The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• In Senate of the United States.
• Report.
• Great Canals, Along the Atlantic Sea Coast.
• I.: Massachusetts Canal.
• II.: New Jersey Canal.
• III.: Delaware and Chesapeake Canal.
• IV.: Chesapeake and Albemarle.
• Communications Between the Atlantic and Western Waters.
• I.: Santee.
• II.: The Lower Or Great Falls of Roanoke.
• III.: James River.
• IV.: Potomac.
• V.: Susquehannah.
• VI.: Ohio.
• Communications Between the Atlantic Rivers, and the River St. Laurence and Great Lakes.
• I.: Hudson and Champlain, Or Northern Navigation.
• II.: Mohawk and Ontario, Or Western Navigation.
• III.: Niagara.
• Interior Canals.
• I.: Merrimack.
• II.: Schuylkill and Delaware.
• III.: Schuylkill and Susquehannah.
• IV.: Appomattox.
• V.: Neuse and Beaufort.
• VI.: Cape Fear River.
• VII.: New Orleans.
• Turnpike, Or Artificial Roads.
• Recapitulation and Resources.
• Circular Queries, By the Secretary of the Treasury, In Order to Obtain Information.
• Queries Respecting Canals.
• Queries Respecting Artificial Roads.
• Mr. Latrobe’s Communication.
• Mr. Fulton’s Communication.

I.

Merrimack.

The navigation of that river, which rising in the state of New-Hampshire, falls into the sea at Newburyport after a course of 180 miles, is interrupted by several falls. A canal called Blodget’s canal has been opened around Asmoskeag falls. Lower down and about 40 miles from the sea, the Essex canal, 4 miles in length, and admitting boats drawing 3 feet and a half, will open a communication around the Patucket falls, effecting through 3 locks, a descent of 34 feet. From the lower extremity of the canal, the river is navigable to the head of the tide at Haverhill, although the fall be 45 feet within that distance. No particular account has been received of the capital expended; but it is believed that the work will be profitable to the undertakers.

The Middlesex canal, uniting the waters of that river with the harbor of Boston, is however the greatest work of the kind which has been completed in the United States.

That canal, 12 feet wide and 3 1-2 feet deep, draws its supply of water from Sudbury or Concord river, a branch of the Merrimack, and from the summit ground extends six miles with a descent of 28 feet to the Merrimack above the Patucket falls, and 22 miles with a descent of 107 feet to the tide water of the harbour of Boston. The descent to the Merrimack is effected by three, and that to tide water, by nineteen locks. They are all 90 feet long, 12 feet wide, of solid masonry and excellent workmanship.

In order to open that canal, it was necessary to dig in some places at the depth of 20 feet, to cut through ledges of rocks, to fill some vallies and morasses, and to throw several aqueducts across the intervening rivers. One of these across the river Shawshine is 280 feet long, and 22 feet above the river. All those obstacles have been overcome, and boats of 24 tons, 75 feet long and 11 feet wide, can navigate the canal. Those in most general use are of smaller dimensions, and are drawn by two horses at the rate of three miles an hour. A raft of one mile in length and containing eight hundred tons of timber, has been drawn by two oxen, part of the way at the rate of one mile an hour. Common boats pass from one end of the canal to the other in 12 hours. The capital expended on the work is stated at 478,000 dollars, and the water rights and necessary land cost a farther sum of 58,000 dollars. The total expense has exceeded 550,000 dollars: the tolls have never yet exceeded 17,000 dollars a year, but are encreasing.

Several other canals have been contemplated in the state of Massachusetts, intended to unite the waters of Providence or Patucket river, with those of Charles river, which falls into the harbor of Boston, and of the river Connecticut. The grounds have been surveyed, but no particular description has been obtained, and the works have not yet been commenced.