USA > Pennsylvania > The Delaware and Hudson Canal, a history > Part 4
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tions. From Wilsonville, they proposed to construct a gravity railroad down the steep hillside, crossing the Lackawaxen River on a trestle to a junction with the D. & H. at Paupack Eddy. The cost of operating over such a route could be prohibitive for the cargo would have had to be handled four times en route. First after being loaded onto gravity cars at the mine the coal would have had to be transferred to canal boats from which, upon reaching Wallenpaupack Falls, it would again have to be laboriously shoveled into the second gravity cars for the mile-and-a-half trip down to the D. & H. Finally because the early D. & H. boats were not seaworthy enough to venture regularly upon the Hudson River a transfer would be necessary at Rondout.
It seems fortunate for those who might have invested in the scheme that these plans never materialized.
In spite of the difficulties and the setbacks which the company had undergone, President Bolton, in a letter written December 12, 1830, said:
"As a measure of economy, time was taken last spring to put the canal in the best possible condition, which deferred the opening until the 20th of April and the very slight interruptions which have occurred in the navigating proves the good judgment of our chief engineer, Mr. Jervis- it has now become a substantial work and all exposed parts have been well secured. They have recently been subjected to a very severe test as a heavy fall of snow was succeeded by several days of incessant rain. The Delaware and Lackawaxen Rivers rose with great rapidity. The former, at our crossing place, twelve feet in twenty-four hours but the only injury sustained was on the Lackawaxen by water passing through a slope wall and washing some of the bank into the canal which was repaired at an expense of $15.00. This detail is given in consequence of doubts having been expressed of the stability of our work in an official memorial to the legislature in 1829."
With reference to the cost of repairs which Mr. Bolton mentioned, it is safe to say that the cost of the same work today would exceed $200.
Rivalry With Raftsmen
We have in this letter a reference to the old antagonism with the rafts- men and it is in this connection that the copy of the final draft of the resolutions dated February, 1830, is of interest. The controversy between the D. & H. and the raftsmen had now become so serious that Philip Hone was called upon to lay aside his affairs and go to Honesdale where he arrived February 15, 1830, and the following day set out in a cavalcade of fifty persons representing both factions as well as the Pennsylvania Legislature. They proceeded along the tow path, following the Lacka- waxen River to the Delaware, viewing the alleged obstructions as they went.
The following day Hone and his party returned to Honesdale along the towpath while the legislative party returned to Harrisburg by way of the lower Delaware but it was fortunate, Hone records in his diary, that the rafting interests returned by a different route for their leader, a Mr. Meridith, had been hung in effigy at several points. As a result of this trip it was determined that the claims of the raftsmen were baseless for the navigation of the Lackawaxen had been improved rather than impeded.
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Buckingham . Sabes 8 " 1830 At wipublic muting Culus at the house of John Lords Jums . on the past of Manchester and Buckinghairs we unamin = ously aque to this propositions within mentioned and the chairman ando secretary sign the same éJohn Lord Evai
William Adans) surig
A proposition was produced to the meeting from John B. Clarois Esquin the Chief Engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, aqueing on the part of said Company, that those interested in the rafting navigation of the Delaware & Lachaweng rivey, may choose a Committee to superintend and make such improvementy upon the aprons of the day as they shall deem necessary at the expense ando under the responsibility of the saw Canal Company ...
(Therefore conceiving that he said proposition ought to be received by those interested in the rafting navigation, as satisfactory for the present in relation to the improvement of the state of the dam. Resolvido that Suert No . 10 do
be ande are hereby, appointed Delegates from this meeting to meet such Delegates as may be appointed by, other Townships medings, at the Court House in Bethany on the evening of Acordar the 9th instant for the purpose of associating the very of the Sumbe- interest on the subject ardo of making a suitable representation thereal to the Legislature.
To add to the worries of the builders of the new canal the Legislature of the State of New York chartered the Hudson & Delaware Railroad on April 19, 1830, to be built from Newburgh to Carpenter's Point (Port Jervis) from which point it was to cross into Pennsylvania and continue up the Delaware and Lackawaxen Rivers passing through Cobb's Gap which, their engineers reported, was "300 feet lower than Rix's Gap, the pass over which the railroad of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany is carried." By this route, they claimed, a load of coal could reach New York City in twenty-four hours. Fortunately for the D. & H. the road was never built and no competing railroad entered the Lackawaxen Valley until thirty-five years later.
