1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



123 



work lias l)een faithfully siiijcriutended, that 4th of July on which the Cro- 

 toii water will lie " regaling the taste and sight of our citizens," will he si- 

 multaneous with the millennium, 



At p. 255, April number 183'J, Railroad Jonrnal, will he found the follow- 

 ing cool assertion : 



" The locks on the Chenango canal, which are 111 in nundier, are (with 

 the exception of five stone locks) all of them comjiosite. They were built 

 under the direction of Mr. Bouck, one of the present canal commissioners, 

 and their average cost was 3,808-50 dollars each." 



We shall next he informed that tlie piers of the Potomac aqueduct have 

 been successfully carried up under the direction of Mr. Forsyth, and that the 

 Thames Tunnel has at length been completed under the superinteudence of 

 his prototype Lord Melbourne. 



We refer to these circmustances only as elTects of the policy of allov^ng 

 the government to enter into the jnirsuits of individuals, and not with the 

 design of insinuating that the mortifying re])orts of many government engi- 

 neers are the cause of the present state of the profession, but simply to show 

 that they are the legitimate conscciuences of the pernicious interference of 

 the State Governments with that in whicli they have no more right to en- 

 gage, than they have to establish theatres or hotels and then forbid any citi- 

 zen from competing with them, on the miserable plea, that all the peo))le of 

 the State are interested in their tavern-keeping monopoly, that it hears 

 eipially on all, and is, to use the logic of governments, //lerefore just. The 

 pecuniary difficulties in which most of the States who have engaged in rail- 

 road and canal speculations find themselves involved, will necessarily break 

 down the entile system of State works, and their complete abandonment will, 

 more than every thing else, conduce to the welfare, honour, and usefulness 

 of the profession. 



The success which has attended the expensive and well eonstrueted rail- 

 roads about Boston, is the most encouraging fact we have to record, and it is 

 worthy of remark, that the stocks of those roads were tlie only stocks not 

 affected by the bursting of the biennial bubble grandiloquently called the 

 *' late crisis." The Eastern railroad has been ojicned to Salem, and the num- 

 lier of passengers is ah'eady twice that estimated before the opening of the 

 road, and on which the )iroject was haseil. The Western railroad has been 

 opened as far as Springfield. The Old Colony railroad is going on ra[iidly ; 

 the Norwich and Worcester is to be opened about new year's day, and tlie 

 Ilonsatonic railroad some time this month. In this State, the Utica and 

 Syracuse railroad has been opened, and the Syracuse and Auburn railroad 

 put into full operation. In Pennsylvania, the Reading raih'oad has just been 

 completed, and in Maryland, we believe the Baltimore and Susqnehannah 

 railroad has been opened to the imblie. Two of the above roads have re- 

 ceived aid from the State of Massacliusetts, but they have all been managed, 

 and, w'ith these comjiaratively (rifiing exceptions, have been paid for, by 

 individuals. Jl'c do not knotr of n single State irork having been completed^ 

 or in. port opened, during the year 1839. 



In New England they have retained too much of the sturdy independence 

 and common sense of their forefatlicrs. to tolerate the meddling of the go- 

 vernment in the afl'airs of individuals, and we seek in vain for a canal, a rail- 

 way, a machine shop, a lumber or coal yard, owned h\ a iS'ew England State. 

 Jt has been found impossible to persuade them that they are not as capable 

 as their Transatlantic brethren of managing their own affairs, and the conse- 

 quence is, that they have the best managed, best constructed, most costly 

 and most successful, railways of any State in the Union. An attempt has 

 been made to regulate the sale of spirits, and has proved about as successful 

 as a previous effort to interfere with another article in the " grocery line " — 

 y'dcjit " tea."' 



Some little has been done on the State works of New York, by means of 

 the unexpended balances of former api>ropriations for the enlargement of the 

 Eric canal, and the construction of the Genessee valley and Black River canals. 

 There is no little curiosity to know how the first is to be disposed of — not only 

 both parties, but every sane resident of the State, who feels an interest in 

 her honour and welfare, being heartily ashamed of his credulity hi believing 

 it either practicable with the means of the State, or useful even if practicalile. 

 The money already thrown away on this unrivalled specimen of legislative 

 folly, will do something towards ojiening the eyes of the citizens of this 

 State, and a year or two hence we fully expect to find the enlargement as 

 unpleasant a reminiscence in New York as the suspension is in a neighbouring 

 State. 



The lateral canals of the State of New York cannot with propnety he 

 passed by, being " par excellence " government works in then- conception, 

 management, and income. As the official report on the Genessee valley 

 canal has been published, we will examine the proceedings of the Commis- 

 sioners with regard to that work, and our readers, by tm-ning over their files, 

 will be enabled to judge of the accuracy of our deductions. The original 

 estimate of the canal was a httle less than two miUions, but the present esti- 

 mate is thus stated in the report alluded to. 



"The cost of the canal (excluding 314,520-43 dollars for the Dansville 

 branch,) is estimated by the Canal Commissioners in their recent report, 

 (Assembly Document of 1839, No. SCO,) at 4,585,1102-36 dollars. 



" The canal board ai-e not possessed of all the facts necessary to enable 

 them to estimate with suftieient certainty the future revenues of the canal. 

