USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. III > Part 52
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STEAMBOATS.
P. 446 .- The first steamboat perhaps in the world was that of John Fitch, a small skiff with a small steam-engine, July 20, 1786. It had paddles at the sides. Aug. 22, 1787, a larger one, forty-five feet long, was run by Fitch and Henry Voigt before the Constitutional delegates ; next year it ran as far as Burling- ton. In 1789 they ran another one. From June to October, 1790, it plied regularly from the city to Trenton, stopping at Burlington and Bristol ; also to Gray's Ferry, Chester, and Wil- mington ; this one had the paddles at the stern. In 1791 the Perseverance was commenced, but she was blown from her moor- ings, wrecked on Petty's Island, and the company were out of funds and she was given up. Besides the paddles at the side and end, Fitch had tried the paddle-wheel and the screw-propeller.
Fulton, who had been a silversmith, and was afterward a min- iature-painter in 1785 at the corner of Second and Walnut streets;
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got his ideas of a steamboat from Fitch's, and from one of Sym- ington's in Scotland, on which he was a passenger.
Samuel Morey built a boat at Burlington in 1796 ; it had side- wheels, ran to the city in 1797, and was a success, but was not run for want of funds by Morey and his partner, Dr. Burgess Allison.
In 1804, Oliver Evans launched his affair, as described by Watson, and came round into the Delaware as far up as Dunks' Ferry, now Beverly (sixteen miles), and returned.
The Phoenix was the next, built at Hoboken by John C. Ste- vens in 1807. As she came round by sea, because Fulton had got the right to New York rivers, she may be said to be the first that navigated the Atlantic. She ran between the city and Borden- town from 1809 to 1813; from thence stages conveyed the pas- sengers to Washington, N. J. ; thence by boat to New York.
In 1812 the New Jersey ran to Whitehill, two miles below Bordentown.
The Eagle took the place of the Phoenix in 1813, making three trips a week. She was built at Kensington by Capt. Rogers. She was afterward blown up on Chesapeake Bay.
The Philadelphia, or " Old Sal," was also put on the same line in 1813, and ran till 1826, when she was taken to New York and her engine transferred to another hull. She made thirteen and a half miles with the tide.
The Bristol was also run to Burlington in 1813; her boiler exploded, and she was taken to New York.
Capt. William Whilldin built the Delaware at Kensington in 1816, and ran to New Castle on the Baltimore route, and when that was discontinued she went on Cape May trips.
The Vesta in 1816 to Wilmington ; the Etna in 1816 to Wil- mington ; the Baltimore in 1817; the Superior in 1819; the Pennsylvania and the Splendid in 1819,-all followed, together with others down to the year 1830, for service on the New York and the Baltimore lines. Great competition was kept up for a while between the Union, the Citizens', and Columbian lines to New York, until the building of the Camden and Amboy Rail- road. Many of us can remember the route to Bordentown, and thence by railroad to Amboy ; then the other route to Trenton, afterward to Bristol ; after that again to Tacony, and after that from the city to New York by all rail, or ferry to Camden.
In 1826, on account of the numerous boiler-explosions, safety- barges were towed at the stern of each steamer, but were soon abandoned.
On the Schuylkill a small boat was built at Norristown, and so named, to run between that place and the city. The navi- gation was so difficult that they soon transferred her to run from the city up the Rancocas on the Mount Holly route.
The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was the American steam-
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Railroads and Canals.
ship Savannah, Captain Moses Rogers, from New York to Liver- pool, and Cronstadt, Russia, in the summer of 1819.
RAILROADS AND CANALS.
In January, 1768, complaints were made of the remaining ob- structions in the Schuylkill. "Philadelphus" in the Pennsyl- vania Chronicle proposed a system of dams, and that a company should be formed for slack-water navigation-ideas that were almost exactly carried out by the Schuylkill Navigation Company so many years afterward. He argued that the previous removals of obstructions had given a more rapid movement to the river and made the water shallower. He proposed sixteen dams to back the water and increase the depth between the city and Reading, at a cost of £96,000. With a good road on the banks, a flatboat of 100 tons could be hauled by two horses and man- aged by four men, take a week or ten days, and not cost over £10-could bring one hundred tons and take twenty-five tons back, at a profit of £47. He argued a business would be done that would pay a profit of seven per cent. This opened a dis- cussion in the papers that was continued for a long time. One person replied, saying it would destroy the shad-fisheries, of which there were eighty or ninety worth each £100 a year. He proposed low dams of two feet, which would be cheaper and not destroy the fish. Other estimates made differed as to the cost.
