USA > Maryland > Washington County > Hagerstown > A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown > Part 36
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"Fellow Citizens: There are moments in the progress of time, which are the counters of whole ages. There are events, the monuments of which surviving every other memorial of human exis- tence, eternise the nation to whose history they be- long, after all other vestiges of its glory have dis- appeared from the globe." Turning towards the President of the United States, who stood near him, Mr. Mercer proceeded :
"Mr. President: On a day hallowed by the
Clearspring Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Episcopal Church, Hancock.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
fondest recollections, beneath this cheering (may we not humbly trust, auspicious) sky, surrounded by the many thousand spectators who look on us with joyous anticipation ; in the presence of the representatives of the most polished nations of the Old and New Worlds; on a spot, where little more than a century ago, the painted savage held his midnight orgies; at the request of the three cities of the District of Columbia, I present to the chief magistrate of the most powerful republic on earth for the most noble purpose that was ever conceived by man, this humble instrument of rural labor, a symbol of the favorite occupation of our coun- trymen. May the use, to which it is about to be devoted, prove the precursor to our beloved coun- try, of improved agriculture, of multiplied and di- versified arts, of extended commerce and naviga- tion. Combining its social and moral influence, with the principles of that happy constitution, under which you have been called to preside over the American people; may it become a safeguard to their liberty and Independence, and a bond of perpetual Union !
"To the ardent wishes of this vast assembly, I unite my fervent prayer to that infinite and awful Being without whose favor all human pow- er is but vanity, that He will crown your labor with his blessing and our work with immortality."
"As soon as he ended, the President of the United States, to whom Gen. Mercer had presented the spade, stepped forward, and with an animation of inanner and countenance which showed that his whole heart was in the thing."
President Adams' speech was beautifully and poetically expressed. He quoted Bishop Berkely's tribute to the "noble Empire of Time." There was a great deal of contrasting the conquests of the old world, "watered with the tears of the widow and the orphan, with the conquests of man over himself and over physical nature, the inspirations of genius and the toils of industry." The pro- gress of the United States towards perfection was outlined. The project of the canal "contemplates a conquest over physical nature such as has never yet been achieved by man. The wonders of the ancient world, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coilos- sus of Rhodes, the Temple of Ephesus, the Mausa- leum of Artemesia, the Wall of China, sink into insignificance before it-insignificance in the mass and momentum of human labor required for the execution-insignificance in the comparison of
the purpose to be accomplished by the work when executed."
While we canont help smiling at the exuber- ance of this language, it must not be forgotten that the canal, of which these gentlemen were speaking, was to tunnel the Allegany mountains, to connect the Great Lakes with the Eastern Sea- board, and to be the outlet for the productions of the great valley of the Mississippi, and by means of bateau navigation on the headwaters of the Missouri and Yellowstone to penetrate into the Rocky Mountains, and be the bond of perpetual union which was to bind thic East and the West together into one country.
Among the first questions to be decided was the depth and width of the canal. The charter had prescribed a depth of four feet and a width of forty feet. The United States recommended an increase in depth to six feet and in width to sixty feet. One reason assigned for the greater dimensions was that it takes much less power to propel a boat through the deeper than the shal- lower water. The truth of this is well understood at the present day by all engaged in steam navi- gation, but at that time it was only a theory and in order to test it, a short section of the canal was constructed according to each dimension and it was found that the gain in facility of transporta- tion in the greater body of water was enormous.