The DoH. Canal CO THE LIGHT BOAT, RIDING HIGH OUT OF WATER, HAS STEERED TO THE BERM BANK OF THE CANAL AND ITS TEAM HAS HALTED SO THAT THE TOW-LINE HAS SUNK TO THE BOTTOM ALLOWING THE LOW-LYING LOADED BOAT TO PASS. GILSON'S LOCK IS AHEAD. BEYOND THE TOW-PATH IS THE DELAWARE AQUEDUCT
1 D142
T HE value of canals as means of transportation had by now been proved beyond any doubt and there were yet many people who could not be convinced that railroads would ever be practicable for distances of more than a few miles. In any event the backers of the aforementioned railroads could not have been encouraged by a lengthy article written by W. R. Hopkins, a prominent engineer, for the Albany "Evening Journal" October 15, 1830. In it he said,
"There are places enough to make railroads where water can not be had for canals and to such places they should be confined. I am opposed to seeing the streams of our State run idle and the spirit of an enlightened canal policy swept away by railroad fanaticisms."
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That the economy of transportation by canal cannot be questioned, when the element of time is not of great importance, will be evident from the following table of tolls published for 1831 :--
(The amounts shown are per ton per mile)
Salt 21/2 cents Liquor, Sugar, Molasses cent
Cement 31/2 cents General Merchandise 3 cents
Ground Tanners bark 2 cents Iron, up the Canal 3 cents
Unground Tanners bark 11/2 cents
Iron, down the Canal 2 cents
Timber in boats per 100 cu. feet per mile but not to exceed total amount shown for any distance on the canal-
Hemlock 1 cent ($.75) Pine 11/2 cents ($1.00)
Oak 2 cents (1.50) Maple-Popler 3 cents ($3.00)
secured, No maximum.
Hemlock
Timber in rafts properly 2 cents Pine 3 cents
Oak, Maple, Popler, etc. 4 cents
Cord wood in boats, from 1 to 10 miles, per cord per miles, 4 cents. Above 18 miles, 60 cents per cord, plus 1 cent per cord for every five additional miles.
Mileage on boats down the canal, 2 cents; up the canal, 4 cents.
The franchise granted the canal company would not permit charges in excess of 4 cents per ton per mile except on coal.
At no time during the first twenty years of operation did the tolls from the various commodities exceed $50,000, although the tonnage of the company's coal shows, with a few exceptions, a regular but gradual increase.
The Canal had opened up a new, cheap means of transportation for the residents of Wayne and Pike Counties and heavy items, on which the freight charges had, in many cases, exceeded the value of the article, were now brought within the means of the average farmer. Obviously the traffic on the Canal was not limited to coal, although coal always remained the one important item. Durham boats were sometimes seen upon the D & H for on December 18, 1830 the Manch Chunk Currier reported that two, the "Pilot" and the "Spy" had arrived at that place from-
"Honesdale at the head of the Delaware & Hudson Canal-to Carpenter's Point, at which place they took on 15 tons of plaster of Paris. Three miles below the Water Gap they took on a cargo of boards for Beth- lehem on the Lehigh, 12 miles above Easton, then in ballast to this place in ten days. A. Bently, master of the boats, says he has been in cannal- ling business for several years and intends to build two deck boats for the coal trade next season."
A still stranger sight must have been witnessed when, according to the Milford Eagle for August 6th, 1831,
" ... two Tuscarora Indians with their squaws and papooses arrived at this place, Friday last, by water, in bark canoes in which they travelled from Buffaloe by way of the Erie Canal to the North River & from that river into the Delaware & Hudson Canal and so into the Delaware River, a short distance above Carpenter's Point. They are shortly to leave for Pottsville in this state."
On April 13, 1831 John Wurts was elected president to succeed John Bolton, who had held that office since Philip Hone had resigned in 1826. Wurts seems to have been a capable man and what is more his qualifica-
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LOCK GATES FOR THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL TYPE USED 1827-1850 ONE FOOT
BALLANCE STAM
---
. SAM
BALLANCE
BALANCE BEAME WEM NOT WIED AFTER ICL.
تتنتـ
9
WATER LEVEL ABOVE LOCK
WATER LEVEL WHEN LOWER GATES ARE CLOSED
2
BOTTOM OF CANAL
z'1
11.1.
