798 



\K\V YORK STATE MUSEUM 



canal, over aqueducts, structures, etc., as well as in the canal 

 reaches, and to lengthen the locks by changing the gates so as 

 to allow their use by boats 115 feet long, of the present width, 

 and drawing 8 feet of water. This follows the present route 

 of the canal. 



This would enable ordinary boats to carry 400 tons of freight, 

 and a four-boat steam fleet would carry 1500 tons of freight, or 

 about 50,000 bushels of wheat. So far as known no definite 

 estimate was made by Mr Adams of the cost of the additional 

 work proposed. The estimated cost, however, of this plan, as 

 made by the Canal Committee, was $15,068,048. This includes 

 new quadrant buffer steel gates, with the necessary masonry at 

 each lengthened lock, and the unlengthened locks to be improved 

 to correspond, and all structures to be given such depth as will 

 admit their use by boats drawing 8 feet of water. 



According to an estimate given in the Report of the Canal 

 Committee the cost per ton for carrying freight on this canal 

 from Buffalo to New York would be 50J cents; the cost per 

 bushel would be 1.51 cents, and the cost per ton mile would be 

 1 mill. 



New Erie canal proposed by Canal Committee. In considering 

 the enlargement of the Erie canal to 9 feet, the Canal Committee 

 proposed that the principal features of the Erie canal should be as 

 follows : 



1) The prism of the canal to be left at its present width 

 generally, but to be deepened to 9 feet throughout, at aqueducts 

 and structures as well as in the canal levels, and to be put into 

 condition for use by boats of the present width and drawing 

 8 feet. 



2) Three important changes in the route of the canal to be 

 adopted. The first and greatest change is to deflect the canal 

 from a point just east of Clyde into the Seneca river, follow down 

 the river to its junction with the Oneida river, thence follow up 

 the Oneida river to Oneida lake, through Oneida, lake, and thence 

 by canal up the valley of Wood creek and to the present Erie 

 canal near New London, making several river cut-offs to shorten 

 distance and give better alignment. 



