USA > New York > New York City > Historic tales of olden time; concerning the early settlement and advancement of New York city and state. For the use of families and schools > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
-
195
OF OLDEN TIME.
in 1701, as that was the mark which that house, taken down on the spot in 1827, then bore.
The City Hall, at the head of Broad street fronting . on Wall street, stood out beyond the pavement in that street, and must have been finished in 1700. Its lower story formed an open arcade over the foot pavement. It was also the proper prison of the city, and having before it, on Broad street, a whipping post, pillory, &c. There was also held the sessions of the Provincial Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the Mayor and Admiralty Courts ; it was also the place of election. It was finally altered to suit the Congress, and such as it then was has been preserved in an engraving done by Tiebout in 1789 ; the jail prisoners were at that time moved to the then "new jail in the Park." But the Congress removing to Philadelphia, through the influence of Robert Morris, as the New-Yorkers set forth in a carica- ture, it was again altered to receive the courts and the State Assembly. Finally, all was removed to the present superb City Hall of " everlasting marble." It is cu- rious respecting the City Hall, that it was originally constructed on the site and out of the materials of a stone bastion, in the line of the wall of defence along Wall street ; and after it was built, it is on record that it was ordered that it be embellished with the arms of the King and the Earl of Bellermont, which, when done, the corporation ordered that the latter should be taken down and broken. What could that indignity mean, especially so near the time of his death, which occurred in 1701. The British, while in New-York, used the City Hall as the place of the main guard ; at the same time they much plundered and broke up the only pub- lic library, then contained in one of its chambers. Its
---
₹
196
ILISTORIC TALES
best stile of appearance was on the occasion of being fitted up for the first Congress under the Constitution, directed by the engineer, Major L'Enfant. It was in its gallery on Wall street, in April 1789, that Gen. Wash- ington was inaugurated the first President of the United States ; a memorable event, attempted to be exhibited in the annexed picture done from an original made at the time by Tiebout. This important public ceremony, the oath of office, was done in the open gallery in front of · the Serate Chamber, in the view of an immense con- course of citizens collected in Broad street. The doors, windows, and roofs of every house at same time were thronged with charmed and exulting spectators. There this nobleman of nature, in his noble height and port -" the beheld of all beholders,"-in a suit of dark silk velvet of the old cut, steel hilted small sword by his side, hair in bag and full powdered, in black silk hose and shoes with silver buckles, made his sworn pledge as President, to Chancellor Livingston on a superb quarto bible still preserved by St. John's Lodge, No. 1. How uprightly, intelligently and disinterestedly he executed his task and rendered that pledge as the Pater Patric of his country, history will never cease to tell-to his fame and glory.
The first theatre being destroyed in Beekman street, a second theatre was established in John street, be- tween Nassau street and Broadway. There British officers performed sometimes for their amusement. Buonaparte's activity and vigour of mind would have
It found thein more characteristic and busy employ. was well for us that the army had such material.
There were two ancient Custom Houses, one stood at the head of Mill street, a contined little place ; a more
٠٣
ME
1
197
OF OLDEN TIME.
.
respectable one, is the same now a grocery store on the north-west corner of Moore and. Front streets. Mr. Ebbets, aged 76, remembered it used as such. At the . same time the basin was open all along Moore street. The present N. W. Stuyvesant told me this was the same building once the " Stuyvesant Huys" of his cele- brated ancestors. In front of the building was a public crane:
The Exchange stood near there, on arches, across the foot of Broad street, in a line with Water street ; it was taken down after the revolution. Under its arches some itinerant preachers used occasionally to preach.
The first Presbyterian Church, built on the site of the present one in Wall street near Broadway, was built in 1719 ; and it is on record in Connecticut, that churches there took up collections to aid the primitive building.
REFLECTIONS AND NOTICES.
" When I travelled I saw many things, And I learned more than I can express."-EccL.
