PART FOUR

CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES

AND CANADA

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CONGAREE RIVER. - 119.

In 1886 this river, in its original condition, had three- to four- foot navigation from its mouth to Columbia, S.C.

The plan, adopted in 1886, provides for securing a four-foot navigation throughout the lower forty-seven miles of the river.

In 1899 the construction of a movable lock and dam near Granby was authorized for the purpose of extending steamboat navigation to Columbia and $162,218 was expended on these projects up to July 1, 1904.

MONONGAHELA RIVER. - 120.

The project of canalizing the Monongahela river dates from 1828. In 1832 attempts were made to induce Congress to take up the work.

The Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the formation of the Monongahela Navigation Company in 1836, which engaged to undertake the canalization of the river from Pittsburg to the State line (now West Virginia), a distance of ninety-two and three-tenths miles, and to continue the canalization into the State of Virginia as far as that State would allow.

The company was incorporated in 1837 and the work began in 1838.

Originally, the lift of all locks was limited by law to four and one-half feet, but the number required was so great that this limit was increased to eight and even, in one case, to ten feet. The number required between Pittsburg and the State line was in this way reduced to seven.

The two locks nearest to Pittsburg were put in operation in 1841, when severe damage to the work and the financial straits of the State of Pennsylvania hindered further operations. Finally the State was obliged to sell the stock of the Monongahela company, that it had held, for $125,000. In 1844 the situation was improved, the works were repaired, the B. & O. railroad was build to Cumberland and Pittsburg was not reached by the Pennsylvania railroad until eight years later, 1852. These years were years of great prosperity for the Monongahela company as its works formed a part of the great National thoroughfare.

The capital stock of the company was doubled by act of the Legislature of 1848 and locks Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were, by the aid of this additional capital, completed and in operation in 1856; lock 7 was not completed till 1880.

In 1872 the National Government undertook the extension of the slack-water system to Morgantown, W. Va., by building locks 8 and 9. These locks, in connection with the seven locks and dams of the Monongahela Navigation Company, enabled boats drawing five and two-tenths feet of water to navigate the river from its mouth to Morgantown.

In 1896 the United States acquired the seven locks and dams of the Monongahela Navigation Company under condemnation proceedings. The value of these works was set at $3,761,615.46, which amount was appropriated for their purchase. The works were transferred in 1897 and the entire system was completed to Morgantown in 1899.

The project, adopted in 1897, provided for the construction of six additional locks and dams extending navigation to Fairmount, W. Va. (total estimated cost, $1,200,000). There is also a project, adopted in 1899, for the rebuilding and enlargement of the old locks. Locks. Nos. 10 to 15, inclusive, were opened to navigation in 1893 extending the slack-water system to Fairmount, as contemplated in the project of 1897. The enlargement of the old locks is incomplete.

Locks 1, 2, 3 and 4 are double locks each consisting of a large and a small lock, side by side.

The freight movement on this river is second only to that of the canal of Saint Marys, among the canals of the country, having developed rapidly from the beginning. The average receipts from tolls, as reported by the old company, are given here for certain five-year periods.

ALLEGHENY RIVER. - 121.

Prior to 1885 the Allegheny river was not navigable in low water, even by shallow draft. In that year the Davis Island lock and dam in the Ohio river, five miles below the mouth of the Allegheny at Pittsburg, was opened to traffic. This dam, when raised, afforded a navigable depth of about eight feet in the Allegheny river up to Garrison ripple, two miles above the mouth of the Allegheny.

Herr Island dam, located in the Allegheny one-half mile below Garrison ripple, was designed to prolong the slack-water navigation afforded by the Davis Island dam, along the remaining four miles of the frontage of Pittsburg on the Allegheny river.

The original plan was for a fixed dam and was adopted in 1890. The plan was subsequently changed so as to provide for a movable dam. The lock is of concrete and the dam comprises a five hundred-foot navigable pass of Chanoine wickets and two bear-trap weirs each, ninety-four feet long.

This lock and dam were completed in 1903 and have conferred immense benefits on the City of Pittsburg and the adjacent country.

In 1896 the river and harbor act provided for the construction of two other locks and dams in the Allegheny, one at Six Mile Island and one at Springdale.

These are to consist of fixed timber dams and concrete locks. When complete they will extend the slack-water navigation to Natrona, twenty-two miles above Herr Island dam.

The commerce on that part of the river under improvement was 2,293,429 tons in 1903, as against 1,688,000 tons in 1902.

OHIO RIVER. - 122.

