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 33
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February 28, 1851, at a meeting at Gadsby's Hotel, Samuel Sprigg, of Maryland, was elected president of the company, to succeed General Coale, resigned. March 14, 1851, the appropriation of Deceni- ber 5, 1850, was increased to $3,000, and the president and directors of the company were tendered the use of rooms in the basement of the City Hall, in case they should remove the offices of the company to Washington.
By November 12, 1851, the canal was completed from end to end, and from forty to fifty boats had arrived with coal from Cumberland, some of them carrying as much as one hundred and twenty-five tons. Wheat at that time coming in on the canal sold at eighty-five cents per bushel. There were then two passenger boats running, and one other ready to be added, and there was plenty of custom for them all. One of the features of interest connected with the canal was the steam tug Virginia, owned by R. S. Demy & Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, put upon the canal for the purpose of towing boats, and on November 17 it was said that up to that time the experiment had worked well. The Virginia could easily tow six boats at a time. Her paddle wheels were so constructed that the recoil was reduced to a minimum, and, in fact, was almost annihilated.
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The steam canal boat President arrived Angust 19, 1852, at Georgetown from Cumberland. This boat belonged to Ward's line, and had two propellers, worked by a twelve horse-power steam engine. She traveled six miles per hour without injury to the banks of the canal. She was cighty-eight feet long by twelve feet beam, and commenced running regular trips from Georgetown to Harper's Ferry and Cumberland August 23, 1852. For the year 1852, the tonnage of the canal was as follows: Ascending, 16,226 tons; descending, 151,369 tons; total, 167,595 tons. The tolls amounted to $92,248.90.
Other efforts to use steamboats on this canal were subsequently made, but none of them were entirely satisfactory, no matter how promising they at first appeared. The canal steamer James L. Cathcart made a trial trip June 30, 1857, from Georgetown to Alex- andria, her speed being five miles per hour. October 26, 1858, this propeller made a trip from Cumberland to Georgetown in sixty-four and a half hours, the quickest trip made up to that time.
To close this account of the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the following statement is interesting. It shows the stock and debts of the company and the actual cost of the canal, exclusive of interest on $3,718,000: Preferred debt, $3,837,651; stock not belong- ing to the State, $3,718,000; State stock, bonds, and interest, $9,049,000; State loss by interest paid on bonds for its stock, $5,000,000; total, $21,604,651.
A brief account of the Washington Canal is here inserted. It was a project early contemplated, as on September 1, 1792, proposals for cutting it were received. The proposals were to cut it from tide water in the Tiber to tide water in James Creek, a length of about one and one-eighth miles; its breadth at the bottom to be 12 feet, and at the top 15 feet. The depth was not to be uniform, but the greatest depth was not to exceed 12 feet, and the bottom was designed to be two feet below ordinary low water. Mr. Herbaugh calculated the cut to contain 21,760 solid yards, but not relying implicitly on Mr. Herbaugh's calculations, the commissioners proposed to pay by the cubic yard. This was the beginning of the enterprise. Not to dwell too long on the details of the history of this canal, as it was never of much commercial value to the city, but was a great expense, and toward the last, at least, when the city had become one of considerable size, a great nuisance, it is deemed sufficient to sum- marize its history, and give a general description of it as it was when completed. It commenced at the lock of the Georgetown Canal near the foot of Seventeenth Street, forming a large triangular basin
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called "The Mouth of the Tiber." Between that street and West Fifteenth Street it ran from the eastern extremity of the basin along North B Street to a point between West Seventh Street and Sixth Street, a distance of about 5,200 feet. Here it took a southern course for about 775 feet. Again turning to the east and after running 1,570 feet it came to West Third Street. It then turned south and ran to Maryland Avenue, a distance of 623 feet, and there shunting off toward the southeast for a distance of 2,365 feet it reached South Capitol Street, along which it ran 705 feet to a point below Virginia Avenue. It then ran 1,988 feet to Second Street East, where it took a southern course down to the Eastern Branch, a distance of 2,100 feet, making the entire length of the canal 15,326 feet.
The breadth of the canal at its eastern extremity was 150 feet; from the first bend down to Maryland Avenue it was 70 feet wide; from this point down to South N Street it was 40 feet wide; below the bridge across New Jersey Avenue it was 19 feet wide; and south of South N Street it formed a basin 100 feet wide. The sole of the canal was originally four feet below low water, and either level or very nearly so.
A great deal of money was expended from time to time on this canal, but it was never made of much use for the original purposes for which it was constructed, viz., that of affording means of trans- porting goods into the center of the city; and at length, when the era of improvement came upon the city, in 1871, the canal, as has been said in another chapter, was cleaned out and arched over, and converted into a sewer, one of the largest in the world, so that now it is serving a most useful purpose.
