Engineer Department,
Washington, October 5, 1832.
Sir: On the arrival of Captain Delafield, of the engineers, on the Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania and Maryland, you will hand to him the enclosed communication, which assigns to him the superintendence of the repairs of that road which have heretofore been conducted under your supervision. You will, also, turn over to him all the funds, books, papers, and public property in your possession appertaining to this road, and close your account with it.
Very respectfully, &c.,
By order:WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut, and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Lieut. J. K. F. Mansfield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
Uniontown, December 13, 1832.
Sir: The surveys of a route for turning Wills mountain by the valley of Braddock’s run and Wills creek are progressing, being retarded only by the weather. I have examined the whole route, and can confirm the most satisfactory account you may have heard of it. The ground over which the road will pass is a uniform inclined plane, requiring very few culverts, two small bridges over Braddock’s run of about fifteen feet span each, with side hill in no other part than about 300 yards in the “Narrows” of Wills creek, where a most simple and expedient plan will be to use the level and smooth bottom of the creek for the road, by building a wall not to exceed ten feet in height, thus throwing the stream on the opposite bank, peculiarly well formed for this construction, being a low bottom of alluvion. The idea of cutting into the mountain would be expensive, and no better than throwing the creek from its present bed.
On the arrival of Mr. Pettit, I shall divide the road into four sections, giving him one. The present condition of the road is most unpromising. Nearly every contractor has formed his bed in the valley made by the removal of the old pavement, the consequence of which is, that, with the mild season and rainy weather, the bed is not drained, nor can it be, until the side roads are cut down to the bottom of the stone strata—a measure I directed as the only means of correcting the evil. Time, and the headstrong obstinacy of some of the contractors, have prevented much of the work being so attended to. All the contracts made by Lieut. Mansfield distinctly specify that the road for 30 feet in width shall be graded in such manner as to avoid this difficulty; yet in carrying the contracts into effect, the superintendents have, in no instance, instructed the contractors in the proper course. They have, in most instances too, permitted the stone to be broken on the road; the consequences of this are, much sand and dirt in the metal, and a bed graded without proper attention. This is the more remarkable, as in my report on the work executed two years since by one of the present superintendents, these errors were pointed out as serious evils, yet they are not corrected. It must be expected, therefore, that all that part of the road now under construction will be very indifferently made, and by no means such as the Macadam system calls for. By the time the superintendents acquire a knowledge of their business, the present contracts will be completed. Instead of giving out any more of the work under the present system, as I had contemplated and advertised, I shall postpone doing so until I am better assured that the work can be properly executed. I look anxiously for Mr. Pettit, trusting his intelligence may correct some of the defects in the section he will be called upon to superintend.
To instruct the superintendents in their duties, I shall be compelled to have printed a manual or primer, with a few lithographic sections, that the sight may aid the mind in a proper understanding of the business. To persevere in the present plan, where neither contractors, superintendents, nor laborers, understand their business, is highly inexpedient, and I shall forthwith commence maturing a system that must be productive of more good with less money, or it were better to leave the work undone, for I am satisfied that durability can not be looked for under the present system.
My first business will be to draw the operations to a close, and then endeavor to bring about the correction. You will be apprised of my views before carrying any of them into effect, observing that, in anticipation of a change, I have suspended making the contracts alluded to in my communication of the 27th ultimo.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICH’D DELAFIELD,
Captain of Engineers.