P. 469 .- Long before Oliver Evans constructed his amphib- ious steam-carriage and steamboat-in fact, in 1763-Nicholas Joseph Cugnot of Paris, France, constructed a model of a steam- carriage, and in 1769 he built an engine which ran tolerably well on common roads. In England, William Murdoch built a suc- cessful steam-carriage in 1784. Both of these preceded Oliver Evans's attempt in 1804. (See p. 152.)
The first railroad in this country was on Beacon Hill, near Boston, Massachusetts, in 1807. It was built by Silas Whitney to haul gravel from the top of the hill to the bottom, and con- sisted of two tracks. The next was from Thomas Leiper's stone- quarries on Crum Creek, Delaware county, Pa., to his landing on Ridley Creek, a distance of about one mile, in 1809. The next railroad (five-foot gauge) was that from the granite-quarries at Quincy to the Neponset River in Massachusetts, a distance of about three miles, which was commenced in 1826 and finished in 1827. In Jan., 1826, was commenced the novel " mule-road," nine miles in length, connecting the Summit Hill coal-mines, back of Mauch Chunk, with the Lehigh River. It was in operation May, 1827.
On August 8, 1829, the first locomotive that ever turned a
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Annals of Philadelphia.
driving-wheel on a railroad-track in America was run at Hones- dale, Pa., on the newly-finished road that connected the Lacka- wanna coal-fields with tide water on the Hudson Canal. The road in question was the first of any general commercial import- ance ever built in this country, and inaugurated the economical system of inclined planes, since adopted by engineers wherever practicable. It is claimed by some that at about the same time Peter Cooper of New York built the first American locomotive- the "Tom Thumb "-in 1829, and tried it on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, thirteen miles of which had then been laid. It did not work quite so well as he desired, though it was capable of locomotion, and he remodelled it. On August 28th, 1830, it made a perfectly satisfactory trip, running thirteen miles in an hour and a quarter. The Tom Thumb, however, was only an experiment. The first American locomotive built for actual ser- vice was the "Best Friend of Charleston," ordered March 1st. 1830, by the South Carolina Railroad Company of the West Point Foundry, New York. It was completed in October, 1830 and shipped to Charleston. It made its trial trip November 2d. 1830, and worked satisfactorily. The second American engine for actual service was built by the same parties for the same com- pany, and was put on the railroad in March, 1831.
The first act passed in America, and the first railway built in the State for general commerce, was by the State of Pennsylvania: it was the Philadelphia and Columbia R. R., 84} miles long. The first car was run over it from Philadelphia to West Chester December 25th, 1833, and after that time the road was open for regular travel between those points. In the early part of June 1834, the Philadelphia Gazette notes the fact that cars were run- ning from Philadelphia to Columbia on regular fare. The second track between Philadelphia and Columbia was completed and for- mally opened by an excursion in which Governor Wolf took part on the 6th of October, 1834. The Legislature in 1828 had al- ready ordered it to be continued to York, and surveys to be made to carry it farther west, as well also as surveys for a rail- road from Harrisburg to Chambersburg; then from Frankstown to Johnstown by inclined planes, to get over the mountains.
The first T rail was made in this State in 1846, by Thomas Hunt, at his rolling-mill near Gray's Ferry. The rolls were made at the Bush Hill Iron Works, and were designed, turned, and prepared by two engineers, James Moore, proprietor of the above-named works, and Isaac S. Cassin of this city.
Passenger-cars ran in Market street long before the days of city passenger railways, and as soon as the Market street railway was established, which was about the year 1833. They ran from Eighth and Market streets to Broad street, up Broad to Willow street, and so out to Fairmount and the Columbia Railroad Bridge. Furthermore, they ran on Sundays.
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Railroads and Canals.
