Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

HYDRAULIC SUCTION DREDGE, SHOWING CUTTERS RAISED. TRANSPORTATION CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES. BY I. M. PEACOCK. RIVERS are ungovernable things, espe- cially in hilly countries. Canals k are quiet and very manageable.” So said Benjamin Franklin, and at this late date the American people The Value agree. The question of inland of Inland Waterways. waterways in the United States is again coming to the fore. This highly important factor in the inter- state and international commercial growth of a country has suffered from alternate fits of interest and absolute neglect. The question of transportation by means of inland water- ways—canals, natural and artificial—must now be definitely taken up by the National Govern- ment, if the country is to keep the pace set by the intense development of the farms, forests, mills, and mines. At the present moment there are 2,120 miles of operated transportation canals in the United States. The majority of these canals are owned and worked by various States or Corporations, but there is only one state canal of great importance—the Erie Canal, which the people of the State of New York are improving and modernizing at a cost of 820,000,000. Most other canals are under private control, and will continue to be of no value until individual state interest grows strong under the impetus of national interest. A comparison of the inland waterway traffic of the United States with that of her keen in-