The recommended survey was made in 1900, with a report to the legislature in 1901. In ability of canal advocates to concentrate on any one plan delayed legislative action till 1903. Then, after a revision of estimates, the meas ure was referred for a vote .at the 1903 fall election. It was carried by a substantial ma jority and authorized the expenditure of $101, 000,000 for improving the Erie, Champlain and Oswego canals. Plans were begun at once, but the undertalcing was so enormous that actual construction did not begin till the spring of 1905. In 1909, after surveys had been made, the Cayuga and Seneca Canal was ordered to be enlarged to Barge Canal dimensions by a second referendum, which appropriated $7, 000,000. Construction progressed steadily till 1915, when it became necessary to provide $27,000,000 more, for the purpose of complet ing the three canals first undertaken. This was done by another referendum and was necessi tated largely by court awards for damage and property claims and in lesser measure by very increased ncreased costs for labor and materials.
To provide suitable terminals for the new canals, a fund of $19,800,000 became available by a vote of the people in 1911. Several years' agitation preceded this action. In 1909 a com mission composed of certain State officials had been appointed to investigate and report on the subject. In 1910 this commission was sent to Europe to study the terminals there.
The Barge Canal may be aptly called Nature's gateway to the heart of the continent. Nature surely prepared the route. The Hudson, which has a safe and commodious harbor at its mouth, is the only navigable Atlantic sea board river in the United States which cuts the coast range of mountains. In the centre of the State a second range makes way for a valley. At Little Falls a rocky barrier was pierced during the last glacial overflow by the waters of the Great Lakes. Also natural watercourses across the State—one from east to west across the centre, one from the extreme south to the extreme north across the eastern, side and one almost across from north to south at the centre — are provisions which man has appreciated and utilized. Westward from the canals the Great Lakes extend a thousand miles inland.
There are 442.6 miles of construction in the new canals. The 358.7 miles of intervening lakes and adjoining rivers make a total of 801.3 miles— the length of the State waterway system of Barge Canal dimensions. Of this whole system about 72 per cent of the length is in river or lake channel. Thus it appears that
the Barge Canal is largely a river canalization scheme. A brief description of the route will give force to this statement.
The Hudson River from the ocean to the mouth of the Mohawk is the first link. The bed or valley of the Mohawk is utilized from the Hudson to the old portage near Rome. Then Wood Creek, Oneida Lake, and Oneida, Seneca and Clyde rivers are used, carrying the channel to the western part of the State, where the streams run north and the alignment of the old channel is retained for the new canal. The other branches of the Barge Canal occupy natural streams throughout most of their length, the Champlain branch lying in the canalized Hudson River and Wood Creek, the Oswego branch utilizing Oswego River, and the Cayuga and Seneca Canal occupying the bed of Seneca River. Also Lake Champlain and Onondaga, Cross, Cayuga and Seneca lakes form parts of the waterway system.
There are various °land lines? for passing around dams, cutting off bends and other pur poses, and in the western part of the State the new channel is largely a widening and deepening of the old canal.
The dimensions of the Barge Canal are the same for all four branches. Briefly, the mini mum channel in earth cutting in the independent or artificial canal, or land line, is 75 feet wide at bottom and 123 to 171 feet at water-surface. In rock cutting, with nearly vertical sides, the width is 94 feet. In river and lake channels the width is from 150 to 200 feet. There is a depth of 12 feet throughout. The actual dimensions vary greatly, but the minimum size is fixed by law. The locks have generally been reported to have a length of from 338 to 343 feet between gates (310 feet available length) and a width of 45 feet. However, from actual measurements after construction it has been found that the largest parallelogram to fit all the locks is limited to 300 feet by 44.44 feet. Boats having ends to conform to a certain rounded head-wall may utilize 10 feet more.
The critical points in supplying water to canals are the summit levels. The new Erie Canal has one summit level — in the vicinity of Rome— and one half-summit— at the Lake Erie end. A glance at the profile will show these summits and how the canal descends from them. The natural flow of the streams which are canalized to form the Barge Canal is in general sufficient to maintain the requisite depth of water in the levels between the locks and also to supply the water required for lockage and incidental operations.