James River & Kanawha This is a line partly existent and partly on paper, but interesting as probably the oldest North Amer ican canal scheme. The idea is accredited to Governor Spotswood iu 1716, when he explored the Blue Ridge; but the first active part was taken, as in all these early ventures, by Wash ington, who saw from his backwoods days the necessity of joining the eastern seaboard to the trans-Alleghanian territory by lines of com munication. He personally explored the James River route in 1784, and induced the Virginia legislature on 5 Jan. 1785 to pass an act for improvingthe navigation of the James. Under J this the James River Company was organized, 25 Jan. 1785, with Washington as president No work was done, and in 1835 another com pany of the same name took up its task, be ginning the construction of the section from Richmond to Lynchburg in 1836, and complet ing it near the end of 1841. The second divi sion, from. Lynchburg to Buchanan on the upper James, was begun before this was opened, and completed in 1851. In 1853 an extension of 47 miles to Covington on Jackson River was begun, but the war interrupted it, and it has never been resumed. In 1874 the cost of completing it to the Kanawha, includ ing an improvement of the navigation of that river, was estimated at $60,000,000.
The Ohio Falls This is a short canal, but from its location a very important one; it makes continuous navigation in one of the chief waterways of the continent. The first canal was built 1825-30, and called the Louisville & Portland. It was 1 7-10 miles long, 64 feet wide, had 835 feet lift, and three locks, one at the head and two at the foot. An enlargement was begun in 1861, but inter rupted by the war; in 1868 the national govern ment included it in its river and harbor appro priation, and it was opened February 1873, having cost about $4,000,000. It runs west from in front of Louisville, Ky., to Portland; is a little over 11,000 feet long and 8636 feet wide, with a minimum depth of 6 feet assured by a dam at the falls. The water in the river vanes from 6 to nearly 43 feet, and earthen parapets on the sides of the canal rise to 44 feet, based on stone walls, themselves built on the limestone rock through which the canal is cut. The upper lock has been raised, the lower two left as they were, but a branch with two locks has been added. At the head are flood-sates 46 feet 11 in. high. The upper entrance is 400 feet wide.
Among others existent or of past importance are the canal between the Chesapeake and Dela ware bays, across the Delaware isthmus, built 1824-29, 1334 miles long, and supplied by pumps for 10 miles of it. An enlargement has been
projected. This system has recently been ac quired by the Federal government. (See SHIP CANALS). The Morris Canal, 101 miles long, built in 1830, connects the Hudson at Jersey City with the Delaware at Phillipsburg, N. J.; it is owned by the Lehigh Valley Rail road. The Delaware & Raritan, 43 miles long, built 1831-34, connects those rivers, and there fore New York and Philadelphia. The Dela ware & Hudson, completed 1820, was once the great coal freight route between New York and the Pennsylvania mines; its company trans formed itself into the railroad company of the same name, and has abandoned the canal. The Schuylkill Coal & Navigation Company's canal is 108 miles long. The Ohio & Erie Canal from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Cleveland, and the Wabash from Toledo, Ohio, to Evansville, Ind., were once of importance in building up these sections.
The initiative taken by New York in the construction of the great barge canal seems to have had the effect of causing a new era of canal building. Several projects have been begun and several of these have almost been completed, among these latter being the Lake Washington Canal, which connects Lake Washington, near Seattle, Wash., with Puget Sound by means of a canal nearly two miles in length, a 17-foot lock being required to lift the vessels from the waters of the Sound to the lake. The Dalles-Celilo Canal is another enterprise practically completed, which opens up the Columbia River to light draught ves sels as far up stream as Priest Rapids, on the main river above Pasco, and to Lewiston, on Snake River, in Idaho. It is 87/, miles in length and climbs to a height of 82 feet above low water, the cost of building having been $5,000,000. During 1915 the Illinois legislature appropriated $5,000,000 for a 65-mile canal, 8 feet in depth, from Joliet to Utica, the canal to start from the end of the Chicago Sanitary District Canal. The Pennsylvania legislature, too, has authorized an issue of bonds for the construction of a canal from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie. According to the plans already roughly drafted this canal will put Pittsburgh into water communication with 27 States.
Hepburn,
Revised by NOBLE E. Witrrroan, Senior Assistant Engineer,Department of State Engineers, New York.