1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITKCT'S JOURNAL 



283 



the enormous sums spent on the enlargement. The canals of Oliio have 

 been, and continue to be suppmled by direct taxation, and that alternative 

 has become necessary here for a few years at least. The two private canals 

 above alluded to lead to the anthracite region of Pennsylvania; one, llie 

 Schuylkill canal //ns made immense dividends, but the stock has fallen greatly, 

 and the toll has been reduced to three mills [ler ton per mile; the other is 

 successful. 



The Erie canal, though conferring considerable benefits on the country, has 

 also exerted a powerful influence in a contrary direction, and for five months of 

 each of the last four years it has been complained of— each succeeding year more 

 bitterly— as an intolerable nuisance, injuring alike the western producer and 

 eastern consumer by its hideous monopoly. Canals intended for tlie coal 

 trade are comparatively little afiected by the long winters of New York and 

 northern Pennsylvania ; but, canals drawing their main income from the 

 country through which tbey pass, and, still more so. those depending on the 

 trade of the lakes, have their usefulness greatly impaired by being closed 

 during the winter months. This objection is insuperable, becomes stronger 

 every year, and will, in my opinion, prevent the undertaking of any more 

 canals in the country, north of Philadelphia at least. 



Again, the grasping spirit in which many canals have been projected has 

 been ruinous !o their prospects for any reasonable period. The enlarged 

 Erie and the Brobdignag canals of Canada were each to bear to the ocean 

 the trade of the west; the Lehigh and Schuylkill canals were each to fur- 

 nish the avenue for the coal trade of the country. But we find the coal as 

 well as the western trade flowing through numerous channels already, and 

 many more will soon be added. In England, canals are generally successful, 

 but though doing an immense business they are very small, some of the most 

 important having locks only eight or ten feet wide. Again, the capital in- 

 vested in all the private canals in the kingdom i.s only 5,775,000^ sterling, 

 about the sum expended on canals in New York, little more than the cost of 

 the canals of Pennsylvania, and about twice the pmbable cost of the canals 

 of Canada. What a contrast between the views of those investing their own 

 money, and the conduct of those who expend the money of the public ! 

 Eighteen milhons of people, with wealth, industry and enterprize unparalleled 

 in the annals of mankind, expend in fifty or sixty years about thirty-lour 

 millions of dollars: six millions in Pennsylvania, New York and Canada^ 

 with wealth comparatively nominal, contrive to lay out about sixty millions 

 of dollars in one fourth the time. The capacity'of these little English canals 

 is immense, their cost and management comjiaratively slight and easy. 



A boat will carry about ,30 tons, and as one of the old single locks of the 

 Erie canal passes 116 boats in 15 hours, a lock little more than half the width 

 will [easily pass 200 boats pef 2't hours, and is abundantly adequate to tlie 

 trade of any canal likely to exist in this country. The English canals, with 

 a smiill amount invested in their construction, accommodate an immense 

 tradic, and are as valuable to their proprietors as they are useful and honor- 

 able to the country. Here the reverse is generally the case. For example, 

 the Genesee v.^Uey canal will cost about 60,000 dollars per mile, the cost of 

 the Lowell railway, the best in America ; the income of the former is esti- 

 mated by its friends at one-half of one per cent, per annum, the actual in- 

 come of the latter is 1.5 per cent. Again, one mile of the Cornwall canal 

 in Canada cost as much as fifteen miles of the C^hamplain and St. Lawrence 

 railway, with cars, engines, buildings and wharfs, and it will be fortunate if 

 the income from the twelve miles of canal equal half the revenue of tlie rail- 

 way. The two private railways are adapted to the business of their respec- 

 tive localities ; viewed in this lightj the two government canals are monstro- 

 sities of the first order.' 



The Ohio canal is well worthy of the most serious attention. This work is 

 above 300 miles long, is without a rival, cost only 4,000,000 dollars, traverses 

 the heart of a superb country containing two millions of inhabitants, and 

 connects the two greatest chains of inland navigation on the face of the globe 

 — the Ohio with the lakes. Yet the gross income last year was only 322,7,54 

 dollars, 82, yielding, according to the commissioners, "4i per cent, on the 

 cost of the canal." Had not this canal been constructed at the moderate cost 

 of 13,000 dollars per mile, it must have been supported by taxation, as is now 

 the case with the other canals of that State, for some of which money has 

 been borrowed within a few years at 7 per cent. ! though their sources of in- 

 come are far inferior to those of the Ohio canal, which, in fact, ranks next to 

 the Erie canal. Ten years' ex[?erience on this canal demonstrate, in a man- 

 ner admitting of no cavil, that the wealthy and — for America — populous re- 

 gion of Ohio barely supports one of the cheapest, if not the very cheapest 

 canal in the country. The Erie canal has been a complete " ignis fatuus" to 

 the other States, having been paraded before the country as a work which 

 had cleared its prime cost, when in fact it was in arrears for interest. The 

 singular advantages of the position of the Erie canal, its heavy grants aud 

 peculiar privileges render it a dangerous, a ruinous precedent. 



