Archer Butler Hulbert

“ Half a century ago, Washington, in that classic appeal to Harrison, of 1784, maintained that a great plan of communication between the East and West was practicable, in that "The western inhabitants would do their part towards its execution. Weak as they are," he said, "they would meet us half way." What a splendid comment it is on Washington's wisdom and foresight to record that these engines on the Allegheny Portage Railway, which hauled the first load of freight over the Alleghenies which ever crossed them by artificial means were made in the young West—in Pittsburg! ”

“ When looked at from such a standpoint, the lock canal is at once seen to be one of the grandest inventions of any age; it was every whit as far ahead of any system of transportation when it was discovered as the railway is in advance of the best canal today.
From this point of view—that of the comparative value of this method of moving freight over any method known before it—it must seem most inexplicable that the lock canal was the invention of moderns. ”

“ The later history of the Pennsylvania Canal well illustrates the restlessness of human hearts, and the mighty conquests over nature which restless ambition has made possible. One success, such as the Portage Railway, only suggested a greater one, a railway over the mountain. The road was only in fairly good working order when, in 1836, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a resolution ordering the canal commissioners to have a survey made of the Alleghenies to determine whether the inclined planes could not be dispensed with! ”

“ But when the Pennsylvania railway shall be constructed, Baltimore cannot for a moment withstand the competition of the enormous capital of Philadelphia. She may, indeed, construct a canal or a railway . . but little is to be apprehended, as the length and expense of constructing these works will be far greater than those contemplated in Pennsylvania. New York is the third rival . . but the communication between New York and Pittsburg must be effected by a long, tedious, and expensive voyage, requiring four changes of vessels. ”

“ Plans were already making by the rival companies for grand celebrations on the Fourth of July succeeding, when, near Washington, the ground should be broken for the canal, and, at Baltimore, the "Foundation of the Rail Road," in the shape of the corner-stone, should be laid. These rival celebrations attracted great crowds to the two cities on the day named. At Washington the streets were alive with people at an early hour, and at seven o'clock the directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company met the honored guests of the day at Tilley's Hotel. ”

“ The subject of fast and safe transportation of freight has become so commonplace in our day of railways that it is with difficulty that we catch any true idea of the economic importance to our forefathers of the invention and general use of such an ordinary thing as a good wagon. The meaning of the successful opening of a great canal, such as the Erie Canal, can hardly be understood unless one has known nothing of the problem of transportation save as represented by the pack-saddle and "Conestoga" wagon. ”

“ Having passed through its darkest days of struggle with the Canal Company and with the vexatious problems of internal betterment of rolling stock and motive power, the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road was now in 1836, quite ready to take advantage of the provisions of the new law which made it possible to throw its gleaming rails up the Potomac from Harper's Ferry to Cumberland and on to the coveted Ohio Basin. ”

“ The seed of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway lay in General Bernard's report of 1826, in which the cost of building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal across the mountains was estimated at a prohibitive figure.
Both companies went to work eagerly, and both sure of success. The infancy of the rail road science, and the fact that as yet nothing had been done in all the world on such a scale as was proposed by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, naturally rendered public opinion more or less skeptical; while as for the canal, success was practically assured. ”

“ We are willing that the Potomac canal should be made—but not at our cost; until, at least, we have fully ascertained what can be done in respect to a favorite measure of the same nature. But we must be permitted to doubt whether the people of the district would feel very zealous about the navigation of the Potomac, provided it was ascertained as practicable, and conditioned, that an arm of the canal should be extended to Baltimore, though the last is so much nearer the sea than Washington, &c. ”

“ The main one where the proposed tunnel is to pass, is hemmed in and surrounded by other high mountains, with steep slopes separated from one another by narrow ravines and presenting no favorable situation for canaling, either by lockage or tunneling. Here nature has refused to make her usual kind advances to aid the exertions of man; mountains are thrown together, as if to defy human ingenuity, and baffle the skill of the engineer. ”

“ Baltimore and Maryland had improved their opportunities by building many miles of fine roads, really extending the Cumberland Road to Baltimore and tide-water.
Baltimore's commercial prestige was secure so far as land ways were concerned. New measures calling for water ways now on foot, made popular by the great success of the Erie Canal, promised to overturn all previous considerations. The coach and freighter, it seemed, were now to be replaced by the easy-gliding canal-boat. Baltimore had been the metropolis for western trade during the reign of the freighter. ”

“ The disastrous floods of 1889 caused such damage to the waterway that a large sum was required to restore it. The state refused further financial aid and, in consequence, the canal lay abandoned. The Democratic politicians of the state, many of whom were interested in the West Virginia Central Railway, made an effort, through an act passed in Maryland legislature, to sell the valuable property and its franchises to that rail road for a nominal price; in fact were on the point of disposing, for about two hundred thousand dollars, of a property worth millions. ”

“ That it is a general opinion, that the navigation in the Potomac may be extended to the most convenient point below, or even above the mouth of Stony River, from whence to set off a road to Cheat River; and this conference is satisfied that that road, from the nature of the country through which it may pass, wholly through Virginia and Maryland, will be much better than a road can be made at any reasonable expense from Fort Cumberland to the Youghiogheny, which must be carried through Pennsylvania. ”

“ It maintained that a railway could be built from Philadelphia to Pittsburg in one-third the time it would take to build a canal and at one-third the cost; it would, moreover, be available almost the entire year, whereas the Erie Canal was navigable only two hundred and twenty days in the year. It urged that more persons would be required in the operation of a canal than a railway, and that the tolls would be higher on the former than on the latter. "If a railway, or even a canal, existed between Pittsburg and Philadelphia, New Orleans would not requite the consideration of a moment. ”

