[CHAPTER XV.]
THE WATERWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES.
“The Erie Canal, conceived by the genius, and achieved by the energy of De Witt Clinton, was, during the second quarter of this century, the most potent influence of American progress and civilisation. It developed the north-west, by giving an outlet to the commerce of the great lakes, and it made New York the Empire State, and New York City the imperial mart of the New World.”
—E. Sweet, in the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers for 1884.
A glance at a map of the United States will suffice to show that it has unique natural facilities for water transport. Its great lakes, which are inland seas of no inconsiderable dimensions, now connected together by the Erie and St. Mary’s Falls Canals, its magnificent rivers, such as the Mississippi and the Missouri, and the natural configuration of the country, create an ensemble for cheap transportation such as no other country can surpass. Besides these resources, however, the United States have now a railway system of over 160,000 miles.
The same favoured country has a large number of noble rivers, as well as a magnificent system of lakes. Of these, the most important is the Mississippi, which has a drainage area, estimated at 1,261,000 miles, and which, including its tributaries, has about 15,000 miles of navigable waters. A large portion is, however, closed at low water. From the source of its great tributary, the Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico, its outlet, the Mississippi has a length of 4194 miles. It may, however, be maintained that the Mississippi is less a single river than the outlet of a number of rivers, each of considerable importance. The Missouri river has a drainage area of 518,000 square miles, and 3500 miles of navigable waters, while the Ohio river, which has the next most important basin, drains an area of 214,000 square miles, and has 5000 miles of navigation. The smaller tributaries include the Arkansas river, the Med river, the Yazoo, and the St. Francis. The navigation of the Mississippi river has for a number of years past been under the control of a special Government Commission, by whom the mouth of the river has been dredged, training walls have been built, shifting sandbars have been regulated, and dams thrown across to concentrate the low-water flow in the main channel. On the Upper Mississippi, St. Anthony’s Falls oppose a barrier which has been overcome by a canal and locks.
In no country has there been a longer or more severe struggle between canals and railroads than in the United States of North America. In no country have both systems of transportation had a more eventful, instructive, and interesting history. In no country have railroads and canals been afforded equally free scope for development, and in no country have transportation rates been cut so fine and reduced so low. We may, therefore, by a consideration of the conditions of transport in the United States, and especially by seeking to ascertain how far the two great systems of internal communication have competed with each other, learn something that will throw a good deal of light on this problem.
Washington, himself, was one of the first to appreciate the importance of canals. In his early life the father of his country was a land surveyor, in which capacity he became very familiar with the requirements of the region of the Potomac. Both in this employment, and subsequently, when in 1754 he commanded a military expedition to the Monongahela river, Washington was constantly seeking to improve transportation facilities. He was especially eager to have a waterway opened between the Chesapeake and the Ohio. The War of Independence for a time diverted his ideas from this purpose, but when the war was over he obtained a charter for a waterway between the great lakes and the Hudson, and became the first President of the company formed for its construction. Washington, therefore, stands, in relation to the waterways of the United States, in the same position as the Duke of Bridgwater does in regard to the canal system of our own country, Peter the Great in reference to the canal system of Russia, and Louis XIV. in relation to the canal system of France. It must be admitted that in every case the system has had a worthy sponsor.
In 1792, an Act was passed by the Legislature of the State of New York, incorporating two companies—one, the “Western Inland Lock Navigation Company,” charged with the duty of constructing a canal, with locks, between the upper waters of the Mohawk and those flowing into Lake Ontario; the other, the “Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company,” charged with the construction of a similar work from the Hudson to Lake Champlain—between which there is a remarkable depression in the general surface of the country. This Act, drawn up and mainly carried through the exertions of General Schuyler, was the first and most important step taken towards the construction of a general system of public works for the country. The objective point aimed at by the Western Company was Lake Ontario, at Oswego, by way of Wood’s Creek, Oneida Lake, and the Oswego River. At that time, however, the great enterprise which was to follow—a canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie was not dreamt of. The purposes of the promoters were as distant from the ultimate result as those of Edward Pease and George Stephenson were when they planned the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
In 1796, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was formed in the United States for the purpose of opening up some of their projected inland waterways. This company constructed several small canals, but its operations were unsuccessful, and in 1808 it surrendered all its rights and property to the State for the sum of 140,000 dollars (28,000l.), which was only one quarter of their original cost.
During the existence of the company, freight designed for Lake Erie and the West took the route of Lake Ontario to the mouth of Niagara river. From that point to the head of the Falls was a portage of 28 miles. The charge for transporting a bushel of salt for this distance, according to the report made by Mr. Geddes in 1809, was 75 cents; and for a ton of general merchandise 10 dollars. All that can be said of the works of the Western Inland Navigation Company is, that they led the way to the construction of the Erie Canal. They never held the route of any considerable commerce. For a long time after their construction, the farmers of Central and Western New York, for want of other means, sent their produce to market down the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers in arks, which were broken up when the destined market was reached. In the meantime, the subject of a canal better adapted to the wants of commerce than that of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was by no means lost sight of. In 1807, in a series of articles published at Canandaigua in the Ontario Messenger, Jesse Hawley, their author, urged the construction of a canal from Lake Erie, 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, “to be laid on an inclined plane,” from Buffalo to Utica; thence down the channel of the Mohawk; thence across the portage to Albany—to be constructed at the expense of the National Government. This plan of an inclined plane, strange as it may seem, was, notwithstanding its gross absurdity, favourably received, and proved for a long time, from the great difficulties it involved, a serious obstacle to the early beginning of any work of the kind.