USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Centennial history of the city of Washington, D. C. With full outline of the natural advantages, accounts of the Indian tribes, selection of the site, founding of the city to the present time > Part 31
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Upon reaching the ground selected for the beginning of opera- tions, one or two hundred yards east of the Washington Canal, the procession formed a hollow square, in the center of which was the spot marked by Judge Wright, the engineer of the company, for the commencement of the work. At that precise moment, the sun burst forth from behind a cloud; and the Mayor of Georgetown handed the spade to HIon. Mr. Mercer, president of the company, who stepped forward from the column and addressed the assembled multitude as follows:
" FELLOW-CITIZENS: There are moments in the progress of time which are counters of whole ages. There are events the monuments of which, surviving every other memorial of human existence, eternize the nation to whose history they belong, after all other vestiges of its glory have disappeared from the globe. At such a moment we have now arrived; such a monument we are now to found."
Then turning to the President of the United States, Hon. John Quincy Adams, who stood near, Mr. Mercer addressed him in a short speech, and then presented to him the spade with which he was to perform the ceremony of breaking ground. The President himself
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made an address of considerable length, at the conclusion of which a national salute was fired, when the chairman of the committee of arrangements delivered an address, and was followed by Mr. Stuart. At the conclusion of Mr. Stuart's speech, sods of earth were dug in succession by the President of the United States, the president of the canal company, the mayors of Washington, Georgetown, and Alex- andria, the Secretaries of the War, Navy, and Treasury departments of the Government, the Postmaster-General, the Commander of the Army, the Revolutionary officers present, and the directors of the canal company, followed by a great many other persons. The procession then returned to the canal, thence to tide water, and thence down to Davidson's wharf, where they all landed. "Thus ended the most delightful commemoration of this eventful day that we have ever witnessed, and thus auspiciously was begun the work upon the Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal."
The company established its offices in the City Hall, in the second story, on the west side. John P. Ingle was the clerk, and served for many years.
July 8, 1828, the Board of Aldermen and Common Council of the city of Washington requested the Mayor to ask the officers of the canal company to locate and mark with as little delay as possible the route of so much of the said canal as passed through the city of Washington to the Eastern Branch; and that he be further requested to communicate the result of such application to the board as soon as practicable.
In response to this resolution the board of directors of the canal replied, that it would be inexpedient to expend any part of the capital stock in an extension of the canal below the entrance to the canal then in existence, at the head of the Little Falls of the Potomac, before the line of the canal leading thence to the mouth of the Shenandoah had been put under contract; that the president and directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company were not under any obligation to prescribe the eastern termination of the canal in the District of Columbia; and further, that if it were the desire of the corporation of the city of Washington, notwithstanding, that the eastern termi- nation of the canal should be then fixed by a vote of the company, the president and directors would, upon the request of the corporation, or of the directors residing within the limits of the city, call a general meeting of the stockholders for the purpose of submitting that ques- tion to their judgment. The request was accordingly made, and a meeting of the stockholders was held in the City Hall, September
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10, 1828. With reference to the local question -as to the eastern termination of the canal-to decide which the meeting had been called, Mr. Mercer said that his belief was, that the point of termina- tion was not fixed by the charter; that its most advisable termination was at the basin above Georgetown; but that he had never doubted that it would ultimately pass through the city of Washington, under distinet legislation of Congress, and concluded with submitting as the result of the deliberations of the board of directors a series of resolu- tions, to the effect that if the Attorney-General of the United States should be of the opinion that the charter of the company conferred authority therefor, and the corporations of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria should respectively assent thereto, the canal should extend to the mouth of Rock Creek, on the plan of the engineers, Benjamin Wright and John Martineau.
September 17, an adjourned meeting was held and the above proposition was approved; that is, that the canal should terminate at a basin to be erected by the corporation of Washington at the mouth of the Tiber, and it was also agreed that it might be continued to Alexandria, and a branch be extended to the Navy Yard in Wash- ington. Payments on subscriptions were made as follows: October 3, $2; November 3, $2; December 3, $2; and so on monthly, $2 per month, at any of the banks in the District of Columbia, the Ilagerstown Bank, Maryland, or the branch of the Valley Bank at Charlestown, Virginia.