The importance of the consideration was also increased by the hope expressed in the president's first report that it would be found practicable to substitute on the canal steam for animal labor, and render it the cheapest and most agreeable as it was to be obviously the shortest channel of inter- course between the Eastern and the Western States. "Boats of elevated cabins and double decks, propelled by steam, will counteract, by a velocity of seven or eight miles an hour, the tran- sient suspension of their motion by the locks ; and by supplying the wants of every description of passengers, will afford at the same time, cheap accommodation to the needy and multiplied en- joyments to the rich." It seems strange that it did not occur to General Mercer that a speed of seven or eight miles an hour would have washed away his banks in a very short time. But the idea of steam was not abandoned for many years. In 1842 the subject was agitated but this time with reference to the transportation of coal. A gentle- man interested in the coal mines addressed an in-
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
quiry to the celebrated Erricson who died in March 1889; the inventor of the steam propeller and who played so important a part in history as the inventor of the turrit ironclad monitors. Mr. Erricson proposed to have a steamer, the machin- ery of which would weigh seven tons, tow a barge, the steamer and the barge each to carry a hundred tons of coal. He put the cost of the two boats at $4,000, and the cost of transportation forty- six cents per ton to which should be added ninety- four cents for canal tolls and thirty-five cents for transhipment at Georgetown and for contingencies. But the scheme of running fast passenger boats involved a freedom from too much delay at bridges, for this reason and on the score of economy, every effort was made to avoid the building of bridges. Where the canal cut a man's land in two, it im- posed upon the company the obligation to bridge it. Whenever it was practicable and cost but little more than the construction of the bridge the com- pany purchased the outlying land between the eanal and the river. The greater part of these tracts were sold by virtue of the authority of the Legislature in 1842, and $25,938 received for them, mostly in the company's script. It will be observed that in all the rose colored anticipations of making the canal a through passenger line, no account whatever was taken of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad whose construction began on the same day and which was, in fact to be its most formidable competitor. The people of Baltimore had quickly become jealous of the canal and dis- trustful of the construction of the Maryland canal which was to give it access to the main work, and determined to rely upon a transportation system of its own.
But in the early days of the road it was mere- ly a bold experiment and it was not even settled that steam should be its motive power. The cars were drawn by horses for some years and an exper- iment was even made with a ear filled with sails to be propelled by wind. Under these circum- stances it is not to be wondered at that little ac- count was taken of the competing line, until it forced itself upon the attention of the canal pco- ple in a manner far from agreeable.
The charter gave the canal the right to con- struct on either bank of the river. It elected the Maryland side, but at the Point of Rocks there. was just room for the canal between the mountain and the river. This space was specdily seized by the railroad company and the canal had to appeal
to the courts. There was so great a delay and the termination so uncertain that the company had already sent its engineers to survey the Vir- ginia bank when the courts gave a final decision in favor of the canal. After this result was reach- ed and work on both canal and road had been greatly retarded, the railroad was willing to com- promise and the end of Catoctin mountain was tunnelled and the two went side by side as far as IIarper's Ferry, and the road then was to pass over the canal into Virginia.
The carly history of the construction of ine canal is full of interest. Subscriptions had been received to an amount which was deemed ample to complete the eastern section. It was a national work upon which the whole country was looking with interest. Money was plenty and the magnifi- cence and costliness of all the work done bear evi- dence of it, and the brightest anticipations for its future prosperity were entertained. The traffie with the great West was the central object. But about this time attention was directed to the Cum- berland coal fields and tests and comparisons were made with all other coal, and it was established by tests at the Navy Yard that a pound of Com- berland coal was of smaller bulk and gave out more heat than any other known soft coal. In 1829 Mr. N. S. Roberts, one of the chief engineers, liad gravely stated that the canal would pass through coal banks where coal could be thrown from the mines into the boats with a shovel. That at the Savage mines the vein was from ten to twenty feet in thickness, over one-fifth of the whole field of two hundred square miles. Each square mile of the big vein would supply five hundred tons of coal per day for four hundred years. The rail road, it was argned, was designed merely for pas- sengers and such light freight as we now send by express, and in an address to Congress about this time, the president of the Baltimore and Onio road made this admission. Being the only carrier of this inexhaustible supply of the best steaming coal in the world, not unnaturally made the canal people very well satisfied with the futurc.