The Ohio river, formed by the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny at Pittsburg, Pa., is of great importance as a water-way. Its total length from Pittsburg to Cairo, where it empties into the Mississippi, is nine hundred and sixty-seven miles, and a large number of important rivers join it along its course. While its importance is great, it has never been in good navigable condition and only when put into such shape can an accurate estimate be made of the volume of traffic seeking this outlet.

The system of improving this river by locks and dams was approved in 1875. The construction of the Davis Island dam, lock and dam No. 6 were provided for in 1890. The locks and dams Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6 were provided for in 1896, Nos. 7 to 18 in 1899, and No. 19 in 1902.

Of these, only the Davis Island dam (No. 1 of the entire series) has been reported in operation. It has been in operation since1885, when it was completed at a total cost of $940,000. The others of the nineteen are in various stages of progress; No. 6 at Beaver, Pa., is practically complete. Others are just begun. When completed these locks and dams will insure, at all times of the year, a safe navigation for boats drawing six feet and less.

The total amount expended on the project up to June, 1903, was $2,601,362, besides the amount spent on the Davis Island lock and dam.

MUSKINGUM RIVER. - 123.

The canalization of the Muskingum river was completed by the State of Ohio in 1840 and this canalized river was included in the State system of canals until 1887, when it was sold to the United States Government for $1,500,000.

This cession was made in order to relieve the State of the expense of maintenance and did not, in fact, bind the National Government to any program of improvement.

The United States has, however, pursued a very liberal policy toward this river improvement and now has on this river a system of ten locks and dams, furnishing six-foot navigation from its mouth at Marietta, to Zanesville, a distance of seventy-five miles.

The original improvements by the State, consisting of eleven dams and twelve locks, extended to Dresden, but when taken over by the Government the works were in very bad repaid. That part between Zanesville and Dresden was in utter ruins. The Government is now engaged in restoring this portion, and lock and dam No. 11 will probably be completed in 1907 or 1908.

The present project is for the National Government to restore the locks and dam necessary to extend navigation to Dresden and for the State to continue the canalization to Coshocton, a distance of thirty-three miles above Dresden, where it is proposed to connect the canal with the river improvement.

Of the ten locks now in existence on this river, it may be said that four of them are the old State locks repaired, which must soon be replaced by new structures.

{d = Deficit.}

LITTLE KANAWHA RIVER. - 124 also - 91.

The lower part of this river was canalized, between the years 1867 and 1874, by means of locks and dams, by the Little Kanawha Navigation Company.

The dams and locks of this company, four in number, have never furnished a reliable navigable channel in periods of low water and are now entirely out of repair.

Above Burning Springs the canalization has always been carried on by the United States Government. The work so far has consisted of the building of one lock and dam and channel work.

The commerce passing the river is not at all what it could be if the four locks and dams, owned by the Navigation company, were in repair. Their leaky condition is largely responsible for the low water that often delays traffic. This condition, growing continuously worse, causes a decrease in the river trade that would undoubtedly increase largely under more favorable circumstances.

{a = Average.}

GREAT KANAWHA RIVER. - 125.

In 1832 the James and Kanawha River Canal Company was formed and the Kanawha river was part of their property, to be utilized as deemed advantageous in connection with their great canal project.

In 1858 the Kanawha Board and Kanawha River Improvement Company was created. This Board undertook the improvement of the river from Loop creek shoals to the river mouth, subject to the instructions of the James and Kanawha River Canal Company.

In 1869 West Virginia annulled all rights of the company to the Kanawha river and placed it entirely under the control of the Kanawha Board.

In 1875 West Virginia transferred to the United States all rights, etc., on the Kanawha river and its tributaries up to the mouth of Howard and Anthony creek. The original project of the United States Government, adopted in 1873 and modified in 1875, provided for obtaining a navigable depth of six feet the year round throughout the whole river, ninety-six miles.

This project provided for locks and movable dams up as far as Paint creek and fixed dams and locks above that point. Of twelve, the total number planned, ten have been constructed, Nos. 2 to 11, inclusive, one being omitted by improved plans and No. 1 being postponed.

The total expenditure on the project, up to June 30, 1904, was $4,271,863.

{a = Average.}

BIG SANDY RIVER, INCLUDING TUG AND LEVISA FORKS. - 126.

In 1880 the construction of a lock and dam in Big Sandy river at Louisa, Kentucky, the junction of Tug and Levisa forks, was authorized by Congress. In 1899 two locks and dams were authorized in the Big Sandy between Louisa and the river's mouth.

In 1902 Congress authorized the completion of the locks and dams in the Big Sandy and of a lock and dam in both Tug and Levisa forks.

The work as yet is incomplete and only the lock and dam at Louisa are reported in operation in 1903.

