The Farmington canal was commenced in 1825, upon the plan of connecting, by a line of seventy-eight miles of artificial navigation, Connecticut river, at Northampton, in Massachusetts, with New Haven harbor. It is thirty-six feet broad at the surface, twenty at the bottom, and four feet in depth. The locks are eighty feet in the clear, and twelve feet wide. It extends fifty-eight miles, from New Haven to Southwick ponds, on the boundary of Massachusetts, and cost about six hundred thousand dollars. In continuation of this work, the Hampshire and Hampden canal has been constructed in Massachusetts, as far as Westfield; it is to be continued twenty miles, to Northampton, and perhaps even to Barnet, in Vermont. The difference of level in this canal is two hundred and ninety-eight feet.
Enfield, South Hadley, Montague, and Bellows Falls canals are short cuts at the different falls on the Connecticut river. The first was built by a company incorporated in 1824. It extends around the falls of the same name, in the state of Connecticut, and is five and a half miles in length. It has two stone locks of ten feet lift, each ninety feet by twenty, and is used for extensive hydraulic works, as well as for navigation. Before the construction of this work, these rapids were passed in boats, but offered great obstructions to the navigation of the river. South Hadley canal was constructed for passing a fall of forty feet in the town of the same name, in Massachusetts, and is two miles in length. There is a cut in this canal through the solid rock, three hundred feet long and forty feet deep. The company that undertook this work was incorporated in 1792. Montague canal, in the town of the same name, in the same state with the preceding, and constructed for passing Montague falls, is three miles long, twenty-five feet wide, and three deep. Bellows Falls canal, in Vermont, opposite the town of Walpole, is half a mile long, with nine locks, overcoming a fall of about fifty feet. Several other short canals have been constructed on the western bank of the Connecticut in this state, for the purpose of improving the navigation of the river.
NEW YORK CANALS. The state of New York has an extensive system of inland artificial navigation, connecting the navigation of the Hudson with that of the lakes and Delaware river. The Champlain canal in this state passes from Albany to Whitehall, on lake Champlain, and is seventy-two miles in length. It is four feet deep, twenty-eight feet wide at the bottom, and forty at the surface. It has twenty-one locks, and its rise and fall amount to one hundred and eighty-eight feet. This work was commenced in October, 1817, and was opened for navigation in November,1819. The whole cost was nearly one million two hundred thousand dollars.
The Erie canal extends from Albany, on the Hudson, to Buffalo, on lake Erie. It was commenced on the fourth of July, 1817, and was first navigated from Utica to Rome, fifteen miles, on the third of October, 1819; tolls were first received in July, 1820, and the whole work was completed in 1825. It is three hundred and sixty-three miles in length. It is four feet deep, twenty-eight wide at the bottom, and forty at the surface. The number of locks is eighty-four, and the rise and fall are six hundred and ninety-eight feet. The cost was over nine millions of dollars. A little below the Cohoes falls, a feeder enters from the Mohawk, and connects the Erie with the Champlain canal, and the united work then proceeds to Albany, eight and a half miles, and terminates in the tide waters of the Hudson. The collections upon the Erie canal, for the month of September, in the three last years, stand thus:
| 1831. | $131,694 |
| 1832. | $137,184 |
| 1833. | $190,229 |
| Increase since ’31. | $58,536 |
| Increase since ’32. | $54,771 |
This great increase in the total amount of tolls has taken place, notwithstanding a reduction in the rates of tolls in the spring of 1833, which was equal to about twenty per cent. compared with former rates. The entire amount of tolls received at this canal in 1831, was one million, ninety-one thousand, seven hundred and fourteen dollars, twenty-six cents.
Oswego canal is a branch of the Erie, extending from Salina to Oswego, connecting lake Ontario with the Erie canal. It is thirty-eight miles in length, having one hundred and twenty-three feet of lockage, all descending to lake Ontario. One half the distance is a canal connected with Oswego river by locks and dams; the other half is a slack-water navigation on the river. It cost five hundred and twenty-five thousand, one hundred and fifteen dollars. The Cayuga and Seneca canal, extending from Geneva, on Seneca lake, to Montezuma, on Erie canal, is one half canal, and one half slack-water navigation. It was constructed in 1828. Its length is twenty miles and forty-four chains; the descent from Seneca lake to Montezuma is seventy-three and a half feet.The four canals last described were constructed at the expense of the state, and still remain under the administration of the state government as public property.[78]
Chemung canal, another work of the state, extends from the head waters of Seneca lake to the Chemung (or Tioga) river. It is eighteen miles in length, with a navigable feeder of thirteen miles from Painted Post, on the Chemung river, to the summit level, making in the whole thirty-one miles of canal navigation. On this canal are fifty-three locks of wood, three aqueducts, and seventy bridges. It was completed in 1832.
The Delaware and Hudson canal company was incorporated in April, 1823, with a capital of a million and a half of dollars, for the purpose of constructing a canal and rail-road from the Hudson river to the coal mines in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The canal extends from the tide-water of the Hudson to Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, a distance of one hundred and eight miles, when it meets the rail-road. The canal is from thirty-two to thirty-six feet wide, and four feet deep. The most important article of transport upon this canal is coal, of which forty-three thousand two hundred tons were brought down in 1830. In 1831, the amount of tolls, exclusive of that of coal boats, was nineteen thousand, five hundred dollars.
The Harlem canal company was incorporated in April, 1826, with a capital of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This canal is to extend from Hudson to East river, through Manhattan island; its length is three miles, its width sixty feet, and its depth six or seven. It is to be walled with stone on both sides, and to have a street on each side fifty feet wide its whole length,with a lock at each end to command the tide water.[79]