740 



NBW YORK STATE MUSKUM 



1, 1896, and soon after work was begun and continued until 

 May 5, 1897, when navigation was opened for the season of 1897, 

 and all contractors not working with dredges discontinued 

 operations until the winter of 1897-98. The act authorizing the 

 1895 improvement provided that the deepening of the canal prism 

 might be accomplished either by excavation or by raising the side 

 walls. Sometimes one method and sometimes the other has been 

 followed, depending upon the conditions of each level. Usually 

 a part of the increased depth has been obtained by raising the 

 side walls, with the balance secured by excavation. 



As is indicated in the extract from the act authorizing the 

 improvement, the work included the lengthening of such locks as 

 had not been previously lengthened. The original locks of the 

 enlargement of 1836 to 1862 were 110 feet long by 18 feet wide. 

 In 1885 work was begun lengthening these locks to 220 feet, or 

 about 210 feet in the clear, thus permitting two boats to pass 

 through at one lockage. Up to 1895, 42 of the 72 original locks 

 had been lengthened. The 30 locks remaining to be dealt with 

 were mostly bunched in groups or flights, as, for instance, at 

 Cohoes, where 16 locks effect a change of level of 140 feet, and 

 at Lockport, where 5 locks effect a change of 58 feet. In order 

 to lengthen locks built in flights it would be necessary to entirely 

 reconstruct them, and as the restricted space, specially at Lock- 

 port, would render this a very difficult thing to do in one winter 

 season, it was therefore proposed to construct at Cohoes and 

 Lockport, and possibly at Newark, vertical lift locks to take the 

 place of the ordinary locks in use at these places. The State 

 Engineer and Surveyor completed the plans for the proposed 

 lift lock at Lockport, which was so located as not to interfere 

 with the use of the locks now in place there during its construc- 

 tion. 



rt was announced late in 1S97 that the |9,000,000 appro- 

 priated would fall about f 7,000,000 short of completing the work 

 of deepening and lengthening on the lines thus far carried out. 1 



l For engineering and other details of the canal improvement of 1805 see 

 Eng. News, Vol. XXXVIII ( Sept. 2, 16, and 2.°>, 1807). See also Effect of 

 Depth upon Artificial Waterways, by Thomas C. Clark: Trans. Am. Soc. 

 Civil Eng.. Vol. XXXV, pp. 1-40. Also Eng. News. January 6. 1808, for 

 discussion of the question. What Shall New York Do with Its Canals? 