The head of the projected system of slack-water navigation is at Pikeville on Levisa fork and at the mouth of Pond creek on Tug fork.

GREEN AND BARREN RIVERS. - 127.

The former system of slack-water navigation on the Green and Barren rivers, comprising four locks in Green river, one lock in Barren river and a total length of pools of two hundred miles, was completed by the State of Kentucky in 1841.

The State retained control of the company until 1868, when it was leased to the Green and Barren River Navigation Company for a term of thirty years.

In 1889 the United States purchased the unexpired part of this lease and assumed possession of this system and all property and privileges pertaining thereto, for $135,000.

The locks were then in bad condition and the approaches obstructed. The plan, adopted in 1889, was simply to restore the old condition and to rebuild where necessary.

Under date of August 11, 1891, the project of extending slack-water navigation to Mammoth cave was submitted to Congress. In conformity with this recommendation, one of the sets of locks and dams has been built and the site of the second selected. There are now five locks in Green river, with a sixth provided for, and one in Barren river.

The number of boats, rafts, etc., passing lock No. 3 has increased from nine hundred and one in 1889 to three thousand two hundred and forty-six in 1903, and while the tonnage for many years cannot be given, that of 1903 was without doubt the greatest up to that time. In the year 1903 the freight passing lock No. 3 amounted to 457,386 net tons.

KENTUCKY RIVER. - 128.

This river was canalized below Clear creek to its mouth by the State of Kentucky in the years 1835-1845. Five locks and dams were built, giving a navigable depth of six feet for ninety-five miles, except in low water.

The United States Government took over these works in 1880, at which time all five locks and dams were in a dilapidated and almost worthless condition.

In 1904, $2,479,612 had been expended and six-foot navigation had been extended to lock and dam No. 10, a total distance of one hundred and seventy-six miles.

In order to complete the project, locks and dams Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14 will be necessary and the total cost wil exceed, by a large sum, the amount authorized.

{No tolls are charged.}

ROUGH RIVER. - 129.

Formerly a lock and dam had existed on this river, built by the Rough River Navigation and Manufacturing Company. At the time the United States overtook the improvement of the river, these works were in ruin and all rights forfeited.

The lock and dam, built by the Government, is located about eight miles above the mouth of the river and the head of navigation is about twenty-one and one-half miles farther up the river, a short distance above Hartford, Ky. This navigation is for boats of four feet draught, although the locks will permit the passage of boats of greater draught.

This project, begun in 1885, was completed n 1896 and cost, up to 1903, $103,175.

{No tolls are charged.}

{a = Average.}

TENNESSEE RIVER. - 130.

The Tennessee river is six hundred and fifty-one miles long and, with its principal tributaries, forms a system of internal water-ways capable of being navigated more than thirteen hundred and fifty miles by steamboat.

The improvement of this river has been carried on for one hundred and eighty-eight miles above Chattanooga, but the locks and dams are below that point.

In the two hundred and thirty-seven miles below Chattanooga down to Riverton there are a number of short canals around shoals in the river.

Below Riverton there are two hundred and twenty-six miles, in which only three and one-half feet could be originally regarded as the ruling depth. This is now being dredged so there shall be a channel at least one hundred and fifty feet wide and at least five feet deep.

Between Chattanooga and Riverton there are canals at Big Muscle shoals, Little Muscle shoals, Elk River shoals, Coldbert and Bee Tree shoals. These are all to be from seventy to one hundred and twenty feet wide and six feet deep.

The canal at Big Muscle shoals and the Elk River canal are complete. Pending the completion of the other canals a good deal of money has been spent in improving the river navigation proper, to enable vessels to pass the shoals; but this navigation has never been satisfactory. Canalization of much more of this section of the river is necessary to satisfactory navigation, but is not justified at present by the trade requirements of the region.

The work so far done is of a high order and the traffic that passes the canals has no difficulties in that part of its route, but only in the river portions.

The total amount expended up to June 30, 1904, above Chattanooga, was $473,942; between Chattanooga and Riverton, $4,616,995, and below Riverton, $293,843.

The culverts in the locks in these canals are all four and one-half by six feet and the average time of a lockage is only seventeen minutes.

The United States has in these canals, eleven locks, one steel aqueduct, sixteen miles of canal trunk and embankment, one dry dock, forty-two buildings of various kinds, one hundred and twenty-eight acres of land, dredges, steamboats, etc. The statement is made that this plant is adequate to handle ten times the present commerce without increased cost. In order to develop this commerce it will be necessary to spend considerable sums in improving the lower reaches of the river, where the present condition of the river discourages the use of the improved and canalized part above.

{No tolls are charged.}

BLACK WARRIOR, WARRIOR AND TOMBIGBEE RIVERS. - 131.