The railways of the Uni'.ed States were undertaken, principally by indivi- 

 duals, after the canals, and though nearly one hundred millions of dollars 

 have been invested in fheni, tiny yield about live per cent. The railways of 

 England— the most extraordinary works the w orld has yet seen, and exclu- 



sively the results of private enterprize— have been constructed within fifteen 

 years, at the enormous cost of 52,000,000/., and yield a fair return on the 

 capital. It is obvious, therefore, that their sources of income differ materially 

 from those of canals— in other words, that, though both may succeed, a rail- 

 way may flourish where a canal cannot exist. For example, the Middlesex 

 canal has been abandoned, and its place supplied by the Lowell railway. 



The trade of the canal between Liverpool and Manchester has increased 

 since the opening of the railway between those points. When the population 

 and trade of this country shall approach those of Englaml, it is not impossi- 

 ble that canals of reasonable dimensions, cheaply constructed, may succeed 

 in some of the more southern States. 



The public are just beginning to appreciate the losses sustained by the five 

 months' annual sleep of the canals, and the papers from Boston to Detroit 

 have, during the past winter, teemed with invectives against the law of New 

 York which actually denies to the farmer that which the State of Maryland 

 accords to the slave — the right to send his produce to market in any way lie 

 pleases — by turnpike, railroad or steamboat. But not only do the canals fur- 

 nish a tedious route during a little more than half the year, but that very 

 circumstance tends lo raise the cost of that inferior accommodation, for the 

 cost of maintaing them would be nearly the same were they open throughout 

 the year, and the income would be greater ; the same capital and annual ex- 

 penditure would yield double the income. 



The advantages of the Erie canal in a military point of view have been 

 painfully dwelt on. Yet it can never be more than a very humble auxiliary 

 of the private raikays from Albany to Buffalo during the summer months, 

 its opening being too late and its closing too early to render it of any value 

 at the most important moments— the commencement and closing of a cam- 

 paign. More than this, these very works have been built in spite of the 

 canal interest which is still an incubus on the spirit of honest enterprise. 

 Again, the Rideau canal is a truly military work, yet a railway from Mon- 

 treal to Kingston, at a cost of four millions of dollars, would, in the event of 

 war, save more than this sum annually, and would render that portion of the 

 province impregnable to any force likely to be brought against it. It would 

 also clear expenses, and three or four per cent, e-ren riow. So with regard to 

 BulTalo, a force overwhelming from its numbers could be collected there in a 

 few days. During the late insurrections in Canada the £40,000 sterling, in- 

 vested by a few individuals in the Champlain and St. Lawrence railway, 

 contributed materially to the defence of the province, while the millions 

 spent on the Imperial and Colonial canals were absolutely useless. In case 

 of a protracted contest the canals would of course come into play to some 

 extent. 



The main " causes of the general failure of the canals'' of this country may 

 be ascribed to their being closed nearly half the year ; to the small amount 

 of business their peculiar accommodation enables them to command in a 

 thinly settled country ; to their low rate of speed, and to their — with few ex- 

 ception.? — great cost. Whether these objections are likely to be overcome to 

 any extent worthy of notice, the reader must decide for himself. For my 

 own part, I doubt whether the canals, from the St. Lawrence to the Missis- 

 sippi will, ten years hence, have yielded one per cent, on the capital invested 

 in their construction ; and omitting the Erie, Ohio and the two private canals 

 referred to above, I do not believe the others will, during that time, clear 

 repairs and renewals : in other words, that their failure will be complete anci 

 in some cases lead to their abandonment. 



Since the above was written, I have seen the report of the canal committee 

 to the senate, doc. 98, 1844, which, with that devotion to principle, so promi- 

 nent a trait in the American politician, according to de TocqueviUe, is very 

 severe on those projects which have become decidedly unpopular— the lateral 

 canals and the enlargement— but says not a word of a vastly greater evil, the 

 canal monopoly. The arguments against any further expenditures are part 

 of those used by others, myself among the rest, some years since, when 20 

 of the present debt of twenty-eight millions might have been saved. There 

 is, however, a good illustration on page 15, where, speaking of the Chenango 

 canal, it is said — " Thus it is seen, it would have been cBeaper for the State 

 to have made a road and hired teamsters at expensive rates to transport the 

 produce of that country in ordinary wagons ; and the community would have 

 had the free use of the road for common purposes." 



I made a similar calculation some years since. The expenses and interest 

 on the cost of the Cornwall canal, twelve miles long, will be 8,000 dollars per 

 mile, and we will assume that it will clear 1,000 dollars per mile per annum 

 besides paying repairs and renewals— of which there is little probability. 

 Then two years' interest or 16,000 dollars per mile, will build and equip a good 

 railway, ;ind three months' interest, or 2,000 dollars per mile will clear all the 

 expenses of several times the total down as well as up-freightot the St. Law- 

 rence, and of ten times the present number of passengers, lo oilier words* 

 tlie eniire trade and travel in both directions would belrec, and the province 

 would save 5. COO dollars per mile per annum, or liO.OOO dollars on twelve miles 

 of canal. The iuteiest on the actual cost of the Cornwall canal, and on the 

 estimated cost of the short canals round the rapids above, would pay all the 

 Np nses of a continuous railway carrying more freight and passengers than 