The Farmers' Schuylkill Wholesale Market intend to erect (in 1879) on the south side of Market street, from Thirtieth street to the river Schuylkill, a spacious market-house. The ground on which it is to be built formed during the Revolution the western approach to the floating bridge built by General Putnam ; was the starting point of the West Philadelphia Railroad-an enter- prise which, about 1835, in a season of speculative venture, had gone so far as the grading of a road up to the Inclined Plane, but which was afterward abandoned ; and was also intersected by the canal around the western abutment of the Permanent Bridge. This canal, which was constructed about 1833-34 for the purpose of accommodating the trade on the Schuylkill, extended from a point a short distance below the bridge, passed through the ground now to be occupied by the Schuylkill Market, and issued into the main stream not far above. Built though it was amid some popular clamor, yet it was used in such a limited degree as to be of no importance whatever, and the project proved a melan- choly failure from the beginning. For some years prior to the time it was filled the canal was considered a nuisance. The rail- ings and guards on Market street were in decay, and two or three persons were drowned in consequence of falling in. There were two drawbridges over the canal-one on the direct line of Mar- ket street, and the other farther north, on a turnout that com- menced at Mrs. Boone's tavern, now used as offices by the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company. When the bridge on Market street was opened, vehicles and pedestrians passed over the upper or north bridge. The space between the two bridges was walled up with stone, and the canal passed into neglect when the State con- cluded to abandon the Inclined Plane route and to use the present site-what is now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The Aramingo Canal was controlled by a stock company. The route for the canal was surveyed in 1841, and can be found on the city maps for 1842 or 1843. It began at Dyottville, near the present site of the Kensington Water-works, and took a north-westerly course to a point about a mile north of Frankford. The total length of the canal was a fraction over five and a half miles. There was considerable excitement in Kensington at the time work was begun on the canal. The manner in which the work progressed for a while gave hopes of a speedy completion, but a failure to "pony up" by the majority of the smaller stock- holders compelled the company to suspend operations, and it re- mains to this day unfinished. Among those who invested largely and gave considerable time to further the enterprise were Joshua B. Lee, Alexander Janney, and Edward Spain.
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PASSENGER RAILROADS.
P. 469 .- The expectations of Mr. Watson about railroads have been as quickly realized as have been what was thought the in- sane ideas of Oliver Evans in regard to railroads and carriages. The slow, cumbrous, and noisy omnibuses had to give way to the more convenient city passenger railways.
In June, 1857, a supplement to the Philadelphia and Delaware Railroad act was passed by the Legislature, authorizing the construction of a track along Sixth street, southward to Morris street. This road was speedily made, and commenced operations January 21st, 1858, with great success, running on Fifth and Sixth streets from Frankford to Southwark.
At the session of the Legislature laws for creating several other railroads for passengers through the streets were passed, to some of which, especially through Chestnut and Walnut streets; there was much opposition. Pamphlets were published, and some large owners of property threatened to sell out and move away from the route. They have so permeated the entire city that it is with difficulty any street of importance can be found that has not cars running upon it.
In July, 1858, the cars on the West Philadelphia road com- menced running through Market street to Eighth street, where they stopped until the road was made to Third street, and finally to Front street. On the 29th of the same month the cars began to run on the Tenth and Eleventh streets road. On the 8th of September the Race and Vine streets cars commenced running between the Exchange and Fairmount. December 4th of the same year the Spruce and Pine streets commenced, it having bought the omnibus line on Spruce street for $14,779, and on Pine street for $14,998, or $29,777 for the two. The German- town Passenger Railway Company was chartered by act of April 21st, 1858, with authority to lay tracks upon the Germantown turnpike; and to lay tracks on Fourth and Eighth streets, be- tween Coates and Dickinson, by act of March 24th, 1859. The road was laid during the summer of that year. These were fol- lowed the same year (1859) by the Green and Coates, the Chest- nut and Walnut, the Seventeenth and Nineteenth, and so on until all the streets are occupied.
The city railway cars commenced to run regularly on Sunday in Philadelphia about 1867, in consequence of a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Sparhawk et al. against the Union Passenger Railway Company, to the effect that the running of the cars was not a breach of the peace, and therefore not punish- able criminally.
The omnibuses which the cars supplanted first commenced to run June 1, 1833, and were started by Mr. Reeside. They were
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Windmill, or Smith's, Island.
a success at once; others were put on the line in a few weeks, and they then ran every half hour between the Merchants' Coffee- house and the Schuylkill. In June another line was started, and ran between Dock street and Kensington.
