A. L. Bishop — The State Works of Pennsylvania. 15!J 



spirited citizens in Pennsylvania had conceived this idea as prac- 

 ticable,* and had surveyed routes, and estimated their expenses. 

 Moreover the course followed later in building the main line of 

 the state works was, roughly speaking, the one recommended by 

 the memorialists. The care with which the route had been deter- 

 mined at this early date, the exact survey, and the distances 



between the various connecting points are shown by the following 

 tablet :— 



Miles. Chains. 

 "[From Pliiladclpliia] up Schuylkill to the mouth of the 



Tulpehookcn 61 00 



Thence up Tulpehocken to the end of the proposed canal, 37 09 



Length of the canal, 4 15 



Do^\^l Quitipahilla to Swatara, 15 20 



Down Swatara to Susquehanna, 23 00 



Up Susquehanna to Juniata, 23 28 



Up Juniata to Huntington, 86 12 



From Hinitington, on Juniata, to the mouth of Popular 



Run 42 00 



Portage to the Canoe Place on tlie Conemaugh, 18 00 



Down Conemaugh to Old Town at tlie mouth of Stony 



Creek, . . . T 18 00 



Down Conemaugh and Kiskeminetas to Allegheny River, . . 69 00 



Down Alleghenj' River to Pittsburg on the Ohio, 29 00 



426 04 " 



The estimated expense of putting through the entire work from 

 Philadelphia to Pittsburg was a little less than $2,000,000. When 

 Pittsburg had once been reached, it was regarded as a compara- 

 tively easy matter to tap Lake Erie through Allegheny river and 

 French creek. 



In recommending the opening of a commercial channel by this 

 route the memorialists pointed out to the legislators that they would 

 thus execute a work of the first rank for the honor and advantage 

 of their state. It would, in their opinion, combine the interests 

 of all its parts and cement them into a perpetual commercial and 

 political union. Moreover the future importance of the trade of 

 the territory beyond the mountains was a further motive that 

 weighed heavily with them, impelling them to exert all possible 

 pressure upon the legislature to provide means for its outlet. That 

 the rivalry between the eastern cities for its control would be keen, 



* Tlie idea of the memorialists regarding the western connection was to 

 put through a main line of water communication between Philadelphia 

 and Pittsburg excepting a portage of eighteen miles over the Allegheny 

 mountains. — Haz. Reg., II, p. 122. 



fHaz. Reg., II, pp. 119-120. 