The history of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commences, like that of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, in the old Potomac Company; hence this connection between the two is here briefly related. The commissioners who were appointed, in 1822, to examine the state of navigation of the Potomac River, pointed out the advantages of a continuons canal from Cumberland to tide water, to be connected with Baltimore by a lateral canal from the Monocacy or Seneca, or by an extension through the District of Columbia. In 1825, Maryland assented to the act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, with a reservation of the right to constrnet any lateral canal whatever within her own territory, and upon the expressed condition that Congress should provide some safe or practicable mode whereby the right should be secured to her of constructing a canal to Baltimore, from that part of the main canal which should be in the District of Columbia. In 1826, Maryland authorized a subscription of
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$500,000 to the capital stock of the main canal, and the same amount to the stock of the company for making or extending the canal to the city of Baltimore, upon the condition that Congress should subscribe $1,000,000 to the eastern section, and by law expressly secure to her the right to take and continue the canal aforesaid; and provided further, that the practicability of constructing the canal to Baltimore should be demonstrated.
In 1827, Congress not having subscribed, and General Barnard, with the corps of United States engineers, after making the survey of the route for the canal with scientific precision, having estimated the entire cost to be $22,375,427.69, and that of the first section alone from Cumberland to tide water, in the District of Columbia, at $8,177,081.05; and it being also ascertained by the survey of Dr. Howard that it was impracticable to make a lateral canal to Baltimore by any of the routes through Montgomery County, as proposed by the commissioners in 1822, and that the extension of the main canal through the District of Columbia would cost $3,000,000, all hope began to abate of accomplishing the object by means of a canal; and it was then that Maryland gave her countenance to the aid of a railroad, coming before her, as it did, with the experience of Europe to prove the practicability of such a road. In consequence of the use of steamboats and other improved facilities opened by New York and Pennsylvania for the purpose of securing the trade and commerce of the great and growing West, the trade of Balti- more was at that time notably diminishing. Baltimore, therefore and thereupon, took hold of the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, from that city to the Point of Rocks, and ultimately to some point on the Ohio River. Philip E. Thomas, who was then con- missioner on the part of the State of Maryland in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, resigned that position, and in connection with George Brown, devoted himself thenceforth to the formation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. George Brown was a brother of William Brown, afterward a member of the English Parliament, and was frequently in receipt from this English brother of documents containing much valuable information on the progress of the Manches- ter and Liverpool Railroad. Mr. Thomas also had a brother, Evan Thomas, of Baltimore, who was then in England, and who there collected many facts relative to the successful operation of the many short railroads then in existence in England, which facts he sent to his brother in this country. These facts and documents, upon being compared by Philip E. Thomas and George Brown, led them to the
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conclusion that a railroad could be built and made practicable between Baltimore and the Western waters, and that on the early consumma- tion of this enterprise depended the future commercial prosperity of Baltimore.
A meeting was therefore called, to be held at the residence of Mr. Brown on February 12, 1827, "to take into consideration the best means of restoring to the city of Baltimore that portion of the western trade which has lately been diverted from it by the introduction of steam navigation, and by other causes." The facts and documents above referred to, illustrating the efficiency of railroads for conveying articles of heavy carriage at small expense, were presented to the meeting, which became convinced that this mode of transportation was far superior to either common turnpike roads or canals, and a committee was appointed to collate and report upon the facts so presented, and to recommend the best course to be pursued to accomplish the object proposed. This committee was composed of Philip E. Thomas, George Brown, Benjamin C. Howard, Talbot Jones, Joseph W. Patterson, Evan Thomas, and John V. L. McMahon. Their report, a very able document, was presented to an adjourned meeting, held February 19, 1827. In this report they stated that even then 2,000 miles of railroad were "completed or in a rapid progress in that country, and that they had fully answered the most sanguine expectations of their projectors"; and they recommended "a double railroad" from Baltimore to the Ohio River. Maryland, in view of the activity of her citizens, incorporated the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, in February, 1827, and at the same time repealed the condition of her subscription to the canal, that Congress should subscribe to the eastern section thereof. March 8, 1827, the charter of the company was enacted by Virginia, and on the 24th of April, the stock of the company having been subscribed, the company itself was organized, with the following directors: Charles Carroll of Car- rollton, William Patterson, Robert Oliver, Alexander Brown, Isaac MeKim, William Lorman, George Hoffman, Philip E. Thomas, Thomas Ellicott, John B. Morris, Talbot Jones, William Steuart. Philip E. Thomas was elected president of the company, and George Brown treasurer.
Upon application to the General Government a corps of engi- neers was deputed to survey a route for the railroad, consisting of Captain William Gibbs McNeill, Lieutenants Joshua Barney, Isaac Trimble, Richard E. Hazzard, William Cook, Walter Gwynn, and John L. Dillahunty, of the United States artillery, and William HIar-
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rison, Jr., assistant engineer. The company's engineers were Colonel Stephen H. Long and Jonathan Knight.
