By a law passed March 29, 1823, the commissioners were authorized to borrow $1,300,000 and also $120,000 to pay interest on the canal bonds. The tolls collected the year before amounted to $60,446.89; in this year they ran up to $125,991.76; $77,593.26 was collected between the Seneca and Utica, and $27,444.09 between Little Falls and Albany. On April 12, 1824, the commissioners were authorized to borrow one million dollars to complete the canals. In this year ten thousand boats passed the junction of the Erie and Champlain canals; 157,446 tons of freight were handled and $294,546.62 was received from tolls. The following table will show the exact number of miles that was completed in the years from 1820 to 1824 and the tolls received from the canal alone:

YearMiles
completed		Tolls
182094 $ 5,437.34
182194 23,000.00
1822116 57,160.39
1823160 105,037.35
1824 280 294,546.62

The expense of building in these years was:

Year Expense
1817-21$2,004,523.53
18221,184,468.73
18231,941,962.37
18241,785,447.84
——————
Total $6,916,402.47

The debt incurred, including the amount required for completion and payment of all claims at the close of the year 1824, was $7,700,000.

This estimate proved approximately correct, the total cost being $19,255.49 per mile, a trifle over one-half of the cost per mile of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

The success of the Erie Canal, shown by the tolls received from 1825 to 1834 ($8,539,377.70), was more than its promoters had expected; indeed it was so great that the enlargement of the canal was rendered imperative within a decade. This was first urged by the citizens of one of the jewel-cities made by the great waterway—Utica. The memorial now reported to the legislature by E. F. Johnson called for a steamboat canal from Utica to Oswego (Lake Ontario) which was to be extended to Albany; the proposed depth was eight feet, width fifty-eight feet on the bottom and ninety feet on the surface, the locks one hundred and thirty feet long by thirty feet wide. “On the Erie Canal,” the memorial urged, “the cost of animal power is 12 per cent greater than steam power on the Hudson for flour, and 42 per cent greater for merchandize; agricultural products, including ashes, 21 per cent greater on the canal than on the Hudson river. The Erie canal is small, and the traction of boats that navigate it is from 30 to 45, and most usually 40 per cent greater than would occur on a canal of the most favorable size for the boat used.... That a canal boat, 104 feet long, 16 feet wide, drawing 7 feet water, would carry 200 tons, and require a lock 115 feet long by 17 feet wide; the sectional area of boat below load water line 108 feet. The gross load of a schooner, with its own weight, would be 350 tons. Canal boats, constructed with reference to freight merely, will generally weigh in the ratio of their cargo as 4 to 9.”[57] Engineer N. S. Roberts in a report dated January 17, 1835, said: “The present canal admits boats 13½ feet wide, 3 feet draught, 80 feet long, displaces 80 tons water, weight of boat 30 to 35 tons, cargo 45 tons. Size of canal, 28 [26?] feet bottom, 40 feet surface, 4 feet depth cross sec[tion] = 136 [132?] sq. feet. Enlarged canal to reduce cost of transportation, 43¾ per cent must be 33 feet bottom, 48 feet top, and 5 feet deep, cross sec[tion]: 202.5; width and size of locks: 15×110 between gates, admitting a boat 102 feet long, 13½ feet wide, and 4 feet draught.”[58]

After examination, the canal board determined to make the canal seventy feet wide on the surface, seven feet deep; the locks were to measure 110 feet between quoins and be eighteen feet deep. It was estimated that a canal of these proportions would save fifty per cent of transportation charges exclusive of tolls.[59] The enlargement construction law was passed May 11, 1835; the act called for the construction of “double locks thereon as soon as they should deem it for the public interest; the dimensions of the canals and locks to be fixed by the Canal Board.”[60]

The new canal, seventy feet wide by seven feet deep, was divided into four sections. The first was from Albany to the eastern end of the Rome summit; the estimated cost of this section for enlargement was $2,864,335.96. The second section ran from east end of Rome summit to Jordan; estimated cost, $1,194,804.74. The third lay between Jordan and Rochester; estimated cost $2,739,139.51. The portion from Rochester to Buffalo comprised the fourth section, its estimated cost being $4,518,575.85. The total estimated cost, after adding ten per cent for contingencies, was $12,448,856.06.[61] Twenty-one double and three single locks were planned between Albany and Schenectady; one double and three single at Little Falls; two double and one single at Syracuse; one single lock at Lyons; two single at Lockville; one double and one single at Macedon. On January 1, 1838, these were all under contract, at a contract price of $3,035,087.[62] One year later contracts to the amount of ten and one-half millions for the whole work of enlargement had been signed. The commissioners were authorized by an act passed April 18, 1839, to borrow four millions.[63] The work went on rapidly. By April 1, 1842, the Rochester aqueduct was completed, at a cost of half a million; the north tier of the locks at Lockport was in use in April of the next year. The total cost of the works here was $610,978. In 1845 twenty-nine out of forty-nine double set of locks between Albany and Syracuse were completed and ninety-eight miles of the new enlarged canal was open for use; the cost for this portion was $3,685,438. The total cost of enlargement contracted for prior to April 1, 1842, was $9,361,442. By 1850 the cost had run up to fifteen millions, which was distributed by years as follows:

YearExpense
1835$31,810.70
183653,218.83
1837636,312.17
18381,163,196.12
18392,237,785.74
18403,234,749.66
18412,518,309.72
18421,521,152.51
1843530,801.54
1844$418,692.06
1845155,130.43
184670,012.35
184762,331.30
1848634,573.08
18491,000,323.97
18501,365,695.00
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Total $15,634,095.18[64]