The first annoyance experienced was in the grasping spirit of the owners of the land. Some few individuals were public spirited enough to promptly give the right of way free of charge, hoping, by their example, to animate others to pur- sue the same course. But it was in vain. Expec- tations of large indemnities had been formed, and there was every disposition to exact from the com-
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pany every possible penny. The result was that nearly the whole line had to be condemned. From Georgetown to the Point of Rocks thirteen hun- dred acres of land were required, and for this the company had to pay a heavy sum. There was con- siderable delay in actually beginning the work af- ter John Quincy Adams had driven his "sacred emblem" into the bosoni of mother earth. But when work did begin a large amount of it was put under contract in sections of about half a mile each. One hundred and twenty of these sections constituted a Division and one-sixth of a Divis- ion a Residency. To each Division was allotted an engineer of high reputation, and an Inspector of Masonry. To each Residency there was an as- sistant, a rodman and such volunteers as were in training for the work as it progressed further west. These last were a body of supernumerary youths taken on for their maintenance. The employees were all under strict discipline, and a system of rewards for skill and diligence was instituted. It was absolutely required that the work should be uniform and of the best character. Especial pains were taken to secure good cement for use in con- structing the locks and aqueducts. Competent gentlemen were sent to inquire about that used upon other work of similar character, much of which was at that time in progress in the United States. After careful examinations and chemical and practical tests the cement obtained near Shep- herdstown was adopted, and the wisdom of their selection is justified in the character of the mason- ry upon which it was used, after a lapse of fifty years. In 1838, when the work had progressed much further west than Shepherdstown, another cement equally good and more convenient was found at Hancock, and the Round Top Cement Quarries were opened by A. B. McFarland.
The bright days of the canal were soon over and the bright prospects and anticipations were overclouded by gathering gloom. The original es- timated cost of the work to Cumberland was $2,- 750,000, and it is supposed that if the dimensions first proposed had been adopted that estimate would not have been far out of the way. But when the United States Government and the States of Virgina, Ohio and Pennsylvania and the District cities manifested so great an interest, the Board of Directors felt themselves justified in adopting the larger dimensions recommended by Congress, which accompanied the recommendation with a subscription to the capital stock of one mil-
lion dollars. After these dimensions had been adopted, involving an enormous increase in the construction, the available funds only completed the work to a short distance above Harper's Ferry. Virginia, the original suggester of the work, grew indifferent, and after making a subscription of $170,000, entirely withdrew her support, impress- ing the management with the belief that she de- sired the benefits of the work and wished others to pay for it. It then became apparent that no fur- ther aid need be expected from the United States. Pennsylvania and Ohio disappointed the expec- tations their previous interest had raised and the whole burden fell on the State of Maryland, at that time ill able to sustain it. Then, too,the people of Baltimore had become suspicious of the scheme and having little faith in the extension of the canal from Washington to Baltimore, they fear- ed that the canal, if completed, would inure more to the advantage of Washington than to the - Me- tropolis of Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was therefore chartered to foster the spe- cial trade of Baltimore and the interest of the State, instead of being concentrated on the canal was divided between the rival works. Litigation for right of way along the Potomac from the Point of Rocks to Harper's Ferry followed and both works were delayed and injured. The interest of other portions of the State were centered upon projected works of internal improvement of local benefit to themselves, and the only counties which were not cither lukewarm or hostile to the canal were those of Western Maryland through which it was to pass.
It had not been even suggested up to this time, that the railroad would be of much import- ance in the transportation of coal and so the people of Allegany believed that they would have to look to the completion of the canal for the development of the mining interest. They therefore, after the original subscriptions had been expended, urged another convention to be held in Baltimore for the purpose of considering and adopting such measures as should seem most likely to cause the canal to be soon finished and such other works of national character to be undertaken as may advance the welfare of Maryland and her sister states. . In re- sponse to this call a convention representing thirty counties and cities in all the states originally favor- ing the work met. This convention was of the opin- ion that the work should be completed but that the State of Maryland should do it. And Maryland
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
responded to the appeal and embarked upon that course of reckless appropriations for internal im- provements which in a few years brought the State to the very verge of repudiation and bank- ruptey. Members of the Legislature interested in one scheme would secure the votes of other mnem- bers by voting for like appropriations for their portion of the State-a system of trading and log rolling. An estimate was made that it would require two millions of dollars to complete the work to ('umberland and the Legislature proceeded to provide means to raise this great sum along with a million for the Susquehanna railroad. Six per cent. bonds were ordered to be issued, to be sold at a premium of not less than fifteen per cent. and this premium was to begin a sinking fund for the redemption of the bonds.
