soo 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The route deemed most desirable for suck a canal from Lake 

 Erie to the Hudson river is to follow the present line of the Erie 

 canal with minor diversions from Buffalo to just east of Clyde, 

 then to deflect into the Seneca river, and follow down this river 

 and up Oneida, river through Oneida lake, and by the valley of 

 Wood creek to the line of the Erie canal near New London. The 

 two aqueducts across the Mohawk would also be done away with 

 and the canal thrown into the river, and at West Troy side-cut 

 the location would be changed to better the debouchment into the 

 Hudson. This canal would require the rebuilding of all the locks 

 on the portion of the Erie canal retained, substituting at Cohoes, 

 Lockport and possibly at Newark, pneumatic or other mechanical 

 locks for those now existing, building new locks on the Seneca- 



Fig. 67 Earth section of Erie canal from Black Rock to Tonawanda. 



Oneida and lower Mohawk portions of the route, and deepening 

 and widening the prism of the canal to give a waterway of not 

 less than 1000 square feet cross-section. 



By such a canal the cost per ton of carrying freight from 

 Buffalo to New York would be 26 cents; the cost per bushel, 

 0.8 cent, and the cost per ton mile, 0.52 mill. 



The number of trips which can be made annually is estimated 

 at nine for the Seymour- Adams plan, and at ten for the new Erie 

 canal as well as for the enlarged canal. 



The Canal Committee also reported that the work on the Oswego 

 canal at Phoenix and Oswego, undertaken in 1896, should be com- 

 pleted. The cost of completing the Oswego canal was estimated 

 at |818,000. 



The Canal Committee recommended that 1 lie Champlain canal 

 should be improved to the full extent authorized by chapter 79 

 of the laws of 1895, at an estimated expense of $1,824,000. 



The estimated cost of enlarging (lie Erie canal to a barge canal 

 was $58,895,000, or making a total for Hie Erie. Oswego and Cham- 

 plain canals of $61,537,000. 