WINDMILL, OR SMITH'S, ISLAND,
P. 470 .- In 1683-85, according to Holme's map, there were two mudbanks in the Delaware-one opposite Spruce and Pine streets, and the other in front of Southwark. They kept on increasing gradually by deposits by the current, until the two became united by a shoal and were uncovered at high water. In 1746, Harding and his son built a wharf and windmill at an expense of six hun- dred pounds. It was an unfortunate enterprise, for the father died, and the son sold their interest to George Allen, a ship- wright; he sold his interest in it to William Brown, who pur- chased a lease on the island in 1759 for ninety-nine years, at one shilling sterling per annum, from the Proprietaries, and it was confirmed to him in 1761 by Governor Hamilton. (See Secretary Peters's letter to Councils in their published minutes, 1704-1776, p. 651.) There was a ferry from the city to Windmill Island.
The size of the island was so small that the windmill and a small house nearly covered it. The mill had a curious hexagon cap upon it, rising in three tiers to an ornamental top-piece. The building itself was hexagon, much larger at the base, gradually sloping smaller to the middle of its height, and then rising straight above it. It was stayed by ropes to the wharf.
The position of the island seems to be gradually changing, and it is increasing at the northern end. In 1750 the island extended southwardly nearly to Christian street, with a small island adjoining it on the south. Now it is much above that point. There was a mudbank north of it, part of which has become fast land.
The island has long been used as a bathing-ground and pleas- ure-garden, mostly for the lower classes. As early as 1826 it was so used. Floating baths were then kept there by one Coglan, and they were spoken of as " a well-conducted and most useful estab- lishment."
Floating baths on the Delaware were the predecessors of the use of Smith's (or Windmill) Island as a bathing-place. The first of them, we believe, was originated by Heppard, who after- ward kept the Pennsylvania Hotel, in Sixth street below Arch street, afterward James Douglass's hotel. The floating baths lay upon the water like low houses, with white or yellow sides and green Venetian window shutters. Rabineau's floating baths at the Battery, New York, give a good idea of these structures.
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Sometimes these floating baths were moved on or near the bar above the island, and Coglan's baths were either there or at the island, as the services of boatmen to convey the bathers were necessary.
An act of Assembly, passed 14th of February, 1838, author- ized Councils to make a canal and other improvements on Wind- mill Island. (Ordinances, 1843, p. 819.)
See Memorial of Edwin A. Stevens in relation to Windmill Island, 1852; as also several pamphlets of George N. Tatham, who purchased it and obtained a patent from the Legislature 1856. One end of the island is now used as a bathing-place and pleasure-garden, small steamboats running to it. The southern end is a coal dépôt for the Lehigh Navigation Company. It is better known now by the name of Smith's Island than its orig- inal one of Windmill Island. An attempt was started in 1878 to have the island removed from the Delaware as an impedi- ment to navigation for large vessels.
Windmill Island belongs to the State of Pennsylvania, and is a part of the city of Philadelphia, being attached to the Fifth Ward. Petty's Island, opposite Kensington, belongs to the State of New Jersey. The ownership of the islands in the river Del- aware between Pennsylvania and New Jersey was settled by agreement or treaty between the two States soon after the Rev- olution. It was stipulated that they should be taken alternately by each State as they lay upon the river. By this arrangement Windmill Island went to Pennsylvania, the first island below to New Jersey, and so on, down to the Capes.
P. 474 .- The Pea Patch Island dispute was settled by a trial before John Sergeant in January, 1848; a printed account was published in J. W. Wallace's report of the Pea Patch case. By the evidence given in the case the island was in 1783-84 only the size of a man's hat. The late Commodore Stewart said it had its origin in the fact that a brig in 1791, from "Down East," loaded with peas and beans, was cut through by the ice, and the water got in and swelled the peas and beans, and she was wrecked there. The John in the winter of '98 was cut through and sunk, and that gave the name to "Ship John Shoal."
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The River Schuylkill.
THE RIVER SCHUYLKILL.
P. 475 .- After the ferries which were established by law be- came insufficient for the travel to and from the city, the next ar- rangement was floating bridges ; these, of course, were placed on the leading routes, such as at Gray's Ferry, where was the chain bridge and bridge of boats; at Market street; and at Callowhill street.
