('ANAL.) This canal, 28 miles in was originally designed to carry the drainage of Chi cago to the Mississippi instead of to Lake Miehi gam It has a minimum depth of 22 feet. a width at the bottom of 160 feet, and a width at the top varying from 162 to 290 feet. The canal extends from the Chicago River in Chi cago to Lockport, where it joins the Des Plaines River. It has been proposed to deepen this canal and also the Illinois and :Mississippi rivers and construct locks so that barges and light-draught vessels could pass direct from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
lksides the Erie and the Illinois and Michigan, the other large canals of the United States are the Delaware and Hudson (now in disuse), at one time the great coal route to New York from the Pennsylvania mines, 108 miles long, completed in 1820, cost 86,300,000; the Chesapeake and Ohio, 183 miles, cost 811,375,000; the Schuylkill Coal and Navigation Company's Canal, 108 miles, cost $13,207,000; and the Wabash and Erie in Indiana, 274 miles, cost $6,000,000. There are 13 canals in New York. 14 in Pennsylvania, 5 in Ohio, 4 in Virginia, 2 in New Jersey, and 1 each in Delaware, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, and Michi gan. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal originated in a project formed by Washington as early as 1774. to make the Potomac navigable from tide water to Cumberland, and to connect it by ecan mon roads and portages with the of uents of the Ohio west of the Alleghanies. The War of the Revolution postponed the scheme. but in 1784 it wa s again hroaehed by Washington, and 3 la ry land and Virginia appointed a joint commission, with him at the head, to investigate the subject. The result was the incorporation of a company to make the Potomac navigable from the tide water to the highest possible point by the con struction of such locks as might be necessary for that purpose. Of this company, \Vashington was the president until his election as President of the Cnited States compelled his resignation. The project encountered many obstacles, until at last, in 1S20, it was abandoned as impracticable; when the Board of Public Works of the State of Virginia took steps which led to the organiza tion of a new company, which constructed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from Georgetown to Cumberland. completing it in 1850. It passes through the Potomac Valley to Paw Paw Bend. from which point it passes through the moun tains by a tunnel 3118 feet long. The whole length of the canal is 184 miles. its depth 6 feet, its width to Harper's Ferry. 60 feet at the surface and 42 feet at the bottom. By means of 74 locks 100 feet long and 15 feet wide, an elevation of 609 feet. is gained. All the water is supplied from the Potomac. At Georgetdwn the canal was led over the Potomac by means of a great wooden aqueduct bridge. The cost of the work was over 811.000.000. The Morris Canal connects the Delaware at Phillipsburg, N. J., with the Hudson at Jersey City. It is 102 miles long and accommodates vessels of SO tons. An interesting feature of this canal is the use of inclines for the different levels; there are 23 of these inclines, with an average rise of 58 feet.
The only boat canal, strictly speaking. which has been constructed in the United States since 1S50 is the Illinois and Mississippi Canal. now under construction in Illinois. This canal is de signed as a short route from the upper \lissis sippi River to Lake :Michigan in connection with the existing water routes of Illinois. It extends from Hennepin, Ill., to Rock Island. III.. 77 miles. of which 50 miles are canal and 27 miles are slack-water navigation down the Rock River.
The canal proper and the summit-level feeder will be 7 feet deep and SO feet wide at water-level. The feeder will be 34.73 miles long. There will be 37 concrete locks, 35 X 70 feet, with lifts of from 3 wet to 10 feet. Construction was begun in July, 1892, and in 1902 was in progress.
'The Canadiau canal system is one of the most important in the world, and comprises the Saint Lawrence and Lake Navigation, the Ottawa and Rideau Navigation, the Richelieu: and Champlain Navigation, and the River Trent Navigation. Of
these, the Saint Lawrence system is the most important, as it gives a 14-foot waterway from the head of Lake Superior to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The canals of the Saint Lawrence system are the following: Slur CANALS. Examples.—in the last half of the Nineteenth Century, with the development of steam navigation and maritime trade, a de mand arose for the construction of canals of large dimensions across isthmuses to shorten the route by sea between certain countries, to con nect important internal manufacturing and com mercial cities with the ocean, or to afford •ommenication between bodies of water in the interior of a continent. Among the more notable' examples of such ship canals are the Suez, Cor inth. Manchester, Saint Mary's, Saint Peters burg and Kronstadt, Baltic, and Amsterdam. The Suez Canal (q.v.) cuts through the Isth mus of Suez and connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. It is about 100 miles leng. has a bottom width of 72 feet, and a depth of 26 feet, and was built 1860-69. The Manehes ter Canal runs from the Mersey at Eastham just above Liverpool. to Manchester, is 35.5 miles long, 26 feet deep. and has a minimum bottom width of 120 feet. It is built in four reaches connected by three sets of docks at Latchford, Islam, and Barton, the sizes of the locks of each set being 550 X 60 feet , 300 X 40 feet, and 100 X 20 feet. One of the notable struc tures of this canal, and the only one of its kind, is a swing aqueduct by which the Bridgewater Canal is carried over the Manchester ('anal, This aqueduct opens exactly like a swing-span draw bridge to permit vessels with masts to pass through. The Corinth Canal is another of the trans-isthmian type. crossing the Isthmus of Corinth with a cut 4 miles long. 72 feet wide. and 26.5 feet deep. This canal was completed in 1593. It is stated that this canal was projected by Alexander the Great. determined upon by his Caesar, and actually begun by Nero. though the work never progressed beyond a few Inindred yards.
The Saint Mary's Canal, eommonly known as the Sault Sainte Marie Canal. connecting the waters of Lake Superior with those the Saint Mary's River and Lake Huron around the Saint Mary's Falls in Michigan, is but a few thousand feet long, and is chiefly remarkable for the enor mous traffic and for having the largest lock in the world. This lock' is of masonry. is SOO feet long. 100 feet Wide. with a depth of water on the sill of 21 feet and a lift of 18 feet. The Saint Petersburg and Kroustadt Canal was completed nc 1854. Owing to the bar at the mouth of the Neva, ships were not able to reach Saint Peters burg. and the canal from Kronstadt to the capi tal was built at a cost of $7,200.000 to overcome this barrier. It is 18.75 miles long and 22 feet deep, with a bottom width of 275 feet, except near Saint Petersburg. where it is only 207 feet. The .North Sea and Baltic Canal, now known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. runs from Ifoltenau on the Baltic to Brunshiittel on the Elbe. It is 60 miles long, has a bottom width of 85 feet and a depth of water of 28 feet. By this canal sea going vessels save over 200 miles in going from the Baltic to the North Sea. The Amsterdam Canal, like the Manchester, was built to connect an inland city with the sea. The total length of this canal is 16.5 miles from Amsterdam on the Zuyder Zee to the .North Sea, but as the route lay through the inlet called the Y and the \Vvker Slier, only 3 miles had to be excavated. This canal is SS feet 7 inches wide on the bottom and 23 feet deop. Besides these completed ship ea nals. a number of others have been projected and some of them put under construction. The most notable of these are the Panama and the Nicara gua canals (qq.v.) across the Central American isthmus, and those described in the article TRANS, ISTIIMIAN CANALS. For descriptions of canals for other than transportation purposes. see DRA1NACE: IRRIGATION : WATER SUPPLY, etc.