There will be 5 locks and dams: one at Lockport, one at Brandon's Road just south of the city limits at Joliet, one in the vicinity of Starved Rock Park just south of Utica. The locks will be 110 feet wide, 600 feet long, and will permit the handling, at a single lockage, of fleets with a cargo capacity of 7,500 tons. The annual tonnage capacity of the waterway will approximate 60,000,000 tons.
The waterway will have a bottom width of not less than 150 feet and a surface width of not less than 200 feet, with much greater widths at most places. The minimum depth of the channel will be S feet in earth, 10 feet through rock, and 14 feet in locks.
The power plant of the Sanitary District at Lockport now develops 25,000 horse-power. The Illinois Waterway will have a power development of about 35,000 horse-power. This means a saving of about 750,000 tons of coal annually. The map on page 237 shows the location of the Illinois Waterway, its dams and locks.
Lake commerce.—Lake traffic to and from Illinois began with the sailing vessels which occasionally arrived at Chicago. Navigation on Lake Michigan developed somewhat later than on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Only three sailing vessels came to Chicago in 1831. The first steamboat arrived in 1832. By 1S36 the number of arrivals had risen to 436.
Steam railroads.—The motive power used on the first railroads of Illinois was animal power. The steam loco motive was soon put into use, and it is now the chief means of power.
The beginning of the Illinois railroad systems occurred in 1837. By 1S50 railroads were in operation between Spring field and the Illinois River and between Chicago and Fox River. The rapid development of railroads during the decade 1S50 to 1860 enabled settlers to reach the unoccupied areas of Illinois, especially the prairies situated at con siderable distances from waterways.
The great prairies still remained largely unoccupied in 1850 as a comparison of the woodland and prairie map with the population map of 1850 clearly shows. The problem of transportation and of markets still prevented their occupation. During the decade 1850 to 1800, however, their conquest was rapidly accomplished, and in the latter year the Grand Prairie had every where a population of over six to the square mile, and the great prairies to the north of the Illinois River more than eighteen per square mile. The popula tion of the state as a whole increased over 100 per cent in the ten years. This extraordinary change was made possible by the rapid building of railroads. In 1850 Illinois had only 110 miles of railroad; in 1860 it had 2,867 miles. During the decade Illinois built more miles of railroad than any other state, and more than Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa combined. The topography of the state made it possible to build railroads rapidly and easily; in the northern and eastern parts especially, the railroads were not held to certain predetermined courses by relief. but could be built with equal ease in
almost any direction across the flattish surface of the upland prairies.
The railroads supplied lumber to the home builder on the great prairies. They brought the farms much closer to a market, increased greatly the value of land in the vicinity, and permitted a rapid growth in agricultural products.
Except along the edges, little of the great prairie tracts in the middle valley counties was occupied in 1550. In the decade 1550 to 1860, the aggregate population of the six counties (Bureau. Putnam, Marshall, Wood ford, Peoria, Tazewell) increased 124 per cent. The area of the improved land increased 213 per cent, and the grain production 16:5 per cent in the same time. The relative increase in population in the prairie townships back from the river was much greater, but cannot be stated exactly outside of Bureau County. There the townships of Wal nut and Ohio, largely un occupied in 1350, gained respectively 1.025 per cent and 489 per cent. The ad jacent inland counties whose growth before 1350 had been retarded by their distance from the river filled rapidly. The four on the north and northwest increased 190 per cent during the decade, while the three to the southeast gained 224 per cent.
At the same time that the railroads were opening up the great prairies, improved farming machinery was facilitating their agricultural develop ment. Drills, mowing machines, reapers, threshing machines, and the like were coming into general These mileage figures include only the actual length of the right of way and do not take account of double-track mileage, industrial tracks, yard tracks, and sidings. The trackage of Illinois railroads for 1915 was as follows: main line and branches, 12,406 miles; second main tracks, 2,818; third main tracks, 221; fourth main tracks, 124; all other main tracks, 75; yard tracks and sidings, 8,254; total—all tracks, 23,S9S miles. The railroads of Illinois own right of way sufficient to reach across the United States from ocean to ocean five times and a total trackage sufficient to cross the continent nine times. Illinois has approxi mately 5 per cent of the 253,75S miles of the railroad mileage of the United States and 6 per cent of the 394,944 miles of trackage. Texas with 15,831 miles of rail road is the only state surpassing Illinois in mileage. So thoroughly is Illinois supplied with railroads that Hardin and Calhoun are the only counties of Illinois without railroads, and Nauvoo, a river port in Hancock County, is the largest town in the state without a railroad. The largest inland town without a railroad is Perry, Pike County, with a population of 649 in 1910.