IN my travels about New-York, looking into every thing with " peering eyes," I saw things which might not arrest every one, and which I am therefore disposed to set down.
New-York, as a whole, did not strike me as a defor. mity that it had several narrow and winding lanes. I might prefer, for convenience of living, straighter and wider streets, as their new built ones in every direction
103
HISTORIC TALES
are ; but as a visiter, it added to my gratification to wind through the unknown mazes of the place, and then suddenly to break upon some unexpected and su- perior street or buildings passing in another direction. It gives entertainment to the imagination, to see thus the lively tokens of the primitive Dutch taste for such streets ; and the narrow lanes aided the fancy to con- ceive how the social Knickerbockers loved the narrow lanes for their social conveniences, when, setting in their stoopes in evenings on either side the narrow pass, they enjoyed themselves in social Dutch, not unlike the " social vehicles" now used for travelling up and down Broadway, and ranging the passengers face to face.
I felt also pleased and gratified with the great variety of painted brick houses, done of necessity, because · their, bricks are inferior generally, but giving them occa- sion to please the eye with numerous fancies.
This is peculiarly the town of " merry church going bells." , Their numerous spires as ornaments, seem to demand the others as apologies for such expensive steeples.
There is something in New-York that is a perpetual ideal London to my mind, and therefore more a gratifica- tion to me to visit than to abide. The stir and bustle ;- the perpetual emulation to excel in display ;- the va- rious contrivances, by signs and devices, to allure and catch the eye ;- the imitations of London and foreign cities and foreigners, rather than our own proper republi- can manners and principles, -- struck my attention every where. The very ambition to be the metropolitan city, like London, gave them cares which are not to be covet- ed. Why do we want our cities, and even our country, dense with foreign population ? Is there no maximum
199
OF OLDEN TIME.
point, beyond which our comforts and ease must pro- portionably diminish ? I fear so.
New-York is distinguished for its display in the way of signs ; every device and expense is resorted to to make them attractive, crowding them upon every story, and even upon the tops and ends of some houses above. One small house in Beekman street has twelve signs of lawyers ; and at 155 Pearl street, the name of Till- don and Roberts was painted on the stone steps of the door !
" A wilderness of strange but gay confusion."
In truth, it struck me as defeating their own pupose, for the glare of them was so uniform as to lose the power of discrimination. It is not unlike the perpetual din of their own carriage wheels, unnoticed by them- selves though astounding to others.
These signs, however, had some interest for me, and especially along Pearl street, where they were of tamer character than in Broadway, and were so much the easier read. There I read and considered the nomen- clature of the town. I saw by them that strangers had got hold of the business and the wealth of the place. " The busy tribes" from New England sup- plied numerous names ; and the names of the Knick- erbockers were almost rarities in their own homes ! Judicious persons told me they thought full one half of all the business done in New- York was " by the push- ing Yankees," (I mean it to their credit !) one fourth more by foreigners of all kinds, and the remainder left a fourth for the Knickerbockers ; some of them in busi- ness, but many of them reposing otium cum dignitate,
1
200
HISTORIC TALES
on the surprisingly increased value of their real estates. The ancients who still linger about as lookers-on, must sigh or exclaim, " strangers feed our flocks, and aliens are our vine-dressers !"
Jones' buildings, or Arcade, in Wall street, is a curious contrivance for mere offices-a real London feature of the place, where ground is precious. .
I deem it strange, that in so rapidly an enlarging city I should see no houses " to let ;"-all seen occupied.
The frequency of fires, and their alarms, is one evil of over large population. The cry occurred every day or night I dwelt in the city. An old man (Mr. Tabelce) who had been twenty-eight years a fireman, told me. they never had an alarm of fire in summer in olden time.
