Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

TRANSPORTATION CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES. 165 chain of rivers, lakes, canals, and canalized rivers, until ocean traffic shall be possible from the most inland point. It is planned to connect the Ohio River with Lake Erie, the Mississippi River with. Lake Michigan, etc. The entire Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, and the Atlantic coast can be made a continuous system by means of inland canals along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. For this purpose there are projected—a canal across the State of Florida to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic coast, canals to connect Chesapeake Bay with the Carolina Sounds and the Delaware River with the Raritan, and a canal across Cape Cod. In this way the entire eastern half of the United States could be circumnavigated on sheltered waterways. A handful of dauntless men are responsible for the present-day prosperity to which canals are an important adjunct. These men braved the stubborn opposition of a legion of “ cau- tious ” New Yorkers, and negotiated and planned, schemed, and finally accomplished canal transportation as a state and national asset. Whenever the name of the originator of the now famous Erie State Canal, De Witt Clinton, was mentioned, the multitude said, “ In Clinton’s big ditch would be buried the treasure of the state, to be watered by the tears of posterity.” Now we may say, “ In Clinton’s big ditch was planted the treasure of the state, to be fostered by the prosperity of posterity.” This “ big ditch ” is now one of the commercial and engineering wonders of the world. When it is completed, a new era in trade and traffic will begin. A study of the canals by State divisions will doubtless give the true aspect of the canal question in the United States. First and foremost comes New York State. In 1724, when the en- thusiastic Surveyor-General of the Colony of New York pic- tured the great possibilities of inland naviga- Old Erie, New York State, or Erie Canal. tion, and when later, in 1777, another enthu- siast, Gouverneur Morris, declared possible the union of the waters of the Great Lakes with, those of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, the matter immediately became a political issue. At last, in October 1825, a voice rang out in challenge across the water of the first Erie Canal. “ Who comes there ? ” “ Your brothers from the west, on the waters of the Great Lakes.” “ By what means have they been diverted so far from their natural course ? ” “ By the channel of the Grand Erie.” “ By whose authority, and by whom, was a work of such magnitude accomplished ? ” “ By the authority and by the enterprise of the patriotic people of the State of New York.” These challenges and answers greeted the first canal boat, the Seneca Chief, midway on its trip down the first American venture in canal-building as a permanent means of transportation. All along the route, from Buffalo to Albany, the people greeted the boat with holiday expressions of good-will and congratulation. On November 4, 1825, the boat and its load of officials arrived in New York City to witness the spectacular “ wedding of the waters ” in fulfilment of the prophecy of Gouverneur Morris, who, unfor- • tunately, did not live to see his dream come true. Two kegs of water from Lake Erie, and bottles of water from the Nile, the Ganges, the Indus, the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, the Mississippi, the Columbia, the Orinoco, and the La Plata, were all cere- moniously mingled in the Atlantic, thereby typifying international commerce by means of canals. For fifty years the Erie Canal in its present state wielded a despotic sceptre over the commerce and growth of the entire State. After a time, however, its vigilance and jealous guard over its transportation suprem-