The Great American Canals (Volume 2, The Erie Canal)Hulbert, Archer Butler
History
The Great American Canals (Volume 2, The Erie Canal)
Hulbert, Archer Butler
Erie Canal (N.Y.)
The new canal, seventy feet wide by seven feet deep, was divided into
four sections. The first was from Albany to the eastern end of the Rome
summit; the estimated cost of this section for enlargement was
$2,864,335.96. The second section ran from east end of Rome summit to
Jordan; estimated cost, $1,194,804.74. The third lay between Jordan and
Rochester; estimated cost $2,739,139.51. The portion from Rochester to
Buffalo comprised the fourth section, its estimated cost being
$4,518,575.85. The total estimated cost, after adding ten per cent for
contingencies, was $12,448,856.06.[61] Twenty-one double and three
single locks were planned between Albany and Schenectady; one double and
three single at Little Falls; two double and one single at Syracuse; one
single lock at Lyons; two single at Lockville; one double and one single
at Macedon. On January 1, 1838, these were all under contract, at a
contract price of $3,035,087.[62] One year later contracts to the amount
of ten and one-half millions for the whole work of enlargement had been
signed. The commissioners were authorized by an act passed April 18,
1839, to borrow four millions.[63] The work went on rapidly. By April 1,
1842, the Rochester aqueduct was completed, at a cost of half a million;
the north tier of the locks at Lockport was in use in April of the next
year. The total cost of the works here was $610,978. In 1845 twenty-nine
out of forty-nine double set of locks between Albany and Syracuse were
completed and ninety-eight miles of the new enlarged canal was open for
use; the cost for this portion was $3,685,438. The total cost of
enlargement contracted for prior to April 1, 1842, was $9,361,442. By
1850 the cost had run up to fifteen millions, which was distributed by
years as follows:
_Year_ _Expense_ _Year_ _Expense_
1835 $31,810.70 1844 $418,692.06
1836 53,218.83 1845 155,130.43
1837 636,312.17 1846 70,012.35
1838 1,163,196.12 1847 62,331.30
1839 2,237,785.74 1848 634,573.08
1840 3,234,749.66 1849 1,000,323.97
1841 2,518,309.72 1850 1,365,695.00
1842 1,521,152.51 ------------
1843 530,801.54 Total $15,634,095.18[64]
This enlargement was completed in 1862 and is legally known as the
"enlargement of 1862." When completed the canal was 350-1/2 miles long;
it had seventy-two locks, measuring 110×18 feet, of which fifty-seven
were double and fifteen single. The building of double locks did not
cease until 1875.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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