New-York has now become an extremely finely paved city. Formerly many of their foot-walks had only the same kind of round pebbles which fill the carriage way. This gave occasion to Dr. Franklin to play his humour, in saying, a New- Yorker could be known by · his gait, in shuffling over a Philadelphia fine pavement like a parrot upon a mahogany table ! Now, their large flag stones and wide foot pavements surpass even Philadelphia for its ease of walking ; and the unusual width of their flag-stone footways, across the pebbled streets at the corners, is very superior.
In visiting two of the Reformed Dutch churches, my mind ran out in various meditations and reflec- tions. I thought of the ancients all gone down to the dust-of their zeal and devotion to the decrees of the Synod of Dort and of God-of their hope that their own language would never be superseded within those walls which they had reared ! Now, as I looked around
OF OLDEN TIME. 201
among the congregation for Knickerbocker visages and persons, I saw no caste of character to mark their pe- culiar race. You may discern a German in Pennsylva- nia as a coarser mould ; but not so the Netherland pro- geny in New-York. Yet such as I found them, they were the only and last remains of the primitive settlers of New Amsterdam; it was only in such a collection of descendents that you could hope to find, if at all, the sesquipedaliz names of their ancestors, such as these :- Mynheers Varrevanger, Vander Schuven, S'ouwert Olpheresse, Vande Spiegel, Van Bommel, Harden- broeck and Ten Broeck, Boele Roelofsen, Van Ruyven, Ten Eyck, Verplanck Spiegelaer, Van Borssum, &c. &c. : not to omit the least of all little names, " De." These were names of men of property, on the earliest list assessed now extant.
It is interesting to witness occasionally, here and there the remains of the ancient town, as the houses in some instances of humble wooden fabric, continue as they were. Thus in so conspicuous and wealthy a place as Broadway and the Park,-" tall mansions to shame the humble shed," -- we see at the south-west corner of Warren and Broadway, a collection down each street, equal to four houses each way, of small two story frames. Down Broad street, a central place, are still many very mean looking low frames. They doubtless retain their places, because of paying better rents for their value than could be derived from more sightly edifices.
The New- York painters of fancy wood are certainly peculiar in their skill in tasteful decorations or accurate imitations. It is displayed in numerous fine imitations of oaken doors ; sometimes in marble pillars and pos-
18
1
202
HISTORIC TALES
ternis ; some fine imitations of the pudding-stone co- lumns, which cost so much in the capital of Washing- ton ; but finally, I think nothing can excel the excel- lency of the painting of the north Dutch church pulpit, where Dr. Brownlee is pastor. Every touch of it is true to the character of the bird-eye maple, and having the finest possible polish.
With more time I might possibly have found out some rarely aged persons of good experience in the past. I saw Sarah Paul, a colored woman, at No. 23 Lombardy street, of the rare age of one hundred and fif. teen years,* as it was estimated. Her memory was too unstable to rest any remarkable facts upon, although she was sufficiently talkative. Another relic of " Lang Syne," was found in the intelligent mind and active per- son of old William C'eely, now an inmate of the Alms- house at Bellevue, at the advanced age of one hundred and eight. 'Tis only in the last year that he walked one hundred and fifty miles, to see relatives in Connecti- cut. How strange to see such persons so long escaped the " thousand ills that flesh is heir to !"
As I had looked in vain for any thing like primitive remains of "Oranje Boven" in the Dutch churches of New- York, I would faun have followed Knickerbocker himself to their "last hold" at Communipaw,-a name itself sufficiently sounding and mysterious to invite a stranger to an inspection and exploration, to learn, if he could, what it means and what it exhibits. Its allurement to me would have been to catch there a living picture of those characteristics appropriated to it by its comic historian, saying, " it is still one of the fast-
. She died in February, 1829.
203
OF OLDEN TIME.
nesses whither the primitive manners of our Dutch forefathers have retreated, and still are cherished with devout affection." The pleasure of a visit to such a place I was not favoured to indulge ; but if it answers the description, it is the spot which the sons of Oranje Boven should specially consecrate to Dutch memory, by holding there their occasional festivals in rude simpli- city ; reviving there the recollection of their ancestors by crowning their festive boards with the very diet in kind which they once prized,-such as Suppawn and Malk, Hoof Kaas, Zult, Hokkies en Poetyes, Kool Słaa, Roltetje, Worst, Gofruyt Pens, &c. &c.
