port, with all the mechanical structures thereon, comprising more than fifty double and single locks, besides the five double combined locks at Lockport; the aqueduct over the Genesee river at Rochester; the two aqueducts over the Mohawk river; one over the Schoharie creek, and many others over smaller streams, including culverts, bridges, &c. The estimated cost of all the work for the enlargement of the Erie canal, is 23,284,931 dollars, of which there was put under contract up to 1841, 11,021,932 dollars, on which there has been paid 10,011,146 dollars; leaving a further expenditure of 13,273,784 dollars to be provided for. (See Tables hereafter.) The Enlarged Erie canal, is to be seven feet deep, and seventy feet wide on the surface, with a slope of two feet to one foot in the banks, leaving a width at the bottom of forty-two feet; with double locks eighteen feet wide, and 110 feet long. The present width of the old Erie canal is forty feet on the surface, and twenty-eight feet at the bottom, and four feet deep; the locks are fifteen feet wide, and eighty feet long. The state legislature has authorised the construction of the following canals, at the time opposite to each one respectively, in the following table. The length of each canal, together with the number of locks and the number of feet of rise and fall, are also appended : All the above state canals, except the Erie and Champlain, are known as the lateral canals, of which there were finished and navigable in 1842. Unfinished and suspended Total lateral canals Add Erie and Champlain canals Total finished and unfinished canals 263 miles. Total number of boats on all the state canals, 2140; estimated tonnage thereof, 117,453 tons. Delaware and Hudson Canal company have about 700 boats. dlrs. cts. dlrs. cts. For the above estimates of the cost of the Erie and Champlain canals, see Canal Commissioners' Report for 1843, Canal Documents, vol. ii., p. 115.* The Oswego canal, from Salina to Lake Ontario, connects the waters of that Lake with the Erie canal, partly by means of slack water navigation, the expense of which was 525,115 dollars. Cayuga and Seneca canal from Geneva, on the Seneca lake, to Montezuma, on the Erie canal, was constructed at an expense of 214,000 dollars. Chemung canal, from the head waters of the Seneca lake to Tioga point, the cost of which with its feeder was estimated, in 1833, at 335,849 dollars. Crooked Lake canal, from a lake of that name to Seneca lake, cost 136,101 dollars. The Erie and Champlain canals have also navigable feeders. The Champlain canal connects the Erie with Lake Champlain. The communication is through a grazing, rather than a grain country, fast parting with its forests contiguous to the navigable waters; and, as is before seen, sending to market a surplus annually. In 1792, nine years after the close of the Revolutionary war, the Western Company completed a water communication from Schenectady to the falls of the Oswego river, and boats of burden were passed to within twelve miles of Oswego. At Oswego falls there was a portage of a mile, and the navigation was resumed by a smaller class of boats at the foot of the falls to Lake Ontario. The works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, principally consisted of a series of locks and a canal, at the falls of the Mohawk at Little Falls, a canal, with locks, at Fort Stan-wix, from the Mohawk river to Wood Creek (a tributary of Oneida lake and the Oswego river), and a series of locks and dams on Wood Creek. A boat leaving Schenectady followed the course of the Mohawk river to Fort Stanwix, and passing by the canal at that place into Wood creek and Oneida lake, entered the Oswego river eleven miles south of the falls, and twenty-three miles from Oswego. There was but one portage in the whole distance (at Oswego falls) between Schenectady and Lake Ontario. However imperfect the navigation, as compared with that of the Erie canal, which superseded it, its influence upon the prosperity, the early and rapid settlement of western New York, is incalculable. STATEMENT of deferred Works to carry out the New York Canal System. Add enlargement recommended by Canal Board, Assembly document, April 8, 1839, adopting 2,500,000 00 On the principle of contributing ratably to railroads. For the railroad from Albany to For giving an enlargement to the Champlain canal, corresponding to that recommended by the Canal Board for the above two canals.. 12,500,000 00 500,000 00 Cost. dollars. cts. 7,143,789 86 13,291,616 00 THE Cost of the Canals, and the Revenue received from them, during the Year ending September 30, 1843, are shown in the following Table. CANALS. Erie canal..... Erie enlargement... Champlain canal.......... 1,257,604 26 dollars. cts. 1,730,614 74 99,683 51 dollars. cts. 1,236,305 29 Oswego canal... Cayuga and Seneca canal.. Crooked Lake canal.. Chenango canal..... 