The Florida Ship Canal.—In 1869 the Board of Trade of Mobile memorialised the Congress of the United States for an appropriation for a survey for a ship canal, to open ship communication between the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, through the Florida peninsula. The proposed canal, it was pointed out, might commence at Tamper Bay, on the Gulf side of Florida. At this point there is a naturally well-protected harbour, with ample depth of water for ships drawing 20 feet, and the channel could be permanently deepened. East of Tamper Bay, in a distance of 125 miles across the peninsula of Florida at its narrowest part, with one exception, the maps show on the Atlantic coast depths of 27 feet to 28 feet of water quite close to the shore, and thence to the broad expanse of the Atlantic a free and unobstructed way for vessels. It is believed by competent authorities that a very efficient ship canal, with adequate depth of water, could be made here without great cost. The land is level across the proposed route, with only a few feet elevation above tide-water. The importance of such a canal would no doubt be considerable. The passage around the southern point of Florida is narrow, is subject to tornadoes, and is beset with concealed reefs, upon which a rapid current tends to throw ships, besides which the long passage round the peninsula would be obviated.
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal.—Notwithstanding the comparative disuse of a great part of the existing American canal system, a proposal has been put forward quite recently to construct a waterway to connect Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. This canal, if it were carried out, would be about 17 miles in length, and it is estimated to cost 8,500,000 dols. (1,700,000l.). It is proposed to adopt the following dimensions:—width, 100 feet; depth at low-water, 26 feet; side slopes, 1½ to 1 foot.
Transportation in the United States.
The transportation problem continues to exercise the minds of the people of the United States in a way that the people of Great Britain can but imperfectly appreciate. The cost of conveying traffic from Chicago to New York has already been brought down to an average of 6·6 cents per bushel for water, and 10 to 12 cents for rail transport. In other words, the cost of transporting a ton of goods between the two greatest commercial cities of the New World has been brought down to ·09d. by water, and 0·11d. by land. So notable an achievement ought, one would naturally suppose, to satisfy the insatiable appetite of our American friends for cheap transportation, but so far from this being the case, they are now considering how far it is possible to reduce the 6·6 cent water-rate to five or even four cents, and the possibility is hinted at of reducing the rates to three cents per bushel,[120] which would be a fraction over 0·04d. per ton per mile. This would mean, if actually accomplished, that a ton of goods might be carried between London and Edinburgh—a distance of over 400 miles—for 16d., or, to put the matter in a way that may be readily appreciated, the cost of the transport of the 2,463,000 tons of coal conveyed by sea from Newcastle to London in 1888 would be reduced to 1s. per ton, and the inhabitants of London might thus reckon on having their coal supplies almost as cheaply as if they lived within thirty miles of the mines.
In order, however, to bring about the contemplated further reduction of the cost of transport between Chicago and New York, it is proposed to construct a New Erie Canal. The cost would be stupendous. It has been calculated at about 150 millions of dollars, but it would probably involve a still larger expenditure, inasmuch as ship canals seldom come within their estimates. A remarkable calculation has been made, by way of justifying this large outlay. It is reckoned that if one cent alone can be saved on the cost of transporting a bushel of wheat over this route, it would mean a total saving of about nineteen million of dollars on the products of the forest, the field, and the mine, which are tributary to the great American lakes.
The American Society of Civil Engineers were recently called upon to consider a project for “the widening, deepening, and necessary rectification of the worst curvatures of the present Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Newark, about 130 miles; the construction of a new canal from Newark to Utica, about 115 miles; the canalisation of the Mohawk River from Utica to Troy, about 110 miles; and the improvement of the Hudson river from Troy to Four Mile Point, in Coxsackie, a distance of about thirty miles.”
The adoption of this programme would make the Erie Canal the most important artificial waterway in the world, the tonnage that would make use of it, when thus improved, being calculated at 20 to 25 millions a year. The cost of the undertaking (estimated at 25,000,000l. to 30,000,000l.), although a large sum, is not deemed to be too much for a great artificial river more than 300 miles long, 18 feet deep, 100 feet wide at the bottom, and having locks 450 feet long and 60 feet wide. These dimensions would enable the canal to float the largest vessels that navigate the great lakes from Lake Erie to the deep waters of the Hudson.
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER XV
[110] In 1880, the Erie canal carried 4,608,651 tons of traffic and earned 1,120,691 dols. of income.
[111] The main line of this canal was sold in 1857 to the Pennsylvania Railway Company for 7½ million dollars, and the branches were sold to various private companies for five million dollars more.