BLACK WARRIOR RIVER, ALA.

Work so far done has been the completion of locks Nos. 10, 11, 12 and the bulk of masonry of lock No. 4 to be known as No. 13. Six-foot navigation can be carried nine miles above Tuscaloosa to lock No. 4. Beyond this there has been no improvement. The total amount expended up to June, 1904, was $781,783.

The present project, adopted by the river and harbor act of 1899, is for the construction of six locks and dams of a total lift of sixty feet, and to afford a channel for barges of six-foot draught at low water, the year round, the estimated cost is $1,534,000. Three of the six locks are completed and navigation is thereby opened for a distance of seventy-nine miles below Tuscaloosa.

Two more locks above Tuscaloosa would extend navigation twenty-five miles into the coal fields and should be built. The whole project will afford navigation for three hundred and sixty-two miles in Warrior river, from Demopolis, where it empties into the Tombigbee, and over one hundred and seven miles in the Tombigbee river.

OUACHITA AND BLACK RIVERS. - 132.

Under provisions of the river and harbor act of 1902, the improvement of these rivers has been commenced on an extensive scale.

The project approved and authorized contemplates the construction of nine locks and movable dams to provide a navigable depth of six and one-half feet from the mouth of Black river, Louisiana, up to a point ten miles above Camden, Arkansas, a total distance of three hundred and sixty miles, and at an estimated cost of $1,998,576.

The plan of the National Government for extending the slack-water navigation begun by the State of Illinois, from Copperas creek locks to the Mississippi river, was adopted in 1880.

It provided for the construction of two locks three hundred and fifty feet long between sills, seventy feet wide and having seven feet of water on sills. It provided also for securing a channel seven feet deep throughout.

The lock and dam at Kampsville, Ill., thirty-one miles above the mouth of the river, has been completed and in use since 1894, and that at La Grange, seventy-nine miles above the mouth, since 1890.

The tonnage conveyed over the river from 1894 to 1900 averaged 164,690 tons per year and the total tonnage for 1902 was 145,489.

GALENA RIVER. - 134.

In 1890 the City of Galena was authorized to improve the river and to construct a lock and dam, for which the United States Government agreed to pay $100,000 after one year's maintenance by the city. This sum was paid in 1894 and the works passed into the hands of the United States.

The traffic is small and remains about the same each year. In the years 1902-3, the lock was open for navigation two hundred and thirty-five days and there passed through, fourteen hundred and fifty-two passengers and six hundred and sixteen tons of merchandise.

The draught that can be carried at extreme low water is two feet.

WABASH RIVER. - 135.

The Wabash Navigation Company, chartered by Indiana and Illinois in 1846 and 1847, respectively, was given the right to improve the Wabash river for two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth and to collect tolls thereon, provided that the first work done should be the construction of a lock and dam at Grand Rapids. The State also reserved the right to make the navigation free under certain circumstances.

This company built a lock and dam at Grand Rapids, but did nothing else to improve navigation on the river. The dam was ten hundred and thirty feet long, fifty-seven feet wide, ten feet high, of cribwork filled with stone. This company spent at this point, $105,000.

In 1873, the lock and dam being in a badly decayed condition, the company offered to transfer its property to the United States Government and in 1874 the Government obtained possession on the payment of $7,000.

Since the works have come under the control of the Government considerable channel work has been done at a cost of $469,526, and the lock and dam at Grand Rapids have been rebuilt and opened in 1893. In 1903 about three hundred boats passed through this lock.

Recently this project has been disapproved by the River and Harbor Board.

{a = Average.}

OSAGE RIVER. - 136.

The construction of a lock and dam near the mouth of the river was authorized in 1890 at an estimated cost of $325,000.

The work actually cost about $500,000 and was completed in 1904.

UPPER WHITE RIVER. - 137.

This project, adopted in 1899, is to provide slack-water navigation from Batesville, Ark., to Buffalo shoals, a distance of eighty-nine miles.

This is to be accomplished by means of ten fixed dams with concrete locks at an estimated cost of $1,600,000. Of this amount only about $500,000 has been spent so far and the work is far from completion.

In 1903 the total tonnage passing through the canal was 29,000 tons.

FOX RIVER. - 138.

This canal, consisting of a short canal and a long canalized river, is sometimes separated into two canals, the first named being known as the Portage canal and the latter as the Fox River improvement.

The Wisconsin river, a tributary of the Mississippi, and the Fox, which flows into Lake Michigan, pass near each other in the upper part of their courses, running in opposite directions.