On June 20, following, these engineers commenced their reconnois- ance preparatory to selecting the route and site for the road. February 28, 1828, Pennsylvania chartered the railroad company in that State, and on March 3 Maryland, mainly through the efforts of John V. L. McMahon, authorized the subscription of half a million of dollars, on the condition that the company locate the road so that it should go to or strike the Potomac River at some point between the mouth of the Mono- cacy River and the town of Cumberland, in Allegheny County, and that it go into Frederick, Washington, and Allegheny counties. The United States engineers, on April 5, recommended that the route of the rail- road from Baltimore should be along the valley of the Patapsco, and then to the Point of Rocks, and afterward the company's engineers con- firmed this opinion, saying that the route by the valley of the Potomac possessed many advantages in respect to economy of construction, cost of motive power, and prospective commercial advantages. Agents were therefore sent out to secure the title to the lands along the proposed route, along which, however, there was but little choice to be had.
The subscription books of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- pany were closed March 31, 1827, on which day there were taken 13,387 shares, making in all 41,788 shares taken, of which 5,000 shares had been taken by the city of Baltimore. The amount of money subscribed in Baltimore alone was $4,178,800, divided among 22,000 persons or names.
The Baltimoreans were really in earnest, it began to be discovered, about this railroad business, for by April 30, 1828, they were devising a railroad from Baltimore to Washington. They applied to Congress to allow them to make that part of it falling within the limits of the District of Columbia on terms similar to those granted them in the State of Maryland, the charge on the transportation of goods to be not more than one cent per ton per mile for toll, and three cents per ton per mile for transportation, and for passengers it was not to exceed three cents per mile.
On the 4th of July, 1828, the corner stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was laid by the venerable Charles Carroll, in the presence of many thousands of people.
In January, 1829, four of "Winan's wagons" were put to work on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on a part of the road where there was a curve of about five or six hundred feet radius; and, while the rails made only a temporary road, and were not true, either
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horizontally or on the curve, yet upon this road a horse drew these four wagons, loaded with gravel and sand which, together with the wagons, weighed fifteen tons, backward and forward upon the road with ease; and it would therefore appear that upon a road properly graded and graduated, one horse could perform the work of thirty horses on a common turnpike road.
For some time after work on this railroad commenced, the question of the use of locomotives remained unsolved. In March, 1829, their engineers were in England, observing the success of railroads in that country. Their attention was given particularly to locomotives, and they found that they could be used where the ascent was as much as 72 feet per mile. On a part of the Killingsworth Railroad, where the inclination was 50 feet per mile, a locomotive descended with 20 loaded cars and ascended with the same number of empty ones. On the Stockton and Darlington Railroad they saw a locomotive of ten horse- power descend a slope of 10 feet per mile with a train of 12 loaded cars at 15 miles per hour, and return with the same wagons loaded at the rate of 10 miles per hour. The weight of each wagon was 25 hundred-weight, and the load of coal weighed 53 hundred-weight, or in other words, the load was in the aggregate 45 tons. From obser- vations such as these, it became evident that the power on railroads would soon be furnished by steam.
In January, 1831, application was made to Congress, by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, for permission to extend their road to the District of Columbia; but in this connection it was readily seen that if this company should be granted that privilege, the Washington Turnpike Company would be ruined. This company, some fifteen years previous to the time of asking for the privilege of extending the railroad, that is, in about 1815, when it was dangerous to attempt to travel over the wretched road then connecting Baltimore and Washington, and when at the best the journey took the better part of two days, had at great expense constructed their turnpike, and had accommodated the public in many ways. The turnpike had been largely advantageous to the two cities, and, in fact, to the entire country between them adjacent to the turnpike, and to everybody but to the stockholders themselves, who, a writer in the National Intelli- gencer said, did not for the first twelve years after constructing the road receive a cent in dividends; but that for the few years previous to 1830, the road had yielded something in the way of dividends; and then the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company "very modestly " came forward and proposed to make a railroad parallel to the turnpike, thus
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monopolizing a rich harvest and at the same time ruining the turnpike company. Such a course, though abstractly legal, was thought by some to be eminently unjust, inequitable, and impolitic; and hence it was argued that if Congress should give the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company the privilege of constructing its railroad from Baltimore to Washington, it was necessary, in order to be just, to compensate the turnpike company in some way for the losses that they would inevitably suffer.