"Penrose Ferry" and the "Rope Ferry " were names for the same place. The location of the ferry was where Penrose Ferry Bridge now stands. There was a rope, which was elevated on poles and crossed the Schuylkill. A flat scow, on which wagons and carriages could be driven, crossed the river. The scow was pulled across by the ferrymen taking hold of the rope, and pulling the scow across by that guide. When a vessel came there, the rope was lowered to the bottom of the river and the vessel sailed over it.
The Permanent Bridge .- At Market street what was known as the " Middle Ferry " was among the earliest started. Putnam built a floating bridge in 1776, which after the battle of Brandy- wine, in 1777, was taken up and stored away. The British built a bridge during their occupation of the city, which was afterward removed to Gray's Ferry, and did service there. Putnam's bridge was replaced, but was carried away by a flood March 15, 1804. A " permanent " bridge company was formed in 1798, which laid the corner-stone in 1800, and built a bridge which was finished in 1804. This gave way in 1850 to a new bridge, which was itself destroyed by fire from explosion of gas, November 20, 1875. It was rebuilt as it now stands, an open truss bridge, by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in less than thirty days, and for less than the contract price of $75,000, in December, 1875. It was intended to be a temporary structure, and not guaranteed for more than five years. What we should have is a truly " perma- nent" bridge of stone. The old bridge consisted of three arches, resting on two piers of stone, still standing, besides the two abut- ments. The middle arch had 194 feet span, and each of the others 150 feet.
Hereafter, when the corner-stone of the eastern abutment of this bridge is discovered-which may be when that structure is remodel- led and the abutment torn away-whoever lives to inspect that me- morial will be very much puzzled with the inscription upon it. It is as follows: "T. F. C. S. O. T. S. P. B. W. L. Oct. xviii. MDCCC." This inscription was cut on the stone by John Lewis, the mason. He explained it to mean as follows: "This first corner-stone of the Schuylkill Permanent Bridge was laid October 18th, 1800." A contemporary, who recorded the fact in his diary, observed : " On receiving this explanation I asked Lewis how he could suppose
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that after ages would be able to discover the true interpretation of his inscription. Assuming a very grave countenance, he an- swered, emphatically, 'Why, sir, by the time they will dig up that stone the people will be much more larned than you and I be.'"
Breastworks at Gray's Ferry during the War of 1812 .- On the 31st of August, 1814, the arrangements for the construction of the forts was made by the appointment of General Jonathan Williams as chief military engineer, and Colonel Foncin as assistant ; for the topographical department, Dr. R. M. Patterson, William Strickland, and John Biddle; for the direction of labor, Messrs. Souder, Wesener, Eckstein, Belon, Eckfeldt, and Cloud; for oc- casional agencies, Messrs. Kingston, Evers, etc. Subsequently, the number of superintendents for the direction of labor was increased to twenty-six persons, the majority of whom were not members of the Committee of Defence. Among the latter was Nicholas Esling. (See p. 173.)
The Schuylkill an Avenue of Commerce .- The Schuylkill front was of little commercial value until the establishment of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. Being upon the river on which all the Schuylkill coal was transported, the western front of the city then became of great importance. Under the stimulus of speculation the price of ground adjoining the stream increased rapidly in value. Among the first stores and ware- houses erected for the Schuylkill trade were those of J. R. & J. M. Bolton, which were upon the river near the Upper Ferry. They put up two extensive warehouses, and did a large business not only in coal, but in provisions, which were brought down by the Union Canal. They sold plaster, fish, and salt for the use of farmers residing in the interior, and their establishment was very prominent in the business of the Schuylkill. The city built, about 1832 or 1833, large warehouses on the Schuylkill front between Market and Chestnut street, which remained for many years. Below that, as far as South street, there were large coal- wharves. Under the stimulus of this trade there was built at the south-east corner of Chestnut street and Twenty-fourth a large hotel, which was in an excellent situation to do a good business. The Reading Railroad, opened January 10th, 1842, soon made a change in the coal-trade. It was diverted to the Delaware by the establishment of a dépôt at Port Richmond. The coal-trade of the Schuylkill lingered for some years under the auspices of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, but it gradually declined along the Schuylkill River, until, by the absorption of the canal company by the Reading Railroad, it may be said to have been totally destroyed.
A Storm and Flood, October 3, 1869, carried away Penrose Ferry Bridge and two bridges at Manayunk.
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