S
CROIN POST
WATER LEVEL BELOW LOCK
PADALE
CATE
BOTTOM OF CANAL
LOWER GATE
37
ATOM NIONS
UPPER GATE AFTER ISSO WHEN THE CANAL WAS ENLARGED THIS TYPE BATE REPLACED BY A DROP GATE.
-17'-
tions as a lawyer were of great value to the company. Partially as a re- sult of his policy of retrenchment the company gradually assumed a more secure financial footing and the stock which had begun to decline, after the failure of the "Stourbridge Lion" showed new strength but this period of prosperity was not to last long for during the second administration of President Jackson the speculating public seems to have lost confidence in such investments and the stock which had reached 125 in the fall of 1833 took a precipitous drop during the last part of that year to 75. Hone in his diary remarks "What will be the end of it God only knows and General Jackson don't care." 1834 was a de- cidedly poor year for the company, as well as for business in general, but the following three years showed a gradual improvement. However, along with the rest of the nation the D & H suffered a setback during the financial panic of 1837. The results were most severely felt the fol- lowing year when slightly more than 76,000 tons were shipped through the. canal as compared to the previous high of 115,387 tons.
As has previously been described, the earliest boats to pass through the canal carried only ten tons each. A quantity considerably below their actual capacity because, in spite of the glowing accounts describ- ing the canal as "having been executed in the most permanent and per- fect manner" it was not until 1839 that the full head of water could. be put into the canal for the embankments during this time had re- mained porous and to have filled the canal to its full depth before the earthen embankments had settled would have caused many more wash- outs than actually occurred. Beginning in 1840 a four-foot depth of water was finally maintained through the entire canal permitting boats of thirty tons cargo to pass through from Honesdale to Rondout without danger of grounding.
During July, 1841, Washington Irving accompanied Philip Hone, Henry Brevoort and representatives of the Board of Managers on a trip through the canal to Honesdale and over "The Gravity" to the mines. Referring to the trip, Hone says in his diary "Their whole voyage was one of mirth and good cheer. They took pleasure in the very inconveniences of the small canal boat, making their beds on the hard planks, eating in primitive fashion and travelling three miles an hour. Geoffrey Crayon (Irving) enjoyed himself to the top of bent. Apparently it was something wonderful for him to forego his day-time nap." Irving was impressed with his trip for, from Honesdale, he wrote his sister in Paris:
"I do not know when I have made a more gratifying excursion with re- spect to natural scenery-for many miles the canal is built along the face of perpendicular precipices rising into stupendous cliffs, with overhanging forests, or jutting out into vast promontories, while upon the other side you look down upon the Delaware, roaring and foaming below you, at the foot of an immense wall or embankment which supports the canal. Altogether, it is one of the most daring undertakings I have ever wit- nessed to carry an artificial river over rocky mountains, and up the most savage and almost impracticable defiles. For upward of ninety miles I went through a constant succession of scenery that would have been famous had it existed in any part of Europe."
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Lily
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Apparently the excitement of the trip and the exposure was too much for Irving for he was taken ill immediately upon his return home. Hone, however, taking exception to the newspaper accounts, thought the ill- ness due to some other cause.
The business of the company continued to increase during 1841 and 1842 and in September 1842 plans for increasing the capacity of the canal were approved. This enlargement was to be accomplished by rais- ing the heights of and increasing the strength of the embankments sufficiently to maintain a depth of water in the canal of no less than five feet. The material was to be principally taken from the bed of the canal and from the berm bank below the surface of the usual boat- ing head. This enlargement, it was estimated, would permit the use of boats of 40 tons capacity.
Work was actually commenced at the end of the boating season in November, 1842, and continued throughout that winter, but suspended again when the boating season opened in May, 1843, so that the work was not finally completed until the spring of 1844. Because much of the earthwork done on the embankments during the winter just passed, had not settled sufficiently to sustain the full five foot depth without crumbling, the season of 1844 opened with only four feet of water in the canal, but as the boating season progressed the depth was gradually increased as the banks became able to sustain it.
