2. A loaded boat could pass from Buffalo to Rome by the Erie route, in less than seven days, and with entire safety. By the Ontario route, it will be perfectly uncertain, and not a little hazardous. After leaving Niagara river, it would have to pass an inland sea to the extent of 127 miles, as boisterous and as dangerous as the Atlantic. And besides a navigation of at least twenty miles over another lake, it would have to ascend two difficult streams for 55 miles; no calculation could then be made, either on the certainty or safety of this complicated and inconvenient navigation.
3. When a lake vessel would arrive at Buffalo, she would have to unload her cargo, and when this cargo arrived at Albany by the Erie canal, it would be shifted on board of a river-sloop, in order to be transported to New-York. From the time of the first loading on the great lakes, to the last unloading at the storehouses in New-York, there would be three loadings and three unloadings on this route. But when a lake vessel arrived with a view of passing the canal of Niagara, she would be obliged to shift her lading for that purpose, for it would be almost impracticable to use lake vessels on the Niagara river, on account of the difficulty of the ascending navigation. At Lewistown, or some other place of the Niagara, another change of the cargo on board of a lake vessel for Ontario would be necessary: at Oswego another, and at Albany another; so that on this route there would be five loadings and five unloadings before the commodities were stored in New York. This difference is an object of great consequence, and presents the most powerful objections against the Ontario route; for to the delay we must add the accumulated expense of these changes of the cargo, the storage, the waste and damage, especially by theft (where the chances of depredation are increased by the merchandise passing through a multitude of hands) and the additional lake vessels, boats and men that will be required, thereby increasing in this respect alone, the cost two thirds above that attending the other course. And in general it may be observed, that the difference between a single and double freight forms an immense saving. Goods are brought from Europe for twenty cents per cubic foot; whereas the price from Philadelphia to Baltimore, is equal to ten cents. This shews how far articles once embarked, are conveyed with a very small addition of freight, and if such is the difference between a single and a double freight, how much greater must it be in the case under consideration! If the fall from lake Erie to lake Ontario be 450 feet, as stated in Mr secretary Gallatin’s report on canals, it will require at least 45 locks for a navigation around the cataract. Whether it would be practicable to accommodate all the vessels which the population and opulence of future times will create in those waters, with a passage through so many locks accumulated within a short distance, is a question well worthy of serious consideration. At all events, the demurrage must be frequent, vexatious, and expensive.
When we consider the immense expense which would attend the canal proposed on the Niagara river; a canal requiring so many locks, and passing through such difficult ground; when we view the Oswego river from its outlet at Oswego to its origin in Oneida lake, encumbered with dangerous rapids and falls, and flowing through a country almost impervious to canal operations; and when we contemplate the numerous embarrassments which are combined with the improvement of Wood Creek, we are prepared to believe that the expense of this route will not greatly fall short of the other.
It is, however, alleged that it is not practicable to make this canal; and that if practicable, the expense will be enormous, and will far transcend the faculties of the state.
Lake Erie is elevated 541 feet above the tide waters at Troy. The only higher ground between it and the Hudson is but a few miles from the lake: and this difficulty can be easily surmounted by deep cutting; of course no tunnel will be required. The rivers which cross the line of the canal, can be easily passed by aqueducts; on every summit level, plenty of water can be obtained; whenever there is a great rise or descent, locks can be erected, and the whole line will not require more than sixty-two; perhaps there is not an equal extent of country in the world, which presents fewer obstacles to the establishment of a canal. The liberality of Nature has created the great ducts and arteries, and the ingenuities of art can easily provide the connecting veins. The general physiognomy of the country is champaign, and exhibits abundance of water: a gentle rising from the Hudson to the lake; a soil well adapted for such operations: no impassable hills, and no insurmountable waters. As to distance, it is not to be considered in relation to practicability. If a canal can be made for fifty miles, it can be made for three hundred, provided there is no essential variance in the face of the country; the only difference will be that in the latter case, it will take more time, and consume more money.
But this opinion does not rest for its support upon mere speculation. Canals have been successfully cut through more embarrassing ground, in various parts of the United States; and even in part of the intended route from Schenectady to Rome, locks have been erected at the Little Falls, and at other places; and short canals have been made, and all these operations have taken place in the most difficult parts of the whole course of the contemplated Erie navigation. Mr. William Weston, one of the most celebrated civil engineers in Europe, who has superintended canals in this state and Pennsylvania, and who is perfectly well acquainted with the country has thus expressed his opinion on the subject: “Should your noble but stupendous plan of uniting Lake Erie with the Hudson, be carried into effect, you have to fear no rivalry. The commerce of the immense extent of country, bordering on the upper lakes, is yours for ever, and to such an incalculable amount as would baffle all conjecture to conceive. Its execution would confer immortal honor on the projectors and supporters, and would in its eventual consequences, render New-York the greatest commercial emporium in the world, with perhaps the exception, at some distant day of New-Orleans, or some other depot at the mouth of the majestic Mississippi. From your perspicuous topographical description and neat plan and profile of the route of the contemplated canal, I entertain little doubt of the practicability of the measure.”
With regard to the expense of this work, different estimates will be formed. The commissioners appointed for that purpose were of opinion that it would not cost more than five millions of dollars. On this subject we must be guided by the light which experience affords in analogous cases. The canal of Languedoc, or canal of the two seas in France, connects the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and is 180 miles in length: it has 114 locks and sluices, and a tunnel 720 feet long. The breadth of the canal is 144 feet, and its depth six feet: it was begun in 1666, and finished in 1681, and cost £540,000 sterling, or £3,000 sterling a mile.
The Holstein canal, begun in 1777, and finished in 1785, extends about fifty miles: is 100 feet wide at the top, and 54 at the bottom, and not less than ten feet deep in any part. Ships drawing nine feet four inches of water, pass through it from the German ocean, in the vicinity of Tonningen, into the Baltic. From two to three thousand ships have passed in one year. The expense of the whole work was a little more than a million and a half of dollars, which would be at the rate of 30,000 dollars a mile for this ship navigation.
The extreme length of the canal from the Forth to the Clyde, in Scotland, is 35 miles. It rises and falls 160 feet by means of 39 locks. Vessels pass drawing eight feet water, having 19 feet beam, and 73 feet length. The cost is calculated at £200,000 sterling, which is at the rate of about 23,000 dollars a mile. But this was a canal for ships drawing eight feet of water, with an extraordinary rise for its length, and having more than one lock for every mile.
The following will give an idea of the money expended on such works in England:—