Preparations were made to lay the corner stone of the first lock of this canal on July 4, 1829, but the ceremony had to be postponed until a later day on account of the inclemency of the weather. On March 30, 1830, the water was let into the canal from the powder house down to the old locks, and navigation, which had been for some time obstructed by operations on this part of the canal, was then resumed, several boats having come down to Georgetown from the river above. This piece of the canal, which was about two miles in length, was described as a beautiful sheet of water, and as answer- ing all the expectations of its projectors and managers. Its beauty was of course enhanced by its prospective commercial value. One boat had traversed the entire two miles in fifteen minutes. The canal was permanently opened for navigation the same day, that is, March 30, 1830. It was from eighty to one hundred feet wide, and its minimum depth was six feet. In addition to the two miles of the new canal, one-twentieth of a mile of the old Potomae Canal was used, connecting it with the river at the head of Little Falls. The
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prism of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was more than double that of the Erie Canal, thus giving much greater facility of draught. The line up to Seneca was under contract, and it was expected to be con- pleted that far by June 1, 1830.
The same officers were elected in June, 1830, that had previously served the company. The canal was completed, including the con- struction of the locks from Georgetown to Seneca, a distance of 22 miles, by July 4, 1830. In this distance there were 24 locks of hewn stone, a large basin common to Washington and Georgetown, covering eight acres, and embracing 13 miles of wharf; 5 or 6 stone bridges in Georgetown; 8 large culverts and several small ones; 2 dams built on an entirely new plan, of solid masonry, and several walls, varying from 40 to 50 feet in height. The canal was nearly completed to the " Point of Rocks," and but for the legal controversy with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, it was believed the canal would have been completed that year to Harper's Ferry. In the distance from Georgetown to Seneca, there was about 190 feet of lockage, a little more than one-third of the entire lockage from tide water to Cumber- land, so that the canal had passed through the most difficult part of the distance.
About April 1, 1831, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed a resolution requesting their Senators and Representatives in Congress to endeavor to procure the passage of a law authorizing the United States to subscribe $1,000,000 toward the completion of the western end of the canal. The canal was to be completed to the Point of Rocks that year, but the twenty-seven miles between Seneca and the Point of Rocks would be useless unless it was constructed beyond the Point of Rocks to the feeder. This point was involved in litigation between the canal company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The canal was in operation from Seneca to Georgetown, and its usefulness was demonstrated by the fact that one boat could bring down in one day as much produce as could be brought down by four horses and a wagon in a month. It formerly cost fifty cents per barrel to get flour from Seneca to Georgetown, but by the canal it could be brought down for seven cents per barrel. The canal was opened for the season of 1831, on March 21, and by the end of the month there was received $8,400 in tolls. The amount of produce which passed down to Georgetown by May 14, that year, was as follows: Flour, 83,106 barrels; whisky, 752 barrels; wheat, 7,401 bushels; bacon, butter, and lard, 84,540 pounds; corn, 202 bushels; hemp, 4,000 pounds; iron, 85 tons; bran, etc., 1,190 bushels; besides
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a large quantity of stone, firewood, ete. The tolls amounted in that time to $17,049. The packet boat, Charles Fenton Mercer, left the bridge at Frederick Street, Georgetown, for Seneca, at seven o'clock every morning; fare to Crommelin, 373 cents; to Seneca, 50 cents; breakfast, 31} cents; dinner, 50 cents; supper, 25 cents; wine at from 50 cents to $1.50 per bottle.
