HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



733 



portation report of 1835 has been the cause of a great deal of 

 mistaken policy in the State of New York. Nearly every year 

 since the beginning of the railway era the newspapers of the 

 State have teemed with the statement that the State must neces- 

 sarily maintain the canal system in order to check the exorbitant 

 tariff demands of competing railways. As we have seen, in 1830, 

 just before the beginning of the railway era, the State was taxing 

 every article transported upon the canals all that it would stand, 

 and the system of excessive State tariffs was continued until a few 

 years later, when the competition of the railways forced a reduc- 

 tion in the tariff for transportation on the canal. 



Growth and decline of canal transportation. A number of re- 

 ports bearing on transportation questions were submitted in 1835, 

 and finally the fixed policy was adopted of enlarging the Erie canal, 

 the act authorizing what is known as the Erie canal enlargement 

 being passed in that year. The law authorizing the enlargement 

 directed the construction of double locks and a prism with a 

 width at water surface of 70 feet, and a depth of 7 feet, the locks 

 to be 110 feet long and 18 feet wide. It was estimated that an 

 enlargement to this extent would save 50 per cent in cost of 

 transportation, exclusive of tolls. The enlargement to this 

 standard width and depth was begun in 1836 and continued to 

 1812, when the Legislature directed the suspension of expenditures. 

 Tn 1847 the work of enlargement was resumed, and substantially 

 completed in 18G2. Since that time to the work done under 

 authority of chapter 79 of the laws of 1895 there had been 

 no change in the standard of width at water line of 70 feet 

 and depth of 7 feet. As an interesting fact it may be pointed 

 out that while the enlargement authorized in 1835 led to a vast 

 increase in the transportation business on the State canals, the 

 cost of transportation gradually decreased, one chief cause of 

 such decrease being the competition of railways, until in 1883 the 

 competition from this source became too sharp to maintain 

 longer transportation on the canals if any toll at all were charged. 

 The canals were then made free by legislative enactment. 



The popular notion, formerly prevalent in New York, that it 

 has been necessary to maintain the State canals in order to regu- 

 late the railways, is seen to be far from true. The railways have 