WATERING-PLACES.
"And when too much repose brings on the spleen, And the gay city's idle pleasures cloy, Swift as my changing wish, I change the scene, And now the country, now the town enjoy."
THE practice of summer travelling among the gentry and their imitators, is quite a modern affair. Our fore- fathers, when our cities were small, found no places more" healthy or attractive than their homes ; and generally they liked the country best "when visited from town." From that cause there were very few country-seats in existence ; and what there were, were so near as to be easily visited on foot, " not for the good and friendly too remote" to call.
As population and wealth increased, new devices of pleasure were formed, and some inland watering-places
204
HISTORIC TALES
began to be visited, chiefly, however, at first for the benefit they might be supposed to confer upon the in- firm. Next in order came seu bathing, most generally used at first by the robust ; by those who could rough it ; such as could depend upon their own supply of " small stores," and sheets, blankets, &c. Increase of such company in time afforded sufficient motive to residents on the favourite beaches to make such provi- sion for transient visiters as could not conveniently make their own supply. Thus, yearly, such places of resort grew from little to greater, and by degrees to luxury and refinement. It is still, however, within the memory of several of the aged, when the concomitants of sea-bathing, before the revolution, were rough as its own surges ; and for that very reason produced better evidences of positive benefits to visiters in the increase of robust feelings than they do now.
" The dash of ocean on the winding shore- How does it cheer the citizen, And brace his languid frame !"
In this way we have seen the rise of Rockaway house and shore on Long Island ; of Brighton house near Amboy ; and last, but greatest in fame and com- pany, Long Branch. This last was held before the re- volution by Col. White, a British officer and an inhabit- ant of New-York city. The small house which he owned and occupied as a summer retreat, is still exist- ing in the clump now much enlarged by Renshaw. In consequence of the war, the place was confiscated and fell into other hands, and finally for the public good. In 1790-1 it was purchased and fitted up in improved
205
OF OLDEN TIME.
style for boarders by Mr. McNight, who enriched him- self to withdraw by selling out to Renshaw.
Frior to that period " Black Point," not far off, was the place of bathing. They had no surf there, and were content to bathe in a kind of water-house, covered. The tavern fare there was quite rude compared with present Long Branch luxuries. Cocoanut pudding and floating islands, &c. were delicacies not even known in our cities.
Indeed we cannot but sec, that the most of former sun .. mer excursions were but for the men. They were gene- rally deemed too distant and rough for female participa . tion. But later improvements in conveyances and accom- modations have brought in their full measure of ladies, gladdening the company at every place by those fem- nine attractions which lessen our cares and double our joys.
In the progress of wealth and luxury, the last device of pleasure has been the general practice of travelling . excursions, now " boxing the compass" to every point. The astonishingly increased facilities of communications have diminished distances. Steam-boats transfer us to far distant places before we have fairly tried the varie- ties of a single day and night of their operation. Post coaches and fleet horses roll us as easy as if on our couches. New England and northern tours occur ; the Grand Canal and Niagara are sought ; Carbon Dale, the Morris Canal, Catskill Mountain-house, and the everlasting battlements of the basaltic rocks along the North River, form now the chief attractions. Along the base of these they glide, whilst wending their way to the crowds and festivities found at Ballston and Sa- ratoga Springs. There the pine and sandy plains are
18*
6
206
HISTORIC TALES
made animate by the city throng. The same wilds which were overrun by assaulting savages in 1745, killing and bearing off ninety of the country inhabitants, is now made the head-quarters of pomp and fashion.