The first 48 miles of the canal were laid out and marked on the ground by Dr. John Martineau, a civil engineer, under the supervision of Benjamin Wright. They were divided into about 90 sections, and comprehended in that distance 2 aqueducts-one of three and the other of seven arches, of 54 feet span each; 74 culverts; a dam across the Potomac at the head of Little Falls, 1,750 feet long, and another at the head of Seneca Falls 2,500 feet long; 27 lift locks, besides a tight lock and a guard lock; 17 houses for the lock keepers, two of which were built large enough to serve as places of rest for passengers; 3 feed- ers from the river and one from an intermediate stream; several basins, one of which was designed as a capacious harbor for boats, and was sustained by a mole across Rock Creek, erected in 20 feet of water, and was 1,000 feet long and 160 feet wide, through which a lock connected the navigation of the canal with the tide water of the Potomac.
The progress of the canal was arrested by the injunction of the Chancellor of Maryland, granted almost immediately after the organi- zation of the company, and brought at the suit of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. This injunction was continued until reversed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, January 5, 1831, during all of which time the canal from Seneca Falls to the Point of Rocks was awaiting a supply of water from Harper's Ferry; and after the dissolution of the injunction the canal had to be extended through the fourteen miles of disputed territory and up to Harper's Ferry Falls, where there was a dam already erected by the United States Government. This portion of the canal was speedily let to experi- enced contractors, as well as that portion between Rock Creek basin and the mouth of Tiber Creek, the eastern terminus of the Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal. Thirty-six miles above the head of Harper's Ferry Falls were also contracted for, in order to complete one hundred miles of the canal in five years, as required by the charter. Sixty- four miles of the canal were completed and capable of navigation by October, 1833.
Up to December 1, 1833, there had been received into the treasury of the company the following sums of money: Subscriptions to the
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capital stock, $3,589,252.64; on account of the compromise, $177,- 333.35; tolls, $94,538.27; old houses and materials sold, $514.80; sums paid agents, refunded, $752.31; profit on the sale of Maryland stock, $4,703.03; interest received from delinquent subscribers, $989.79; costs of snit recovered, $3,847.62; on debts of the Potomac Com- pany, $784.82; loans at the several banks, $55,000; total amount, $3,927,716.63. The entire expenditures had been up to the same time, $3,707,262.43.
In explanation of the above amount received on account of compromise, it should be stated that some months previously the two litigant companies, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, had compromised their difficulties by the acceptance on the part of each of an act of the Legislature of Maryland passed for the purpose of securing the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Harper's Ferry. By this compromise the railroad company bound themselves to pay to the canal company, in consideration of the damage that might be done to the canal, and of the interruption or hazard to which its navigation would be unavoidably exposed in the construction of the railroad along the margin thereof, for grading the four and one-tenth miles of the road between Harper's Ferry and the Point of Rocks, described below, the sum of $266,000. The said four and one-tenth miles consisted of a space to be laid off between the entrance of the bridge at Harper's Ferry and a point two miles therefrom, according to the location of said road, which was to be below Millar's Narrows; of one mile and one-twentieth extending from a point opposite to the door of the chief public house at the Point of Rocks np the valley of the Potomac, comprehending the lower Point of Rocks; and one mile and one-twentieth extending above and below the upper Point of Rocks so as to comprehend the same; making all that part of the canal at those places in which an interference exists, between the location of the canal and the railroad.
Shortly after this compromise was effected, an election of president and directors of the canal company was held in June, 1833, at the City Hall in Washington. It resulted as follows: John II. Eaton received 5,054 votes to C. F. Mercer's 3,430. The directors elected were William Price, J. J. Abert, W. Gunton, W. Smith, Phineas Janney, and R. H. Henderson. To the friends of Mr. Mercer his defeat was a sore disappointment, as they looked upon him as the great promoter of the canal. They could, however, console themselves only with the reflection that it was the shares of stock that elected
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Mr. Eaton, while the individual stockholders were very largely in favor of Mr. Mercer, the vote on this basis standing 2,362 for Mr. Mercer, to 1,030 for Mr. Eaton.
In order to assist the company in completing the canal, the Legislature of Maryland, in March, 1835, offered to loan the company $2,000,000 on certain conditions. At a general meeting of the stockholders, held at Washington, April 22 following, after full discussion of the proposition, it was resolved by the company to accept the loan with the terms. At that time the navigation of the canal was continuous for a distance of 110 miles from Washington, exclusive of 9 miles of slack water navigation above dam No. 5.
