The Erie Canal.
This great artificial waterway, lying wholly in the State of New York, and under State management, connects Buffalo with the Hudson River at Albany. Although of comparatively limited capacity, it is to-day the most formidable rival the St. Lawrence route has to compete with in the transportation of freight from the west to the seaboard. The Erie was first opened for traffic in the same year as the first Lachine Canal (1825). It was originally 363 miles long, with eighty-three locks, each 90 feet by 15 feet, and 4 feet depth of water.
The first enlargement of this canal was commenced in 1836 and completed in 1862, at a cost of $44,465,414, making the entire cost up to the last-named date over $50,000,000. It is now 351¾ miles in length, 70 feet wide on the surface and 56 feet wide at the bottom having 72 locks, each 110 feet by 18 feet, and 7 feet deep. The limit of the canal for navigation, however, is only 6 feet of water, restricting its use to vessels of 240 tons capacity, say, 8,000 bushels of wheat.
Navigation has hitherto been carried on by horse traction—the boats running in pairs—and by small steam tugs towing three or four boats, after them. The tug often pushes one boat ahead and tows the others behind. In this latter way a load of 900 tons will be moved at an average pace of about 2½ miles per hour while in motion. Including lockages, the distance from Buffalo to New York may be covered in nine or ten days. The boats are about 98 feet long and 17 feet 5 inches wide. They make on the average about seven round trips in the season. The average price received for the transportation of wheat in this manner from Buffalo to New York is about 3½ cents per bushel, which allows a fair margin of profit to the boatman.
Experiments have been made for the application of electricity to the traction of the boats, with promise of further development. In the meantime considerable importance is attached to the installation of electric telephone communication from one end of the line to the other, whereby instant communication can be had with the section superintendents, the lock tenders and other officials. The system is devised solely for the use of the canal officials, and will be invaluable in sudden emergencies caused by accidents to the boats, leaks, breaks, or other disasters that may occur and interfere with the navigation of the canal.
For some time past western shippers have been testing the feasibility of establishing a through line of transportation from the Great Lakes to New York by way of the Erie Canal without the delay and expense of transhipment at Buffalo. In 1895 this idea was worked out by the construction of a fleet of steel canal boats, consisting of one steamer and five consorts, by the Cleveland Steel Canal Boat Company of Ohio. Several fleets of this kind have since been put in operation, and the projectors believe that they have demonstrated the practicability of thus carrying freight to the seaboard from any of the western lakes at a fair margin of profit and in successful competition with the railways. These steel barges have encountered severe storms on the lakes without any serious damage to the boats or their cargoes. The cost of the tug boat is about $15,000, and of each consort about $6,000. The time occupied by the steel fleet from Cleveland to New York has been from ten to twelve days.
The second enlargement of the Erie Canal, now in progress and nearing completion, will afford greatly increased facilities for transportation, by increasing the depth from 7 to 9 feet and doubling and lengthening all the locks. There will be no increase in the width of the locks nor in the length of the boats navigating the canal, but two boats (which form a horse-tow) will be locked through at once, and by the locks being doubled, side by side, no boats will have to wait for others coming in an opposite direction. The cargo will be increased by the greater depth of water in boats of the same size, more deeply loaded, and the traction will be so improved that boats will run easier and faster. The amount of freight carried on the Erie Canal—east and west—in the year 1896 was 2,742,438 tons.[55] The amount transported on the Welland Canal for that year was 1,279,987 tons.