720 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



In 1895 an improvement of Erie canal was authorized at a cost 

 of $9,000,000. Later, it was found that the cost would be 

 $10,000,000 instead of |9,000,()00, as originally expected. On this 

 basis, and throwing out of the account former expenditures, we 

 may say that Erie canal will cost the people of the State of New 

 York annually at least f 1,230,000. Assuming a traffic for the 

 canal of 5,000,000 tons per annum, carried an average of 200 

 miles, we have a total of 1,000,000,000 ton-miles per annum, on 

 which the people of the State of New York must pay in the way 

 of interest and cost of maintenance and operation about 1.2.1 

 mills per ton-mile, while canal freights now average about 1.2 

 mills per ton-mile; hence the people of the State of New York 

 will be obliged to pay under the new conditions over 50 per cent 

 of the total cost of the transportation. At present the local 

 canal freights are only 15 per cent of the total. 



Early history of canals in New York. The idea of a water com- 

 munication between the Hudson river and the west via the valley 

 of the Mohawk had been a favored one with the statesmen of 

 New York for many years previous to the beginning of the present 

 century; the early projects, however, were with reference to im- 

 provement of the natural water channels and did not include 

 the construction of artificial channels further than such channels 

 might be necessary as connecting links. 



So far as can be learned, the earliest mention of the route 

 between Albany and Lake Ontario was in a report made in 1721 

 by the Surveyor General to Governor Burnet, the Colonial Gov- 

 ernor of the Province of New Y^ork. The Surveyor General 

 describes the watercourses and carrying places between Albany 

 ?nd Lake Ontario with about as much accuracy as they can be 

 described today. The carry between the Mohawk river and Wood 

 creek he describes as "a portage only three miles long, except 

 in very dry weather, when the goods must be carried two miles 

 further." He also describes the passage down the Oswego river 

 to Lake OntarioJ showing that freight could be carried from 

 Albany to thai lake by way of the Mohawk, Oneida and Oswego 

 rivers, cheaper and much more conveniently thai* they were then 

 transporting it by way of the Hudson, Lake Champlain and the 

 River St Lawrence, 