At the time of this appropriation as has been shown, the work was completed above Harper's Ferry. From Georgetown to the Point of Rocks, the level had been raised 217 feet by means of twenty-seven locks. In that portion of the canal there are fifty-nine culverts, and aqueducts over the Seneca and Monocacy-the former 114 and the latter 438 feet in length, two dams, No. 1 at the head of the Little Falls 1.760 feet in length, and No. 2 at the Sencca, 2,500 feet in length. Be- tween the Point of Rocks and Dam No. 5 there are sixty culverts and three aqueducts ; over the Catoc- tin, eighty feet in length, over the Antietam 108 feet long, over the Conococheague 196 feet in length, seventeen lift locks and two dams. Up to dam No. 5 an elevation of 353 feet is overcome. In addition to the lift locks there are several guard locks at the mouths of feeders and lift locks to introduce boats from the river. Above Dani No. 5 there is half a mile of slack water naviga- tion and a long slack water navigation at Dam No. 4. From Dam No. 5 a level of a mile and a half to Four Locks. Hore the canal is extended across Prather's Neck, three-quarter's of a mile, avoiding a five mile bend in the river. The level up to Lock 51, a mile and three-quarters below Han- cock, is the longest on the canal. There is a seven mile level between Locks 52 and 53, and one of four and a half miles from No. 53 to Dam No. 6.
The 27 1-2 miles between Dams No. 5 and No. 6 was opened to navigation in April, 1839. The whole of it lies in a beautiful and fertile country. Between Locks 46 and 47 the work was extremely difficult and expensive, the emhankments of the canal being made in the river, which at that place
was twenty feet deep. From Lock 5 for a mile and a half the canal, which is here 47 feet above the river, passes through limestone land, and many sink holes were encountered. At the upper end of the level, where the limstone and slate unite, a stop gate was made to be used in case of any serious leakage into sink holes. Three and a half miles above Lock No. 50 and opposite Fort Frederick tlie canal passed through a piece of low, swampy land, which immediately filling up to the canal level, formed what is known as the "Big Pool," a beauti- ful sheet of water of an average width of seven hundred feet, abounding in fish and a favorite re- sort of water fowl. Stop gates are constructed above and below the pool so that when the canal is to be filled it will not be necessary to raise the level of this great sheet of water, which would be a work of considerable time. This fourteen mile level extends over several culverts and the aqueduct over Licking Creek, an arch of 90 feet span, which was the largest aqueduct arch which * had then been constructed in the United States. The masonry of this aqueduct is composed entirely of rubble stone, with the exception of the arch, the inside of the parapet, the coping and the water table, which are of cut masonry. For two miles between Licking Creek and Hancock the canal and the National Pike lie side by side, and for a half mile at Millstone Point the canal was dug in the roadway and the company had to make a new road at considerable expense. Near Lock 51, at the upper end of the 14-mile level, there is another pool about onc-fourth as large as the Big Pool. This pool was formed by transferring the tow- path to an island. About 200 feet above Lock 52 is aqueduct No. 7. consisting of a single beautiful arch passing over the Big Tonoloway. Near Han- cock the work was done at large expense, the canal being constructed partly in the river and partly in very open slate rock excavation. Immediately upon the opening of the canal to Hancock that town exhibited marks of grerat improvement. It was here that the passengers passing from the west in the stages caught their first glimpse of this, renowned work. The canal, it was said afforded great facilities for reaching the town of Bath, only six miles from Hancock, and would, it was believed. "give additional interest and advan- tages to that attractive place." Between Locks 52 and 53 there is a seven-mile level. At the waste weir on this level it was reported to the directors in 1836 that "there has been erected a
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cement mill between the towpath and the river. The cement is procured from the precipitous cliff on the berin side of the canal, where it is found in very large quantities, and the quality is very superior. The immediate object of the construc- tion of this mill has been to supply the canal works between Dam No. 6 and the tunnel with the neces- sary cement; but it may be advantageously em- ployed, after the completion of the canal to Cumberland for the general supply of that val- uable article. This mill is situated at the com- mencement of the very heavy work at Round Hill, which reaches about a mile." This mill is the same long owned and operated by Bridges & Hen- derson, and the Round Top Cement enjoys a rep- utation which is greatly increased since that day.
