In two years the money was gone and the canal not completed. Maryland extended further aid, and then still more aid by the help of which the canal was completed to Cumberland in 1850. In 1870 efforts were made to have the Government carry the canal on to the Ohio River, but the plan was never consummated. This canal is still in use, the bulk of its traffic being coal brought down to Washington. Canals were constructed in many other states, but they need not here be followed in detail. Illinois was connecting Chicago with the Mississippi River; Massachusetts built artificial ways about falls and rapids; New Jersey connected the Hudson with the Delaware; and numerous other schemes were carried out. =Canal Prosperity and Desuetude.=--Until the greater advantages of railway travel and traffic lessened the usefulness of the canals, they did a thriving business. As has already been noted with regard to the Erie canal so was it with the others.[50] In the whole United States there was a “grand total of 4,468 miles[51] of canals, costing approximately $214,141,802.” Not all these were remunerative. To the end of 1872 the New York Canals had only averaged a profit of 3.2 per cent, while the Erie Canal proper paid but 4 per cent on its cost.[52] The speed at which the barges traveled was about 2 miles per hour; this was reduced on account of time lost by regular stops, passing through locks, and accidents, to 1.7 miles per hour on the average. Rates for freight were about 0.3 cent per ton per mile. The railroads later hauled through freight at 0.7 cent per ton per mile. Both these rates were, no doubt too small, for proper maintenance and remuneration.