'The rage for travelling and public amusements is a topic upon which we feel prone to moralize. In the growing passion for this fashionable mode of expendi- ture, we see a marked departure from the simplicity, frugality, and industry of our forefathers ; a breaking up of their good old home habits ; an infraction of our pro- fessions as a plain republican people, whose rule is "mo- deracion in all things."
If only the rich did this, all would be well. They thus benefit others and possibly do not injure themselves. Their restlessness may be as great a benefit to the com- munity as the motions. of Prince Esterhazy, at whose every step pearls drop from his garments. But are there not too many of those who aim to imitate then!, · who can ill sustain the loss of time and expense ? Do we not often meet with families forsaking the shades and coolness of home for the dense and heated mass of steam-boats, worrying and distressing themselves "to be in the fashion ?" They have fired their imaginations with the recitals of former visiters ; have heard them talk of Lake George crystals ; of Canadian music and British officers ; of the " dark blue Ontario " with its beautiful little brood of lakelets. Some resolve to go to Quebec, just to show they have " as good a right " to ace " good society," and the world around them, as their neighbours. Some, too, go because travelling is " 50 rapid and cheap." They see all kinds of characters on the move for fashionable resorts, and they must join the throng and " be like others." But here comes the rub
207
OF OLDEN TIME.
where is the motive for patient industry and careful economy, when the savings of a month are spent in one trip to Saratoga or Trenton Fails ?
Some, it is true, do really travel for their health, but they should generally set out with a good supply afore- hand, or they may return from a losing voyage. Some go for information, but that is a barter trade, in which, if the dealers have little to put away, they cannot ex- pect much in exchange.
In these travelling excursions, the ladies have latterly come in for a great share of fame as projectors. Many of them have been devised under the influence of curtain lectures and dialogues. " It is, you know, my dear," says madame to her spouse, "too unhealthy and dis- agreeable to spend the whole summer in the city. It injure the complexions of myself and daughters, and makes us all too bilious and pale to be cooped up within the precincts of a deserted neighbourhood." Besides, there is Mr. A. and Mr. B. and others, all of less means than we possess, and they are already gone off to re- cruit their strength and refresh their spirits ; now climb- ing rocks upon the Catskill; next sipping Congress water and tripping cotillions at Saratoga ; next whirling through the eddying rapids of the St. Lawrence. The good, the indulgent husband is still reluctant ; he re- members his fall of stocks ; insurance losses ; his faith- less guarantees, &c. ; and faintly pleads inability for the occasion : but for him, example, and the general mover of his circle, overweighs all demurs, and the la. dies and daughters go off under protection of a party of friends, leaving the good man to remain at home to see that personal and family interests are not neglected. As the dog star rages, the epidemic becomes common. Me-
1
208
HISTORIC TALES
1
· chanics desert their business ; retailers fling aside their yard sticks; doctors leave their patients to get well without them ; lawyers take no cognizance of fees or special pleadings ; wives leave husbands ; schoolmas- ters empty their noisy urchins into the streets, to unlearn as much as they have learnt : all for the sake of " go- ing into the country." Nor is this all : pastors desert their flocks, and the flocks run away from their pastors, leaving the faithful messengers who do remain to preach with countenances melancholy as Jeremiah, to empty scats and bare walls. They might indeed exclaim, " How does the city sit solitary that was full of people ; and how have the houses become desolate that were full of children !"
The husbands are the chief sufferers in this passion for family travelling. Remaining at home, to guard with care the interests by which the family is sustained, he feels keenly the solitude of his empty halls and cham- bers ; he stalks gloomily about, catching one meal here and another there. You can almost read it in his coun- tenance that he is a bereaved man ; and when you ask him after the welfare of his family, he answers with a sigh, " they've gone in the country." It' was not al- ways so. In soberer days the city was deemed quite as healthy as the country ; and people were aware that the sun beat down as powerfully upon the dust and sand of a country village, or upon the loom and gravel of a highway, as in town.