 They fully appreciate its value to the interesting section of the State whose 

 resources will be developed by its completion. In respect, however, to the 

 tolls to be tlerived from it iu the present state of the navigation of the Alle- 



ghany river, the board would observe, that in the year 1835, P. C. Mills, 

 Esq., the engineer who surveyed the route, submitted an estimate to the 

 Canal Comniissioners of its probable revenues, (.Vssem. Doc. of 1835, No. 204, 

 jiage 42,) in which he computed the tolls, independent of its probable con- 

 tributions to the Erie canal, at 39,129-60 dollars. Of this amount, 13,207 

 was estimated for the tolls on the finer qualities of lumber and other jn-oduets 

 of the forest, which, it was siqiposed, would seek the New York market in 

 preference to that on the Ohio and Alleghany rivers. A majority of the 

 Canal Commissioners, (including the late acting Commissioner on that canal,) 

 in the report above referred to, have expresseil their belief that the amount 

 of 39,129-CO dollars, is " greater than will be reahzed for at least the first 

 few years after the canal is completed." 



Now let us translate this into plain unofficial English, sueh as is used in 

 the every day transactions of common men, not devoid of eoramon sense. 

 It is proposed to construct a work at the expence of the State, the cost of 

 which is estimated at two millions of dollars, and its gross income at less 

 than 39,000, one third of it to be derived from lumber, which, it is well 

 known, will soon be exhausted. The canal is to be 106 miles long, and wc 

 know from experience that 39,000 dollars will not meet the ordinary annual 

 expenses, repairs .and renewals. We will, however, suppose this sum sutfi- 

 cient for those purposes, then the people of this State are saddled with a 

 " gentleman pensioner," who cannot exist on less than 100,000 dollars per 

 aiinnni. On comparing this, however, with the Chenango canal, it was dis- 

 covered that the annual deficits of the latter exceeded those of the former by 

 20,000 dollars, and as the march of the Commissioners was " still onward," 

 they at once decided on such an addition to the estimate as should place the 

 Genessee valley canal as far " ahead " of the Chenango, as the latter was in 

 advance of the other " auxiliary " canals. They determined accordingly 

 on spending five millions on Ibis work, which will entail on the State a per- 

 manent animal tax of 250,000 dollars at least. 



Now, does any man, out of office, beUeve that the people of the State of 

 New York would have authorised an expenditure of fise millions of dollars 

 on a canal which its friends and projectors assert will not yield more than 

 39,000 dollars gross revenue, merely for the privilege of ha\ing their money 

 sipiaudered l)y a set of Canal Commissioners ? Before seriously entertaining 

 such a iirojeet, far less recommending it, they ought to have been able clearly 

 to establish the probability of an immediate Income equal to 



Dollars. 

 .\nnnal cost of repairs, renewals and expenses . . 50,000 



Interest on five millions of dollars . . . 250,000 



Towards paving off the debt, at least . . . 100,000 



Making the total miniinuni income, 400,000 



or ten times the estimated income, the latter being in fact, too iiisigiiiHeaut 

 in amount to have any material bearing in discussing the value of an under- 

 taking which is to cost five millions. 



Suppose that the State of New York, after expending one miUion on the 

 Chenango canal, had refused to submit to any further imposition, that canal 

 woidd lie unfinished, its revenue nothing, in place of 20,000 dollars on an 

 expenditure of two and a half millions, practically speaking, nothing; the 

 State would have saved one and a half million, and would only have incurred 

 a permanent annual tax of 50,000 dollars instead of 120,000 dollars, which 

 the people of this State are now paying for the glory of owning the Che- 

 nango canal. We give an extract from an article which appeared in the 

 Courier and Enquirer of 7tli May last, in which the writer undertakes to 

 jirovc that lateral canals generally will be nearly useless in themselves, and 

 of little value to the main canal. Whatever may be thought of his reasons, 

 it is only too true that his conclusions are fully borne out by the actual ex- 

 perience of this State. 



" I have never seen any attempt to explain the causes which render the 

 lateral canals unable to pay expenses, though it appears to me to be by no 

 means difficult. The jiolicy which led to the construction of these lateral or 

 auxiliary canals, has no analogy with that which influenced and guided tlie 

 projectors of the Erie and Champlain canals. The immediate object of the 

 former, was to open to the husbandman the extensive and fertile region of 

 western New York ; that of the latter, to bring within reach of the city the 

 forests of the North. Both have fully succeeded— not because there are no 

 other such routes " in the world," but — because they were projected in such 

 a manner as to open the greatest possible extent of country, and without 

 reference to mere local interests. M'ith the lateral canals the case is widely 

 different, for it is evident, that the main canal will eonimand the business of 

 the country through which it passes, for a certain distance on each side, this 

 in an agricultural country, will vary from 25 to 40 miles according to cir- 

 cumstances ; but, whatever distance be allowed, it is clear, that the portion 

 of the lateral canal contained within these limits, will only receive the con- 

 tributions of those dnectly on its banks. If the lateral canals be from 80 to 

 100 miles apart, it will be found, by a few- simple calculations of distances, 

 that a vei-y small portion of the country between the lateral canals, and 

 within 40 miles of the main canal, will derive any advantage from the lateral 

 canals. Hence the insignificant revenue of the Seneca, Crooked Lake, Che- 

 mung, and Chenango canals. The two first are in the country directly tribu- 

 tary to the Erie canal, one half of the Chenango canal is hable to the same 

 objection, and the other half and the Chemung canal would suft'er from the 

 New York and Erie railroad, had they more than a nominal revenue. The 



Blacii Kiver canal proper lies mthia the influence of the Erie canal, and its 