As has been stated, the "corner stone" of this road was laid July 4, 1828, and with great ceremony. During the fall of 1829, the laying of the rails was commenced within the city of Baltimore, the first rails being laid on wooden sleepers, at the eastern end of the Mount Clare premises, under the direction of Major George W. Whist- ler and John Ready. The first division of the road was opened for passengers May 22, 1830, and during the first few months afterward the people of Baltimore continued to throng the depot to try the new mode of travel; and although but one track was completed and the number of cars limited, and these cars drawn by horses, yet the receipts up to the 1st of October amounted to $20,012.36. During the first year, there being no settled means of propulsion, Evan Thomas constructed a sailing car, which he named "The Eolus," which attracted wide attention. throughout the United States, and even in foreign countries. December 1, 1831, the opening of the branch road to Frederick was celebrated, and on April 1, 1832, the whole line was opened to the Point of Rocks, making seventy-three miles of the road then finished and in operation.
January 4, 1831, the company offered liberal inducements to the inventive genius and mechanical skill of the country for the produc- tion of locomotive steam engines. "The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, being desirous of obtaining a supply of locomotive engines of American manufacture, adapted to their road, the president and directors hereby give publie notice that they will pay the sum of $4,000 for the most approved engine, which must be delivered for trial upon the road on or before the 1st of June, 1831, and they will also pay $3,500 for the engine which shall be adjudged the next best and be delivered as aforesaid," subject to nine separate conditions, one of the most notable of these conditions being that the engine "must not exceed three and a half tons in weight, and must on a level road be capable of drawing day by day fifteen tons, inclusive of the weight of the wagons, fifteen miles per hour." The company agreed to furnish Winan's wagons for the test.
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The result of this call upon American mechanics was that three locomotives were produced, only one of which, however, answered the purposes of the company. This was made by Davis & Gartner, of York, Pennsylvania, and was named the "York." This locomotive traveled between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, a distance of about 12 miles, at the rate of from 15 miles per hour on curved portions of the road, to 30 miles per hour on straight portions of the line, though it did not displace horses for some time; indeed, the demands upon the road for transportation of freight and passengers were so great that it was not for some time after this that it had locomotives enough to allow of the doing away with horses. Abont October 1, 1831, the editor of the National Intelligencer had a ride on a railroad car for the first time, and as his paper had consistently favored the canal in preference to the railroad, it is interesting to note the impres- sions made on his mind by this novel mode of travel. Ile said: " We traveled in a large car, drawn by one horse, carrying eight or ten persons, capable, we suppose, of carrying thirty or forty. In the distance between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills the horse was changed but once going and coming, and in returning, the whole distance, thirteen miles, was traveled in fifty-nine minutes. The locomotive steam machine, by which ears loaded with persons are occasionally drawn, is propelled at about the same rate, and might be propelled much more rapidly if it were desirable, but for our part we have no desire to be carried by any mode of conveyance more than thirteen miles per hour. . . . And we do not think we should feel safe on a railroad in traveling by night at anything like that speed. . . . We owe it to the general reader to say that nothing occurred in the short examination we were able to give to the matter to change the opinion we have heretofore advanced of the relative value of railroads and canals as great highways of commerce."
In January, 1832, the Intelligencer was still of the opinion that canals were much superior to railroads for all the purposes of com- merce. This was, however, before the locomotive had become a success on railroads, and this fact ought to be taken into consideration when reflecting upon the pertinacity with which many people adhered to the same opinion. Canals were, of course, fully developed then, while rail- roading was in its infancy, though this fact, so clear now, was not capable of recognition then.
Both the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were delayed in their construction two or three years by litigation brought on by the latter company obtaining an injunction
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from the county court of Washington County, restraining further proceedings of the railroad company in obtaining titles to lands over which their railroad must pass, and over which it had already been located. This was followed by the railroad company obtaining an injunction restraining the canal company from taking any further steps in the construction or location of the canal which might render unavailable a decision in favor of the railroad company on the first injunction. And as the owner of the fee simple to the title of the pass of the Potomac on the Catoctin Mountain at the Point of Rocks, the railroad company still continued to prosecute the con- struction of its road at that place. Then followed a second injunetion by the canal company, restraining the railroad company from con- strueting the road at all in Frederick County, although the greater part of the railroad through that county could never come in collision with the canal. This last injunction was, however, afterward with- drawn by the canal company, so far as it related to land east of the Point of Rocks.
In January, 1832, the Court of Appeals decided the injunction cases by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company against the rail- road company, the decision preventing the railroad company from appropriating or using land for the railroad until the canal company should have located its canal between the Point of Rocks and Har- per's Ferry, and the progress of the railroad was thus for a time arrested again. The available space in the district to be preoccupied by the canal was either too narrow to admit the parallel passage of both the canal and railroad, or would at least be used by the canal company at its usual extreme breadth, and this would effectually exclude the railroad. There were, therefore, but four alternative modes of procedure:
1. To procure the permission of the canal company for the construction of the two works side by side from the Point of Rocks to Harper's Ferry.
2. To construct the railroad alongside of the canal upon such site as might remain after the canal company had exercised its right of choice.
3. To cross the Potomac at the Point of Rocks and ascend the valley on the Virginia side.
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