83,500 83 Black River canal.. 1,511,967 00 Genesee Valley canal.. Oneida Lake canal... Oneida River improvement.. 50,000 00 The annual interest upon 30,885,029 dollars 26 cents, at five and a half per cent the average interest upon the present state debt, is 1,695,676 60 The net revenue from all the state canals, for the year ending 30th of September, 1843, after deducting the cost of the collection of tolls, and the maintenance of the canals, is.... 1,456,760 60 Deficit of the canals to pay five and a half per cent upon the cost........ 241,915 91 POPULATION of the Canal Counties at Three Periods, and of those Counties through which the Erie Railroad is to run. Extract from the Report of the Canal Company: "The Erie canal, as before stated, originally cost the sum of 7,143,789 dollars 86 cents. When the project of enlarging the Erie canal was first advanced to the public mind, what was understood by the idea of enlarging? When an individual speaks of enlarging his house, he means adding a wing to it, or erecting an additional story, or some similar increase of his accommodations. The idea of incurring an expense greater than the cost of a new house of the same size, would scarcely enter his mind-much less an expense several times greater than the original cost. Had it been at first proposed to build a new canal adjacent to the old one, of the same size, the people would have promptly objected to it, on the ground of the expense, and on the ground that if an additional communication were needed with the far west, a route for it, or for a railroad, would have been sought through some portion of the state, not accommodated with a communication to market. Much more would they have objected, had it been proposed to construct three or more new Erie canals, adjacent and parallel to each other. Experience in the enlargement shows that four or five new Erie canals could have been built, at an expense no greater than the enlargement will require. Thus the Erie canal enlargement, like the construction of the three last-named lateral canals, may be said to have stolen a march upon the public mind, and obtained a high vantage ground by insidious steps. The amount expended thus far on the enlargement, is 13,291,616 dollars (see Comptroller's Report of 1844, p. 6), and no one believes it is more than half accomplished, on the plan undertaken." CLASSIFICATION of the Canal Debts according to the different Rates of Interest. More than 9,500,000 dollars of this debt is payable within five and a half NAMES OF PLACES. One half of the mill tax, hereafter to be applied to the payment of the canal debts, will add to the revenues applicable to canal purposes, 275,000 dollars per annum, which for six years, makes a total of 1,650,000 dollars. The surplus revenues of the canals may yield 3,000,000 dollars for the same period, making a total of 4,650,000 dollars; deducted from 7,669,072 dollars, it leaves a balance of debt unprovided for at the close of the fiscal year, in 1850, of 3,019,072 dollars. If the canal fund realises the amount due from insolvent banks, 575,184 dollars, there would still remain 2,443,887 dollars unprovided for. In the three years succeeding 1850, the amount of canal debt falling due is only 70,000 dollars. A LIST of the Places on the Junction and Erie Canals, and their Distance from each other. 0 0 110 269 364 Geddes 2 63 mls. mls. mls. mls. 173 96 191 5 5 105 264 359 Belisle 4 177 67 92 187 1 6 104 263 358 Nine-mile creek................................ 1 178 68 91 186 7 103 262 357 Camillus ................................ 1 179 69 90 185 13 1524 19 91 250 344 Cold Spring 84 243 338 Weedsport.................................................. 46 205 300 Lockville...................... 44 203 298 Newark................................ 77 33 192 287 Wayneport (Barrager's basin) 29 188 283 Perrinton (Lindel's bridge) 27 186 281 Perrinton Centre (Col. Peters').... 22 181 270 Fullham’s basin 19 178 273 Bushnel's basin................ 4 263 153 6 101 1 99 1 98 12 171 266 Rochester.................................. 2 101 9 168 263 Spencer's basin 6 107 3 162 257 Adams' basin ................. 3 284 174 15 80 3 110 0 159 254 Cooley's basin 3 113 3 156 251 Brockport 289 179 20 75 1 114 3 117 4 155 250 Holley........................................... 7 152 247 Scio ..................................... 8 125 15 144 239 Albion ... 19 140 235 Eagle harbour................. 1 307 197 38 57 Chiteningo..... 3 153 Pool's brook. 3 156 2 158 48 111 206 Pendleton 2 169 50 109 204 Welch's ... 2 162 52 107 202 H. Brockway's............. 43 116 211 Gosport 2 326 216 57 38 342 232 73 23 163 53 106 201 Tonnawanta................................... 2 165 55 104 199 Lower Black Rock.... Lodi Syracuse 5 170 60 99 194 Black Rock |