Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Canals.

Gen. Philip Schuyler may justly be regarded as the father of the United States canal system. As early as 1761, when he was in England settling the accounts of Gen. John Bradstreet with the government, he visited the famous canal which the Duke of Bridgewater had just completed, and became profoundly impressed with the importance of such highways in the work of developing the internal resources of his own country. On his return, he urged the matter upon the attention of his countrymen. Meanwhile the active mind of Elkanah Watson (q. v.) had been deeply interested in the subject. In 1785 he visited Mount Vernon, where he found Washington engaged in a project for connecting the waters of the Potomac with those west of the Alleghany Mountains. He and General Schuyler projected canals between the Hudson River and lakes Champlain and Ontario, and in 1792 the legislature of New York chartered two companies, known, respectively, as the Western inland lock navigation Company and “Northern inland lock navigation Company,” of both of which Schuyler was made president, and, at his death, in 1804, he was actively engaged in the promotion of both projects. The Western canal was never completed, according to its original conception, but was supplemented by the great Erie Canal, suggested by Gouverneur Morris about 1801. In a letter to David Parish, of Philadelphia, that year. he distinctly foreshadowed that great work. As early as 1774 Washington favored the passage of a law by the legislature of Virginia for the construction of works—canals and good wagonroads—by which the Potomac and Ohio rivers might be connected by a chain of commerce. After the Revolution, the States of Virginia and Maryland took measures which resulted in the formation of the famous Potomac Company, to [49] carry out Washington's project. In 1784 Washington revived a project for making a canal through the Dismal Swamp, not only for drainage, but for navigation between the Elizabeth River and Albemarle Sound. The oldest work of the kind in the United States is a canal, begun in 1792, 5 miles in extent, for passing the falls of the Connecticut River at South Hadley. The earliest completed and most important of the great canals of our country is the Erie, connecting the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Hudson River. A committee appointed by Congress during Jefferson's administration reported in favor of this canal, and a survey was directed to be made. Commissioners were appointed in 1810, who reported to Congress in March, 1811. In consequence of the War of 1812, the project languished until 1817. In that year ground was broken for the Erie Canal on July 4, under the authority of New York State, and on Oct. 26, 1825, the canal was completed. It was built by the State of New York at an original cost of $9,000,000, from the operation of which untold wealth has been derived by the city and State of New York. It was completed and formally opened by Governor De Witt Clinton, its great advocate, in 1825, and has been enlarged at great expense since. The canal changed the whole aspect of commercial affairs in the Lake region. The total area of these five great inland seas is about 90,000 square miles, and their inlets drain a region of 336,000 square miles.

Of the various canals that have been constructed in the United States, the following are the only ones in commercial operation in 1901, many former ones having been abandoned within recent years because of the demands of commerce for quicker transportation. An interesting feature of recent canal construction and improvement is the adaptation of these waterways to vessels of large tonnage, using steam or other swift motive power. The old-fashioned canal, accommodating small boats drawn by mules or horses, has given way to the ship-canal, through which a war-ship can safely speed.

Canals in the United States.

name.	Cost.	Completed.	Length	LOCATION.
			in miles.
Albemarle and Chesapeake	$1,641,363	1860	44	Norfolk, Va., to Currituck Sound, N. C.
Augusta	1,500,000	1847	9	Savannah River, Ga., to Augusta, Ga.
Black River	3,581,954	1849	35	Rome, N. Y., to Lyons Falls, N. Y.
Cayuga and Seneca	2,232,632	1839	25	Montezuma, N. Y., to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, N. Y.
Champlain	4,044,000	1822	81	Whitehall, N. Y., to Waterford. N. Y.
Chesapeake and Delaware	3,730,230	1829	14	Chesapeake City, Md., to Delaware City, Del.
Chesapeake and Ohio	11,290,327	1850	184	Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D. C.
Chicago Drainage. See next page.
Companys	90,000	1847	22	Mississippi River, La., to Bayou Black, La.
Delaware and Raritan	4,888,749	1838	66	New Brunswick, N. J., to Trenton, N. J.
Delaware Division	2,433,350	1830	60	Easton, Pa., to Bristol, Pa.
Des Moines Rapids	4,582,009	1877	7 1-2	At Des Moines Rapids, Mississippi River.
Dismal Swamp	2,800,000	1822	22	Connects Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound.
Erie	52,540,800	1825	381	Albany, N. Y., to Buffalo, N. Y.
Fairfield			4 1-2	Alligator River to Lake Mattimuskeet, N. C.
Galveston and Brazos	340,000	1851	38	Galveston, Tex., to Brazos River, Tex.
Hocking	975,481	1843	42	Carroll, O., to Nelsonville, O.
Illinois and Michigan	7,357,787	1848	102	Chicago, 111., to La Salle, Ill.
Illinois and Mississippi	568,643	1895	4 1-2	Around lower rapids of Rock River, Ill. Connects with Mississippi River.
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co.	4,455,000	1821	108	Coalport, Pa., to Easton, Pa.
Louisville and Portland	5,578,631	1872	2 1-2	At Falls of Ohio River, Louisville, Ky.
Miami and Erie	8,062,680	1835	274	Cincinnati, O., to Toledo, O.
Morris	6,000,000	1836	103	Easton, Pa., to Jersey City, N. J.
Muscle Shoals and Elk River Shoals.	3,156,919	1889	16	Big Muscle Shoals, Tenn., to Elk River Shoals, Tenn.
Newbern and Beaufort			3	Clubfoot Creek to Harlow Creek, N C.
Ogeechee	407,818	1840	16	Savannah River, Ga., to Ogeechee River, Ga.
Ohio	4,695,204	1835	317	Cleveland, O., to Portsmouth, O.
Oswego	5,239,526	1828	38	Oswego, N. Y., to Syracuse, N. Y.
Pennsylvania	7,731,750	1839	193	Columbia, Northumberland, W1ilkesbarre, Huntingdon, Pa.
Portage Lake and Lake Superior	528,892	1873	25	From Keweenaw Bay to Lake Superior.
Port Arthur		1899	7	Port Arthur, Tex., to Gulf of Mexico.
Santa Fe	70,00	1880	10	Waldo, Fla., to Melrose, Fla.
Sault Ste. Marie	4,000,000	1895	3	Connects Lakes Superior and Huron at St. Mary's River.
Schuylkill Navigation Co	12,461,600	1826	108	Mill Creek, Pa., to Philadelphia, Pa.
Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan	99,661	1881	1 1-4	Between Green Bay and Lake Michigan.
St. Mary's Falls	7,909,667	1896	1 1-3	Connects Lakes Superior and Huron at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
Susquehanna and Tidewater	4,931,345	1840	45	Columbia, Pa., to Havre de Grace, Md.
Walhonding	607,269	1843	25	Rochester, O., to Roscoe, O.
Welland	23,796,353	....	26 3-4	Connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

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Chicago drainage Canal

A canal intended chiefly for carrying off the sewage of Chicago, but which may be used for commercial purposes; begun in September, 1892; completed in January, 1900. The main channel is 29 miles long, extending from Chicago to Locksport on the Illinois River, into which stream it discharges. About 9 miles of the channel is cut through solid rock, with a minimum depth of 22 feet and a width of 160 feet on the bottom in rock, which makes it the largest artificial channel in the world. The length of the waterway from the mouth of the Chicago River to its terminus south of Joliet is about 42 miles. The cost of the canal was estimated at about $45,000,000.