754 PROJECTED NEW BARGE CANAL OF STATE OF NEW YORK. 



vast lake commerce Avith the seaboard, and its wide-reaching influ- 

 ence can hardly be conceived or appreciated excei:)t by those who 

 have given years of study to the problem. 



In magnitude the work that New York has undertaken exceeds the 

 work at Panama. More earth and rock nnist be excavated, more 

 masonry used, and more dams built. The cost per unit is not nearly 

 so high as at Panama, because the work will l)e done in the Temperate 

 Zone, where labor, tools, and materials are abundant and reasonably 

 cheap. 



In the complexity of the engineering questions involved the Erie 

 is hardly second to the Panama Canal, for while the canalization of 

 the Mohawk River is a very diU'erent problem from the control and 

 utilization of the Chagres River they are both engineering projects 

 of the very first magnitude. 



The building of the Panama Canal under conditions akin to the 

 proposed enlargement of the Erie ]jarge Canal would be a simpler, 

 cheaper, and easier work than that which New Yerk has undertaken. 



The barge canals that New York is to build will follow the same 

 general route, fulfill the same functions, and minister to the same 

 wants as the present navigable canals connecting Lakes Erie, Ontario, 

 and Champlain with the navigable waters of the Hudson below Troy. 



In three important respects they will difi'er from the existing 

 canals: First, as to size and capacity; second, as to location, and 

 third, as to the character of navigation provided for. 



The locks of the new canals, which govern the dimensions of the 

 boats that can be used, are 28 feet wide, 310 feet long, and 11 feet 

 deep. The canal i:)rism has a depth of 12 feet and a general minimum 

 width on the bottom of 75 feet in canal sections and 200 feet in rivers, 

 pools, and lakes. Boats can be built which will pass through the 

 canal carrying 1,000 tons of freight, but it will probably be found 

 advantageous to sacrifice some of the carrying capacity to secure bet- 

 ter models and greater clearance. The lift of the locks will be much 

 greater than at present, and the number of locks will be greatly 

 reduced. On the present Erie Canal there are 72 locks; on the new 

 Erie Barge Canal there will be but 88 locks. 



The new locks will take two canal boats, each of 150 feet length, 

 coupled tandem, at one lockage, and this makes the lock capacity 

 2,000 tons, or about eight times that of the present canal. As freight 

 boats nearly always travel in pairs coupled tandem, the advantage of 

 the double-length locks in doing aAvay with the necessity of uncoup- 

 ling and recoupling at every lock is very great, saving uiuch time and 

 lessening dangers. 



A very decided change is made in the location of the canals. The 

 Erie Canal is about ;>r)0 miles long, and the new canal follows the old 

 canal for only about 100 miles; the other 250 miles is almost entirely 