In February, 1836, a report was made by the company to the Legislature of Maryland, showing that 109 miles of the canal were in operation. These 109 miles had cost $4,838,271, and it was estimated that to extend the canal from the 109th mile to the Great Cacapon, a further distance of 27 miles, would cost $1,022,534; to the line near the South Branch, 31 miles, $1,793,048, and to Cumberland, a distance of 193 miles, $745,037; making a total of $8,398,890. George C. Washington was then president of the company, and he was reelected June 22, 1836, and again in 1837.
At this. point it may not be improper to digress sufficiently to narrate the construction of the Alexandria Canal, and the aqueduct across the Potomac at Georgetown by which it was supplied with water. The first spadeful of earth was thrown up in the construction of this canal, July 4, 1831. The aqueduct itself was begun in 1833. At first the engineer was overruled, and several contractors failed in their attempts to build circular cofferdams in which to sink the piers. The board of directors then placed Major William Turnbull, of the corps of topographical engineers, in charge of the work, and he held the position until it was completed. The aqueduct was built across the Potomac at Georgetown, and conveyed the water from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal. It consisted of two abutments and eight massive stone piers one hundred feet apart, supporting a wooden trunk, which was originally designed to be of stone. The foundation of these piers rested on the rocky bottom of the river, reached through twenty feet of water and twenty feet of mud. When completed, it was said of it, "As a hydraulic work it ranks number one, and may be boldly pointed to in comparison with anything of the kind at home or abroad." After several attempts and considerable difficulty, the canal was at length opened to Alexandria on December 2, 1843. The canal was seven
20
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miles long from the aqueduct to Alexandria, with no lock or other interruption to navigation. The president of the canal company, the Mayor of Alexandria, and a large number of citizens went up to the aqueduct in the morning, and there, with the engineers and other officers of the company, embarked in the canal boat Pioneer, and after a passage of a little more than an hour reached the termination of the canal at the junction of Washington and Montgomery streets. In the afternoon of the same day, a canal boat came down from Washington County, Maryland, loaded with flour. The officers of the canal company at that time were William Fowle, president; Hugh Smith, Phineas Janney, Robert H. Miller, Thomas E. Baird, Robert Jamieson, and G. II. Smoot, directors.
During the years 1838 and 1839, the company experienced great difficulty in completing the upper end of the canal, because of the actual expense so far outrunning the estimates; and it began to be feared by the friends of the canal that the Legislature of Mary- land, which State was the great stockholder and supporter of the enterprise, would decline to render further assistance, unless the canal were turned over to her as security for money advanced, and to be advanced. Up to March, 1839, the various sums invested in the canal were as follows: First, her commuted stock in the old Potomac Company; second, $500,000 subscribed to the original capital; third, $125,000 to save the dams; fourth, $2,000,000 on loan to the company on pledge of the revenue of the canal; fifth, $3,000,000 subscribed on a guaranty of six per cent. per year on the amount, after the expira- tion of three years. Thus she was guaranteed the entire revenue of the canal. The Government of the United States had $2,500,000 of stock, and she, together with the State of Virginia and the indi- vidual stockholders, who, in 1839, had been for ten years and more lying out of their money and out of any dividends upon it, could receive no dividend until Maryland had received her six per cent. upon her advances. There was then needed, to complete the canal to Cumberland, $2,320,871 more than had been estimated, and it was this unexpected state of affairs which caused the contemplation of a policy which, had it been pursued, would have been suicidal in the extreme.
In April, 1839, water was let into 27 miles of the canal at the upper end, making 137 miles of this great work completed, and leav- ing only 50 miles to finish to Cumberland. In the meantime, the State of Maryland had decided to subscribe to the stock of the com- pany $1,375,000 more, to which the company at a general meeting of the stockholders agreed, May 11, 1839. They also, at the same
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time, agreed to the proposal of the State to exchange $3,200,000 of five per cent. sterling stock of the State for the $3,000,000 six per cent. stock already subscribed by the State.
