Internal Improvements of the State of Pennsylvania. 85 
those improvements, and the difficulties which have been already sur- 
mounted in their execution. The object of the present essay, is to 
give a general idea of the character of these works, and in future 
numbers, it may be in my power to describe with greater particular- 
ity, those with whick I am most familiar. 
To a cursory observer of the map of Pennsylvania, it would ap- 
pear almost impracticable to form any satisfactory junction between 
‘the eastern and western waters. The Allegany mountain, and the 
numerous ridges which run parallel to it, from N. E. to S. W. ap- 
pear to interpose insuperable barriers. - Fortunately, however, nature 
has done what man must have failed to accomplish. The headlong 
Juniata has burst through a score of mountain ridges, and, now flows 
placidly to the Susquehannah, as if rejoicing in its triumph over the 
difficulties, which at some former day had been heaped in its path. - 
The: West branch of the Susquehannah also rivals the Juniata, and in 
fact rises still farther west, (beyond even the Allegany mountains,) 
and there are swamps in the highlands of Cambria county which, in 
time of rain, pour their waters at once towards the Chesapeake and 
Gulf of Mexico.* 
The course of the West Branch is 5 however too circuitous to afford 
an eligible route between Philadelphia and the head of the Ohio, 
and the valley of the Juniata was chosen, although it involved the ne- 
necessity of crossing the Alleghany, at a point 2827 feet above tide. 
water in the Atlantic. 
The only mountain ridges, west of the Alnus are the Laurel 
-Hill, and Chesnut Ridge, both of which are rent to afford a passage 
for the Conemaugh, which rises in the Allegany mountains nearly op- 
posite to the Juniata, and flows toward the Ohio. 
- Previously to the commencement of the state improvements, char- 
ters had been granted to the Schuylkill and Union Canal Companies, 
for opening a canal communication between the Delaware and Sus- 
quehannah, and as no canal route was found more eligible than that 
adopted by the companies, a rail-road between those rivers was cho- 
sen by the state. 
. 
* Potter county, in Pennsylvania, is celebrated for only one thing, that I am ac- 
quainted with: viz. that heads of the Susquehannah, Alleghany, and Genessee ri- 
vers, rise almost together, within its boundaries; flowing into such distant points, as 
the Chesapeake bay, Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