“ Thomas at its head, backed, in 1828, by four millions of dollars, beginning to build a rail road from Baltimore to the Potomac Valley, up the valley to Cumberland, and across the mountains to the Ohio River. It was evident at the start that the rivalry would be tremendously bitter; that the two companies would give rise to factions which would harm and decry each other in every way possible. The canal idea was, comparatively, very new, and the Erie Canal being successfully prosecuted from the Hudson to the Lakes had created immense enthusiasm. ”

“ The seventeenth century saw considerable canal digging, but the island is so narrow that in early days the coasting trade and navigable rivers answered almost all purposes of commerce. About the middle of the eighteenth century the growth of manufacturing centers wrought great changes, and for half a century canal building in England came to the fore, though south of Durham no point was fifteen miles from navigation. ”

“ Of a similar and equally important effect will be the Baltimore and Ohio rail road. While the one will have stemmed the torrent of the Mississippi, the other will have surmounted and reduced the heights of the Alleghany. . . It is not in mortals to command success, but if a determination to yield to no obstacle which human exertion can overcome . . can ensure success—success shall be ours. ”

“ THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL AND ITS SUCCESSOR
THE great early trade route through Pennsylvania in the days of the pack-horse and "Conestoga" wagon has been outlined in previous volumes of this series. [1] By means of Forbes's Road the metropolis of the United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Philadelphia, was in close connection with the metropolis of the Ohio Basin, Pittsburg. The rivalry with Baltimore had been keen, and the Philadelphia merchants were eager to overcome their handicap of nearly one hundred miles, by internal improvements of a most advanced pattern. ”

“ Yet, and notwithstanding we are to suffer this loss of capital and trade, if the canal should be made as heretofore proposed, we must pay one third of Maryland's share of the expense of making it: that is to say, 10,000 dollars a year will be added to the amount of our taxes, though such is our present condition that the usual taxes can hardly be collected, through the depreciation of property and want of business. ”

“ At the December session, 1844, application was renewed for a waiver of the state liens on the revenues of the canal so as to empower the company to issue its bonds, with preferred liens on its revenues to an amount not exceeding two millions of dollars. In principle and amount it was similar to the measure which had been proposed and rejected at the sessions of 1841 and 1842. Those who had been friends to the company during previous periods of difficulty were now conspicuous for their absence only, and the officers alone stood in vindication of the measure. ”

“ In laying out possible landward routes from the Ohio River to the seaboard for the Cumberland National Road, the commissioners found that the route to Baltimore was thirty-nine miles shorter than to Philadelphia, and forty-two miles shorter than to Richmond. The distance from the seaport of Baltimore to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela, where navigation by boat was almost always possible, was only two hundred and eighteen miles. Thus Baltimore was the natural eastern metropolis for the trade of the West. ”

“ The Morris Canal between the Hudson and Delaware "is peculiar," wrote the British engineer Stevenson, in 1837, "as being the only canal in America in which the boats are moved from different levels by means of inclined planes instead of locks. The whole rise and fall on the Morris Canal is 1557 feet, of which 223 feet are overcome by locks, and the remaining 1334 feet by means of twenty-three inclined planes, having an average lift of 58 feet each. . . The car [on which canal boats ascend and descend] . . consists of a strongly made wooden crib or cradle . ”

“ Though exceptionally interesting and suggestive, the Allegheny Portage Railway was only a link in a chain. The two great canals, in the valleys of the Juniata and Conemaugh were the greater links; a horse-car rail road was laid from Philadelphia to Columbia on the Susquehanna and this, soon supplied with locomotives, became the eastern link in the chain of communication of which the Pennsylvania Canal was the important part. By 1835 the complete system was in operation between Philadelphia and Pittsburg ”

“ The many Canals on foot here under different great Masters, are daily raising a number of Pupils in the Art, some of whom may want Employment hereafter, and a single Mistake thro' Inexperience in such important Works, may cost much more than the Expense of Salary to an ingenious young Man already well acquainted with both Principles and Practice. This the Irish have learnt at a dear rate in the first Attempt of their great Canal, and now are endeavoring to get Smeaton to come and rectify their Errors. ”

“ The spirit of this enterprising but unfortunate movement cannot be caught better than by studying the papers and projects of a "Society for promoting the improvement of roads and inland navigation," formed in Philadelphia at the beginning of the last decade of the eighteenth century and of which the able but unfortunate Robert Morris was president. Much of Pennsylvania's leadership in works of improvement was due to the activity of this organization. ”

“ We should regret, therefore, if our Baltimore neighbors should regard as an act of hostility to them, that which is, in fact, simply an assertion of our own rights. There is no disposition to embarrass their work, to which we desire all success ”

“ The cars run on plate rails laid on the inclined planes, and are raised and lowered by means of machinery driven by water wheels. . . The railway, on which the car runs, extends along the bottom of the canal for a short distance from the lower extremity of the plane; when a boat is to be raised, the car is lowered into the water, and the boat being floated over it, is made fast to the part of the framework which projects above the gunwale. ”

“ Schriver, a generation later, sought only for streams which could furnish sufficient water for a canal. As a result, Schriver was satisfied with the head of the Youghiogheny which, though it could never be made navigable, yet contained plenty of water to fill a canal. Schriver's proposed route, therefore, left the Potomac at the mouth of Savage River, ascended that stream and its tributary, Crabtree Creek. Reaching Hinch's Spring by means of a tunnel, [5] the canal would follow the North Fork of Deep Creek and Deep Creek itself to the Youghiogheny. ”