On June 3, 1839, Francis Thomas was elected president of the company. The chief engineer of the company at that time was Charles B. Fisk. Ilis estimate of the entire cost of the 50 miles above mentioned as necessary to complete the canal to Cumberland, was $4,440,657, upon which, however, there had then been expended about $950,000. In March, 1840, according to the report of the same engineer, there had been expended on the six-sevenths of the canal that were completed a little over $10,000,000, and there was needed to complete the remaining one-seventh $2,300,000. IIe said that the canal could not prove profitable to the stockholders until this remain- ing one-seventh should be finished. At a meeting of the company at Washington, held in the City Hall, July 20, 21, and 22, 1840, it was decided to remove the offices of the company from Washington, where they had been ever since the organization of the company in 1828, to Frederick, Maryland, and it was unanimously resolved that the thanks of the company be extended to the corporate authorities of Washing- ton for the gratuitous use of the apartments of the City Hall during that length of time.
Early in 1841, George C. Washington was compelled to retire from the presidency of this company. He said it was under party proscription of his own State, and that of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury being the agent voting the stock of the United States. The indebtedness of the company at that time was somewhat more than $3,000,000, and the assets were $4,936,937. At a meeting of the stockholders, held April 1, 1841, Michael C. Sprigg was elected president, to succeed President Washington.
An act was passed by the Legislature of Maryland, at its session of 1841, to secure the completion of this canal. Section 1 of this act provided that whenever the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company should agree to all the provisions of the act, it should then be the duty of the commissioner of loans of the State to issue, from time to time, to the company in sums of not less than $100 certificates of stock of the State, to an amount not exceeding $2,000,000, irredeemable for thirty years, and redeemable afterward at the pleasure of the State, bearing six per cent. interest, payable semi-annually.
Section 4 provided that for the purpose of providing for the pay- ment of the debt thus authorized the annual sum of $25,000 should be paid from the tolls of the canal.
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"SECTION 10. AND WHEREAS, It is to be apprehended that the canal will reach Cumberland before any effective effort will be made to open and complete the several railroads which are to connect the canal with the coal mines, in which case there is danger that the State may be compelled to make these railroads at the public expense;
"Therefore be it enacted, That before any contract shall be made for the completion of the said canal to Cumberland, or bond or certificate issued under the provisions of this act, the treasurer of the Western Shore shall certify, under his hand and seal of office, to the president and directors of said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, that the companies hereinafter named, incorporated by the Legislature of this State, to wit: 'The Baltimore and New York Coal Company,' 'The Maryland and New York Iron and Coal Company,' 'The Maryland Mining Company,' and 'The Clifton Coal Company,' have severally given satisfactory bonds to the State of Maryland, conditioned for the construction and completion of a railroad adequate to convey to the canal the products of their prospective mines, the same to be completed, ready for use, simultaneously with the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to Cumberland."
"SECTION 12. That no part of this bill shall be operative until one or more of the incorporated companies, coal or iron, in Allegheny County, shall have entered into bonds, with security, to the State of Maryland, to be approved by the treasurer of the Western Shore, to pay $200,000 per annum for five years, for the transportation of their own coal, iron, or other materials or goods, at the expiration of each and every year from and after six months after the completion of the said canal to Cumberland"; and they were not to be released from the payment of this amount on the whole amount of articles transported by them until the same, at the rate of tolls charged by the canal company, exceeded in cost the sum of $200,000.
For the year 1841, according to the report of Charles B. Fisk, chief engineer of the company, there had been done on the fifty miles of unfinished canal, $231,107 worth of work, and the amount needed on January 1, 1842, to complete the canal was $1,591,136. During that year the canal had been navigable for about 300 days. The canal was 6 feet deep, and the locks 15 feet wide and 100 feet long. A boat load was 80 tons, and the toll on the canal for coal was $1 per ton, from Cumberland to Georgetown.
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