Erie The best known of the New York State canals is the Erie Canal, which joins the Hudson River and Lake Erie. The original Erie Canal was the great pioneer work of engineering in America, standing as the model for canal-building for a half century. The work of opening navigation to the interior 'which was undertaken by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in 1792 did not ac complish all that was needed and early in the 19th century agitation began for something more adequate. In 1808 the legislature ordered a survey of the route between the Hudson and the Lakes for the purpose of securing informa tion to set before President Jefferson, who a short time before had recommended that Con gress appropriate surplus moneys for building canals and highways. In 1810 the legislature appointed a commission, Gouverneur Morris and De Witt Clinton being two of the mem bers. In 1811 Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston were added. This commission made reports from year to year and in 1816 was ordered to make complete surveys and esti mates. On 15 April 1817 construction of the Erie and Champlain canals was authorized and on 4 July 1817 the first ground was broken at Rome. On 26 Oct. 1825 the canal was formally opened from Albany to Buffalo, 363 miles. Its success was so marked that it gaiie rise to a veritable mania for canal-building throughout the country. There can be no doubt that it was the greatest single factor in bringing to the State and the city of New York their re markable development and prosperity during the first half of the 19th century, giving the latter the initial impetus which has made it the chief metropolis of the Western world. The channel was 28 feet wide at bottom, 40 feet of water-surface and 4 feet deep. It had 84 locks, 90 feet long between gates and 15 feet wide, with a total lift of 689 feet. It cost $7,143,790.
The first enlargement, begun in 1836, was not finished till 1862. It shortened the canal to 3501/4 miles; gave a channel of 70 feet wide at water-line, 521/4 or 56 feet at bottom, accord ing to side slopes, and 7 feet deep; made 72 locks, each 110 feet long between gates and 18 feet wide, having a total lift of 654.8 feet; and cost $31,834,041. At the close of 1882, when all tolls were abolished, gross revenues to the amount of $121,461,871 had been collected on the Erie Canal; the cost of construction, im provements and maintenance had been $78, 862,154, leaving a balance of $42,599,717 to its credit. The preceding decade was a period of adverse public sentiment toward the State canals and several of the lateral branches were abandoned. In 1884 there began a series of lock-lengthenings which continued for about 10 years and marked the beginning of renewed interest in canals which has endured until the present time, finding expression in two enlarge ments. The first of these, 1896 to 1898, which was the second enlargement of the canal, at tempted a deeperflittgiilr nine feet, but because i of exhaustion of funds it was never completed. The third enlargement, authorized in 1903, is an improvement in more things than size; it is a rebuilding along modern lines. It was originally planned for barges of 1,000 tons, but before work was begun the size was increased to accommodate boats of two or three times that capacity. The Erie Canal has had a re markable history. It occupies a strategic posi tion; it connects the Lakes and the Atlantic along the only feasible canal route in the United States. It has played an important part in industrial development and regulation of com merce between the great interior and the coast, and it promises to continue exercising a mighty influence. See BARGE CANAL.
Hennepin This is one of the few boat canals which have been dug in the United States since 1850. It was begun June 1892 and completed in 1908, at a cost of $75,000,000. It affords a short route from the upper Mississippi to Lake Michigan, extending from the Illinois River at Great Bend, about two miles from Hennepin, Ill., to Rock Island, Ill. Its entire length is 77 miles, but of this distance 27 miles are along the slack waters of the Rock River. The canal proper and its summit level feeders are 7 feet in depth and 80 feet wide. There are 37 locks, each 35 by 70 feet in size and with lifts ranging from 3 to 10 feet in height.
Illinois & Michigan This route connects the Mississippi system with the Great Lakes, and, by the Welland Canal, with the Saint Lawrence. Its inevitability was plain by reason of the extensive use of the Chicago portage (from the Chicago River to the head waters of the Kankakee, an affluent of the Illinois) by the Indians and trappers, it being only half a mile for boats, the shortest import ant portage on the continent. Chicago was one of the best trodden sites in America before white men came here. As early as 1822 Con gress granted a right of way for such a canal, and in 1827 and 1854 made further grants. For some reason it hung fire for many years, though a host of surveys and estimates were made by the State and the nation. Work was prosecuted on it 1836-41, then suspended till 1845, and the canal was finally opened in April 1848. It had then cost $6,170,226. The western terminus is La Salle, at the head of steamer navigation on the Illinois River; its eastern is on the south branch of -the Chicago, about five miles from its mouth in the city. The en tire length is 96 miles, and the rise from La Salle to Lake Michigan is 145 feet, surmounted by 17 locks, 110 by 18; the capacity of boats is 150 tons. The original intention was to make a straight cut from Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River, the chief branch which with the Kankakee forms the Illinois; but to save ex pense it was decided to use the Chicago River instead. Thence it runs to Summit on the Des Plaines 8 miles; then 42 miles to the junc tion with the Kankakee; thence through the Illinois Valley to La Salle. It has five navi gable feeders, the Calumet, Des Plaines, Du Page, Kankakee and Fox; and five large stor age basins. The summit level at Bridgeport required pumping for supply; and two steam engines, delivering 15,000 cubic feet of water per minute, were used till 1870. These were also used for many years to help draw off the sewage of Chicago, which empties for miles into the river. By supplying the canal from the river, the lake water was drawn in to fill the vacancy, and so kept the river comparatively sweet. But the system was expensive, and the canal was deepened for some years, ending 1870, to carry the sewage by its own flow to the Des Plaines, reversing the current of the river. It proved insufficient, and in 1892 the Chicago Drainage Canal (q.v.) was begun, which was finished in 1900. It is 40 miles long to Joliet, 22 feet minimum depth, and 162 to 290 feet wide at top. A scheme has been mooted for years to convert this into a huge ship canal to enable ocean-going steamers to ascend from New Orleans to Chicago, and so through the Great Lakes and to the Saint Law rence; but it depends on the co-operation of the national government. Consult Putnam, J. W., The Illinois and Michigan Canal' (Chicago 1918).