These rivers were rendered navigable only after considerable work in the way of river improvement, and the building of a canal two miles long across the summit between the two rivers was necessary in order to connect the two waterways.

The work was undertaken by the State of Wisconsin with the assistance of the National Government which granted the State, in 1846, about 691,200 acres of land along the course of the canal and rivers. This grant was to be used as Government aid in the building of the waterway.

This portion of this waterway that is a true canal, extends from Portage City on the Wisconsin river to Fort Winnebago on the upper Fox, and both rivers are canalized by means of locks and dams.

After having expended more than $400,000, the State of Wisconsin, in 1853, sold the incomplete works to the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company. This sale included the land granted to the state by the National Government.

The work was completed by this company and put in operation in 1856.

The completion of competing railroads caused almost complete abandonment of this route, which had never been brought into good condition, the portions of the route lying in the Wisconsin river being in an extremely unsatisfactory condition.

In 1866 all the rights and properties of the old company were sold to a new company, called the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Company.

The United States took possession of this waterway in 1872, paying for it, $145,000. The company reserved all land and other property not necessary to navigation.

The earliest project, that of 1848, called for canals forty feet wide at bottom and four feet deep, with locks one hundred and twenty-five feet long and thirty feet wide; these dimensions were subsequently enlarged.

The present project is one adopted in 1884 and modified in 1886. It provides for deepening and widening the channel of the Fox river from Green Bay to Montello to six feet deep and one hundred feet wide, and from Montello to Portage to a four-foot depth. It provides also for the renovation of twelve old locks.

The amount expended by the National Government from 1867 to 1903 on this and former projects was $3,105,906. The result of this expenditure was the construction of the eighteen new stone locks, nine composite locks, sixteen permanent dams, thirteen canals, a headwall and feeder at Appleton, the construction of various buildings, culverts, guard-gates, a dry dock and the deepening of the channel in many places.

The greatest draught that could traverse the Fox river and the canal was three and one-half feet in 1903.

The improvement of the Wisconsin river by wing-dams was abandoned in 1887.

Tolls were collected by the United States Government during the years 1872-1882, when they were discontinued.

They amounted to from $300 to $3,000 a year as follows:

{No tolls are charged.}

MISSISSIPPI CANAL. - 139.

St. Paul to Minneapolis.

In its natural condition the channel of the Mississippi river in this portion can be navigated in low water only by very small boats.

The project, under which the work is now being done, was adopted in 1894 and since that time the work has progressed with some modifications and much delay.

The project calls for two locks and dams and will insure a satisfactory slack-water navigation between these points.

The amount expended up to 1903 was $602,134, about one-half the total estimated cost, with less than half the work done.

YAMHILL RIVER. - 140.

The Yamhill river rises in the Coast range and joins the Willamette, about forty miles above its mouth.

In 1896 the construction of a lock and dam was authorized to provide three and one-half-foot navigation from its junction with the Willamette to McMinnville.

On this work $247,747 was expended up to June, 1903.

{No tolls are charged.}

BAYOU LAFOURCHE, LA.

Bayou Lafourche is an outlet of the Mississippi river, forming a junction 70 miles above New Orleans. It is about 105 miles long and flows into the Gulf of Mexico. In its original condition it was obstructed by logs, snags, and overhanging trees. The project of 1879 provided for the removal of such obstructions to improve low-water navigation. Work under this project was carried on until 1885 with appropriations aggregating $30,000.

The project of June 11, 1886, provided for the construction of a lock to connect the Bayou with the Mississippi river and for dredging a channel 75 feet wide and 5 feet deep at mean low water at an estimated cost of $450,000, and $8,000 annually thereafter for maintenance. Work under this project, owing to the inadequacy of appropriation, was confined to dredging, and nothing was done concerning lock construction.

On September 2, 1896, the project of 1886 was modified by holding in abeyance the provision concerning lock construction and restricting operations to dredging for the maintenance of low-water navigation at an estimated cost of $25,000 per annum. Under this project operations were carried on in 1897 and 1898 and about 38 miles of channel improved. From the last-named date to June 30, 1905, dredging operations were carried on at an aggregate cost of $257,990.74.

The river and harbor act of June 13, 1902, directed an examination and survey for a lock and dam at the head of the Bayou, to be constructed at the expense of certain State levee boards in accordance with plans and specifications approved by the Secretary of War. Plans were approved by the Secretary of War, who also granted permission, under certain conditions, for the construction of a temporary dam. Detailed plans for the lock were approved by him on Nov. 20, 1903, and subsequently modified with reference to construction of guard-gates. By joint resolution of Congress, approved April 13, 1904, the time for the removal of this temporary dam and the construction of the locks was extended for an additional period of three years.

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