PROJECTED NEW BARGE CANAL OF STATE OF NEW YORK. 753 



tion, and (Hscussioii. All sorts of things were pro])()sc(l. j\Iany 

 prominent people wanted a ship canal connecting the Great Lakes 

 with the sea, and several routes were surveyed, and estimates of cost 

 of various sized canals made. Many wanted the S<).()00,000 project 

 completed, either as originally proposed or Avith moslifications. Some 

 • wanted to turn the State canals over to the General Government, and 

 depend (Hi it for maintenance and improvement. Some wanted to 

 abandon the canals altogether, and some to utiliz(> the canal right of 

 way^ for State railroads. 



In 1897 the writer of this paper, in a report to the (jeneral Govern- 

 ment, proposed, as the best solution of the pr()l)lem, that the canals 

 should be enlarged to enable them to be used by barges carrying 1,000 

 to 1,500 tons. Governor (now President) Roosevelt appointed a 

 board of prominent New York business men soon after this to advise 

 the State what to do with its canals, and this board, after more than 

 a year of investigation, and the careful consideration of everything 

 that could be proposed, re})orted in favor of enlarging the P^rie (^anal 

 to a capacity for barges of 1,000 tons, and a lesser improvement for 

 the Oswego and Giiamplain canals. The legislature caused surveys, 

 plans, and estinuites for the woi'k to be made. All the canal people 

 of the State finally came in under the banner of the 1,000-ton barge 

 canal, and through their united efforts the legislature at last passed 

 a bill for the enlargement of the Erie, Oswego, and Champlain 

 canals, to enable them to be used by 1,000-ton barges, with all the 

 locks of sufficient size to take two boats, coupled tandem, at one 

 lockage. 



The estimated cost of the work proposed was $101,000,000. At the 

 fall election of 11)02 this i)r()position was submitted to the people of 

 the State, who ai)prove(l it by n majority of about '250,000 votes. 



New York is thus conunitted to and has entered upon this tre- 

 mendous work of canal improvement — by far the greatest work ever 

 undertaken by any State. 



This projected work is in the \'ery front rank of canal propositions. 

 It is overshadowed in the i)ublic mind by the Panauui Ganal, on 

 account of the international character and the interesting cxmiijlica- 

 tions that have attended the inauguration of that work by the United 

 States. In commei-cial im|)()i-(ance the Erie is in many ways the 

 equal of the Panama Canal. On the Panama it is h()])e(l to some 

 time reach a tonnage of 10,000,000; on the P'.rie all works, structures, 

 water supply, etc., are predicated on a tonnage of 10,000,000. and pro- 

 visions are made for acconunodating, at slight additional expense, a 

 tonnage greatly in excess of this. On the upper (Ji-eat Lakes there 

 is a water-borne connner-ce of vwy nearly !)0,000,000 tons per year. 

 The Erie Canal will furnish the cheapest route for connecting this 

 SM 1904 — '—IS 