The next point of interest is Dam No. 6, 475 fect in length and with a face of sixteen feet. This splendid dam was constructed upon a differ- ent plan from the others and several improve- ments were introduced which had been suggested by experience. At Dam No. 6, 135 miles from Georgetown and 50 miles from Cumberland, was for a number of years the terminus of the canal although much work had been done in sections upon the last fifty miles. Sideling Hill Creek is crossed by aqueduct No. 8, fifty feet wide. For two miles above there are heavy embankments and expensive rock excavations. Between locks 61 and 62 is Dam No. 7. It was proposed at one time to construct the locks in the upper end of the canal of timber, and experiments were made in pre- venting the decay of timber by the use of corrosive sublimate. Between lock 66 and the lower end of the tunnel there is a deep cut through the slate rock for 2,400 feet. This cutting at one place is 79 feet in depth. The tunnel is 3,118 feet or three-fifths of a mile in length, 24 feet wide, of which the tow-path occupies 5 feet, a deptli of 7 feet of water and an elevation above the water of 17 feet and above a brick arch of 18 inches depth. The work at this point is of great magni- tude and upon a magnificent plan. By cutting through the mountain a bend in the river is avoid- ed and a saving in distance of five miles is effected. From here on to the basin at Cumber- land the canal proceeds over one acqueduct and several locks. The basin itself is an enlargement of the canal to 100 feet for convenience in the re- ception of coal.
The canal is 184 1-2 miles long. Of this length 5 miles are in the District of Columbia,
36 1-2 miles in Montgomery County ; 16 miles in Frederick County; 77 miles in Washington Coun- ty; 50 miles in Allegany County. The level at Cumberland is 609 feet above that at Georgetown. This elevation is attained by 74 locks. The canal is fed from the river by means of seven dams and the capacity was estimated at 3,264,000 tons a year. This maximum however has never been reached, the greatest amount carried in one year being about nine hundred thousand tons.
Subscriptions to the capital stock of the canal were as follows: By the United States, $1,000,- 000; the State of Virginia, $250,000; the city of Washington, $1,000,000; the city of Georgetown, $250,000; Alexandria, $250,000 ; the town of Shep- herdstown, $2,000; individuals, $607,400; the State of Maryland under the act of March 6, 1828, $500,000; under chap. 239, 1833, $125,000; under chap. 395, 1835 preferred stock, $3,000,000; under chap. 396, 1838, preferred stock, $1,375,000 -total for the State of Maryland, $5,000,000; grand total $8,359,400. In addition to this cap- ital stock which was paid for in cash was $269,- 073.96 subscribed and paid for in the debts and stock of the old Potomac Company. This stock was to be entitled to dividends only after the net profits of the canal should exceed a dividend of 10 per cent. upon the other stock. In addition to this capital stock the company up to October 1, 1843 had incurred debts to the amount, includ- ing interest of $1,174,566.31. This did not in- clude a debt of $2,000,000 to the State of Mary- land under the act of 1834, chap. 241.
After the expenditure of the original subscrip- tion the subsequent history of the construction of the canal was a struggle for ways and means and the soliciting additional assistance from the State and the pacification of clamorous creditors. Sey- eral riots occurred among the laborers, and in one case there was some difficulty in securing order. The craze for public improvements had so taken possession of the State that no demand for money was deemed extravagant. The reckless issue of bonds which brought the State to the verge of bankruptcy and repudiation belongs rather to the history of the State. The first demand from the Canal Company after its resources were gone was responded to by a loan of $2,000,000 to be secured by a lien upon the revenues of the canal.
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