There had sprung up along the line of the canal numerous boat yards owned by private individuals from whom the canal company purchased boats made to their specifications. The forty-ton boats which were now being built to replace the "Flickers," as the first diminutive boats were called, cost the canal company between $360.00 and $375.00 each and were sold to the boatmen for $400.00 to be paid for on the installment plan. The owner of the boat was paid (during 1842) $1.34 per ton for the trip from Honesdale to Rondout but out of this sum $10.00 was retained by the company and credited against the balance owed on the boat. As many of the boats in use in 1842 were still of the "Flicker" class their owners were unable to take advantage in full of the increased capacity of the canal, even though the boats were "hipped" (i.e., their sides raised) to increase their capacity. During the boating sea- son, from early May to early December, a competent boatman could, barring accident, complete fifteen or sixteen trips making it possible for the average boatman to pay for his boat in about three years and, as the average life of a boat was about six years, he was able to operate the boat the remaining three years on his own account.
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MITRE SILL AND GATE RECESSES FOR LOCKS ON THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL REDRAWN FROM ORIGINAL PLANS OF 1827 ONE FOOT
LOCK GATE OPEN
LOCK GATE CLOSED
PADDLE GATE OPEN
PADDLE GATE CLOSED
5/10/1
MITRE
SILL
MITRE SIEL BACK
E.D.LEROY
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DEAM
BALLANCE
VERTICAL VIEW OF GOON NECKS
SPIKE BOLT
HEEL POST
11" FULL LENGTH
7"FULL LENGTH
PADDLE CATE RID
CATE (HALF OPEN)
LINE OF GATE RECESS
10 OUTSIDE
7- STRAIGHT
HORIZONTAL VIEW
HEEL POST
>
5 %" STRAIGH
HEEL POST BAND
VERTICAL VIEW
9 " STRAIGHT
-1/2-
LINE OF LOCK CHAMBER
....... -- RADIUS 18".
HORIZONTAL VIEW OF GOON NECKS
LOCK CATE IRONS FOR THE
DELAWARR AND HUDSON CANAL REDRAWN FROM ORIGINAL PLANS APPROVED BY JOHN. B. JERVIS IN 1827. THIS IS A COMPANION DRAWING TO 368 AND 169.
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
ONE FOOT #270 E.D.LEROY.
42
1
12" STRAIGHT
.- RADIUS 30 €
T HE year 1843 was the first during which the enlarged capacity of the canal was available for the entire season, but even though no less than ninety-seven new boats were put upon the canal that year, there still remained many "Flickers" whose owners were put at a further disadvantage by the reduction in the freight rate to $1.03 per ton for the trip. This reduction affected, in particular, those whose boats were then paid for as in addition the installment deduction was also reduced by the company to $7.00 per trip. True, with their "hipped" boats they could carry greater tonnage than before, but still they grum- bled. The canal company, summarizing the substantial saving in cost per ton resulting from the improvements already made upon the canal, decided again to increase the depth to five and one-half feet, which would make possible the use of boats having fifty tons capacity.
Work on this enlargement was begun in 1845 and continued through 1846 but was not completed until the following year, although with this enlargement in prospect about a hundred boats of fifty-ton capacity were built and put into operation during these years. However, until the full head of water could be let into the canal, these boats were not loaded to their full capacity. In fact, even if the enlargement could have been completed by 1845, it is probable that full advantage could not have been taken because of a severe drought which extended over a period of eight weeks that summer, making it impossible to load the boats even to their former capacity. The canal company, to some extent, compensated the boatmen for their loss, by returning the freight rate, which had been cut to 97 cents, to the former rate of $1.03 per ton.
While during 1846 the head of water throughout a large section of the canal had been increased, progress was much slower than had been ex- pected. Even so, it seems that the bed of the canal was now more smooth and as a consequence handling of the boats was easier. Appar- ently with this in mind the canal company further reduced the freight rate on coal but, as an inducement to the boatmen to make speedier trips, a sliding scale was at this time inaugurated allowing 92 cents per ton on trips of ten days or less which would be equivalent to sixteen trips per season, 88 cents per ton for a trip of eleven days but only 85 cents per ton for trips taking more than eleven days.