These thoughts and notices, thus cast together, on watering-places and travelling excursions, may serve to apprise our young and pleasure-loving friends that there is now a new era, a love of display and motion, not cherished among us until very recently ; at the same
1
209
OF OLDEN TIME.
time, the love of travel and observation, well understood, is of most commendable character.
To those who are intellectually qualified to profit by an observant eye, peering into every thing,
" Nature, exhaustless, still has power to warm,
And every change of scene a novel charm. ·
The dome-crown'd city, or the cottage plain,
The rough cragg'd mountain, or tumultuous main,
All, to the thoughtful, purest joys impart,
Delight his eye and stimulate his heart."'
THE ERIE CANAL.
" The traveller with wonder sees
The white sail gleaming through the dusky trees,
And views the altered landscape with surprise,
And doubts the magic. scenes which round him rise."
THIS grand Canal, the proud monument of the en- terprize and public spirit of New-York, although not properly an affair of sufficient age to demand a special chapter in the present work, yet as it has stretched its long length through a long line of forest waste, which till then lay for many a mile in its pristine gloom and wilderness, it has therefore become a matter of proper interest to describe and compare the past with the present.
A tourist making his pleasant journey along the line of the present canal, seeing thriving villages, productive farms, and a dense population along its margin, could
210
HISTORIC TALES
scarcely conceive that this advancement in wealth and civilization had been the work of only fifteen *years .. .
In the year 1819, when this great work was first set-te with effective operation, the then little settlements were " few and far between ;" the advance settlers but . rude and poor ; and the country in general unsubdued and wild. The wolf still prowled ; the catamount still sprang on its prey ; the bear still growled in his den. When we contemplate the present in comparison with the past, so recent too is all this change, the mind is lost in wonder and admiration at the improving power and hand of man. The canal itself has not only grown into a source of immense profit to the state, but it has diffused wealth and comfort throughout all the former waste regions of the West. When we consider too, how many obstacles, both natural and moral, stood in prevention of its incipient beginning, we must feel pecu- liar gratitude to the ceaseless and untiring efforts of those first projectors and promoters, who persevered in its progress and execution. At first, numerous writers and speakers resisted the endeavour ; they predicted it could not be achieved, they deemed it impossible to surmount such impediments as lay in its way. Final- ly, however, we see that they who had the hardihood to offer a new theory, have had the success to make all men think with them and to join in their commenda- tion. The name of De Witt Clinton will long stand pre-eminent, as a bold and munificent patron of this great and productive enterprize.
This great canal traverses a country 360 miles in length, extending from Albany to Buffalo, a port on Lake Erie, and sometimes called, in the prospective
211
OF OLDEN TIME.
hope of its increase and prosperity, the "New- York of the Lakes."
In marking the prominent facts of this canal, begin- ning at Albany and going westward, we shall first no- tice the great difficulties overcome at the Cohoes' Fall, there lifting the boats, in the course of two miles, 100 feet by the aid of twelve locks. This may look like an easy affair now, but consider the men, the labour, and the money it once cost to produce the result. At the Little Falls it again ascends 40 feet by 5 locks of 8 feet. The country here is wildly romantic and rug- gid ; and patient and persevering was the toil near here to excavate, from the overhanging and tremendous cliffs of granite, a passage for boats along its impending brow. Thence, ascending 57 feet by 7 locks, it arrives at the dividing ridge near Rome; a ridge which from its height, forms a barrier which divides the waters that flow into Lake Ontario from those which flow into the Hudson. This " summit height," so called at Rome, is just 417 feet rise from the Hudson, overcome chiefly by 52 locks in the course of 100 miles. In traversing the country along the valley of the Mohawk, the canal has been made for many miles along the bed of that river, to avoid the great projections and points of hills jutting out into the river occasionally, especially at the Cohoes and Little Falls. At one place, four miles east- ward of Schenectady, the canal crosses the river by an aqueduct 850 feet long and 21 feet high. What an object to contemplate for its grandeur, for its triumph as a measure of art. At Rochester another great aqueduct crosses the Genessee of 800 feet length, rest. ing on 11 arches, and being just 500 feet above the Hudson and 64 feet below the waters of Lake Erie
