serviceable to the commerce now run
ming inland as well as out to sea.
In all ways, this Is remarkable cor
ridor OF commerce. 1t was the eighth
wonder Of the world when it was only
canal An fooS vyido anI A faa< 5ea~
cut through the wilderness. It made
possible for two great areas of the
United States what the Languedoc
Canal did in linking France to the
Mediterranean. Two virgin regions of
mighty potentials were unlocked, and
how they have prospered therefrom Is
an American legend. Beside the lakes
are great cities, sprung from the new
West, beautiful to contemplate and
magical in their power. On the lakes,
as De Witt Clinton foresaw, there has
arisen the greatest inland trade ever
witnessed" satatst-,r s~ ~.--
The geographic blessings of the United
States are justly famed. After 300 years
of development, its inland seaboard and
the Mississippi are still gradually ur1-
folding their possibilities. New York
State has always had peculiar fortune
as the key to the transportation arch
between East and West. 1t has the Hud-
son which feels the tide $50 miles into
the interior. Its many lateral rivers and
lakes, which the Barge Canal follows for
"a per cent of its course, have for more
than century made possible the join.
ing of the Great Lakes with the sea.
| The lakes themselves form the most
unusual inland waters in the world, save
only the 2000-mile reach of the historic
Mediterranean.
AS the urge gradually rises for more
economy in transportation and distribu-
tion, the waterways of the United States
are coming in for renewed attention.
There are separate functions for rails,
highways and water channels, with wa
never invented more inexpensive
method of moving weighty goods than
by the simple expedient of putting them
afioat.
1t may be there Is great secret In
water shipping which modern man, al.
ways achieving new wonders of produce
ton, has only begun to discover. The
conquest of the land by the iron horse
has become picture of splendid colors
already idealized as part of the coun-
try's national romance. The Nations
second conquest by the modern highway
has mounted to many billions. opening
numerous doors which railroads could
not wholly reach. Now the waterways
are emerging with sense of newness,
though they are the original highways
of discovery. The swapping OF flag
astern. the curling of foam from bows,
the smooth gliding of modern craft over
the blue channels, may, indeed, catch
the landsman off his guard and make
skipper of him. While links between
the cities have been forged with arduous
labor on the land, the map of the United
States shows today, as is the case in all
other countries, that great cities rise at
the waterside and railroads travel from
port to port.
Thus an old experience is being
blended with new vision for developing
more and more all the waterways of the
country. The outlook is far grander
than was ever the lot of the Old Erie.
Canalers of old were stepped in the ira
ditions of local commerce; they did not
think of the high seas beyond the narrow
channel. They belonged to a fraternity
gay, and often boisterous. Though they