HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



719 



State Canals 



The Erie canal. Erie canal was the first development of the 

 internal water resources of New York State, and grew out of the 

 demand for transportation facilities between the Atlantic sea- 

 board and the Great Lakes. The impulse which it gave to the 

 development of New York State, and of the entire territory 

 tributary to the Great Lakes, can hardly be estimated. Taking 

 into account its far-reaching consequences, it may be considered 

 the greatest public work thus far carried out in the United States. 

 Nevertheless, Erie canal has not only passed its day of usefulness, 

 but, to some extent, stands in the way of future development, the 

 chief cause for this being a too pronounced regard for the canal's 

 former greatness. The historical matter may serve to indicate 



Fig. 45. Original lock used on Erie canal. 



how strongly the feeling that Erie canal should be maintained 

 in perpetuity has been impressed upon the people of the State of 

 New York. (This paragraph was written in 1897.) 



By way of illustrating the rise and decline of Erie canal, it 

 may be cited that in 1837 the total freight carried was 1,171,296 

 tons, valued at $55,809,288 ; in 1880 the total freight carried was 

 6,457,656 tons, valued at $247,844,790 ; in 1895 the total freight 

 carried was 3,500,314 tons, valued at $97,453,021. Statistics 

 show that the great bulk of all the freight now carried on Erie 

 canal is through freight carried for western producers, local busi- 

 ness being only a small per cent of the whole. Statistics show 

 that freights are now carried by railways as. cheaply as they 

 can be carried by the canal, and this, too, at a profit, while the 

 canal, in order to obtain any freight at all, has been obliged to 

 do away with all tolls, thus making the cost of shipment by canal 

 the bare cost of transportation proper. 