212
HISTORIC TALES
The first portion of the canal completed and put into productiveuse, was the line of 174 miles from Utica to Ro- · chester, first set in operation in the year 1822. Although so recent, yet it was made through regions so purely in a state of nature, that long sections of the route seemed almost beyond human might to subdue. The Cayuga marshes near Senecca river were still in their primeval waste. There 2,000 men at a time struggled to force a passage, and only succeeded at the peril of losing several lives, and having one half their number made sick by toil and unhealthy exposure. "Now con- template the same regions, made fruitful, healthy, and prosperous. There, too, we notice the " Long Level" so called, stretching from Utica to Montezuma, 70 miles, without a lock. A rare circumstance, without a paral- lel in the world, except so far as nearly equalled by it- self at the other extremity of the canal from Rochester - to Lockport, where the "Genessee Level" runs 65 miles unobstructed by any locks. Arrived at Senecca river, the canal is made to pass through the river, having a towing path of articial construction along its side of three quarters of a mile in length. By and bye, pro- ceeding westward through a country abounding in. lakes, and redeeming and profiting the regions around. we arrive at the striking monument of human toil and industry-the "high embankment" of Irondequat, it being a stupendous mound of earth traversing the creek of that name over a culvert of 24 feet cord and 250 feet length. At an elevation of 70 feet of embankment. extending a mile in length, the beholder, filled with sub- lime emotions, sees himself lifted into mid-air, and peace- fully and safely gliding along the bosom of the still canal, looking down many feet to the tops of the forests
-
OF OLDEN TIME.
213
below him, or extending his eye far and wide into the far-reaching prospect. As we approach Rochester on the Genessee river, one of the great and suddenly con- structed towns of the west, we there rise 37 feet by 5 . locks, and are then entered upon the " Genessee Level," extending to Lockport. At this place the canal en- counters the Mountain Ridge, the most difficult object in all the route ; it being 72 miles across, and going for three miles through solid rock to the depth of 20 to 30 feet. At Lockport, so called from its numerous locks, great basin, &c., the canal works through a mural precipice of 60 feet, having five sets of locks, set side by side double, of 12 feet lift. At the " summit levei" of Lockport, the traveller will desire to halt and pause; he will regard this as the conquering point of the grand enterprize. He will consider, that but a few years since this region was the quiet and ruggid retreat of the svar- ing eagle. It seemed precluded from the approach or the use of man ; but now he beholds a thronged town on the site, having 180 of its houses constructed in the first year of the canal ! From the heights of this vil- lage he looks down to the foot of the canal, and there sees, in a great basin, numerous boats, the vehicles of commerce and exchange ; or, turning his eyes abroad, he sees to distant regions, hears the roar of the Niagara cataract, and is aware that when improvement shall further advance, and by it level the intervening woods, he shall be enabled to behold the waves of the Ontario and the Erie, and to see upon their bosom the busy barks of commerce, and the swift speeding steain- boats. In short, from this eagle-altitude he will behold the most picturesque and sublime prospect the world can produce. The beholder is here placed 260 feet
19
214
HISTORIC TALES OF OLDEN TIME.
above the level of Ontario, and within 15 miles of its shore ; and the intermediate country is fertile to a pro- verb.
Departing from this enchanting region where the imagination is on stretch, and where all around seems like the effect of magic, the traveller is quickly con- veyed to Buffaloe harbour, the grand termination of this stupendous achievement. An enterprize which, al- though costing millions in its execution, is destined / quickly to refund its cost, and to be a lasting benefactor to the state. Thus " flood to flood is social join'd ;" and our country, from "a waste howling wilderness," is made " to blossom and flourish as the rose."
THE END.
851.962
5219
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.