During this period, between 1842-45, under the supervision of James Archbald, extensive improvements were made upon the gravity railroad in order to keep pace with the increased capacity of the canal. On the west side of the Moosic Mountains the location of the entire road, with the exception of Plane No. 1 was changed and a better grade, favor- ing the loaded cars, was obtained. On the east side of the mountain,
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Gravity Plane
Plane No. 6, which was originally the longest on the road, was divided into two separate planes; also an entirely new and separate track was built from the foot of Plane No. 7 to Honesdale, a distance of ten miles. This was the greatest single improvement, for the original section, between Planes No. 7 and 8, had been single tracked with two-turnouts or sid- ings. Here the loaded cars now not only had a continuous down grade of ten miles, but it was no longer necessary to lower the loaded cars at Plane No. 8. There were no changes of importance made in the light track east of the summit, but one important improvement was the re- placement, throughout the length of the road, of the old wood and strap iron rails by the new "T" iron rails manufactured at Slocum Hollow (Scranton).
In spite of these substantial improvements on the canal and the gravity railroad the demand for anthracite was growing so rapidly that it could not be met. The improvements on the canal had cost the company slightly more than $250,000, but the savings in the cost of transporting the company's own coal had exceeded that figure by 50%, even including the period when the full capacity of the canal was not yet available, but by 1847 the "Flickers" had largely disappeared from the canal, the 40-tonners had themselves been "hipped" and the newest boats were now able to carry as much as 55 tons without danger of grounding. In short, the year 1847 was, in spite of the usual delays from freshets and wash- outs, a good one, for over seven thousand cargoes of cal were carried
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7738
ANNO8 -
B
-
-
Captain Evans and the "Bonny Bell"
At Laxawaxen
45
to tidewater between April 25, when the canal opened, and December 4th, when it was closed by freezing.
With these facts at hand, the board of managers on November 17th, 1847, approved the recommendations of chief engineer R. F. Lord for the enlargement of the entire canal to a minimum depth of six feet. They in- cluded the enlargement of the locks which were to be further improved by the addition of more paddle gates to speed up the passage of boats.
Extract from a report of R. F. Lord, Esq., dated January 6th, 1847.
The original plan upon which the canal was constructed afforded 4 feet depth of water, and a maximum capacity for boats carrying cargoes of 30 tons.
The lowest rate of freight for which boatmen had been obtained in the coal business up to the year 1843, was $1.34 per ton ; and it is not probable, that for any considerable increase of business, they could have been retained at that rate ; for at that they were more or less tran- sient, and frequently abandoned their boats.
In the month of September, 1842, a plan was adopted for enlarging the canal, to be accom- plished by raising the height and increasing the strength of its banks and appendages, with ma- terials taken mainly from its bed and berm side, below the surface of the usual boating head, suf- ficient to sustain 5 feet depth of water, improve its channel, and make it competent for boats to navigate it, carrying 40 ton cargoes, with a view of making a more desirable business for boat- men, and thereby reduce the rate of freight.
The improvement was commenced in the fall of 1842, and was prosecuted a considerable ex- tent the ensuing winter, in order to realize in part its benefits for the year 1843, and to have it completed during the season of 1844.
The depth of water was gradually increased during the season of navigation as the banks were prepared to sustain it. Its immediate ef- fects were apparent, from the boats which were adapted to the former head of 4 feet being able
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to carry an increased cargo, in proportion to the additional depth of water. The best class of these boats had their sides raised in order to improve the offered advantages ; and new boats were built on an enlarged plan, to correspond with the improved canal.
During the years 1845 and 1846 a consider- able proportion of the boats were of the old pat- tern, and adapted only to the first proposed en- largement, being competent to carry only 40 to 45 tons, while the new enlarged boats carried 48 and 50 tons; consequently the average freight for those two years does not exhibit so clearly the advantages of the improvement as it did for the two years of 1843 and 1844, when the boats were more competent to improve the increased facilities. The old pattern boats are being paid for and their number considerably reduced every season, and their places sup- plied with boats built to correspond with the enlargement. Nearly all the old pattern boats will be withdrawn from the coal business dur- ing the years 1847 and 1848; after which the rate of freight can be brought down to corres- pond with the enlargement and increased facili- ties of navigation.
In 1842, 30 tons at $1.34 paid the boatmen $40.20 pr.trip 66 50 “ 84 cents will pay them 42.00 " «
The result of the improvements on the canal will be-
1st. Increased strength and permanent solid- ity to resist the action of floods.
2d. Additional facilities and certainty of na- vigation on it.
3d. A large increase of its permanent capa- city.
4th. A permanent reduction of about 50 cents per ton on the rate of freight.
All of which has been obtained without inter- rupting the regular navigation and business of the canal.
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Lackawaxen
River
Aqueduct
---
48
At Laxawaxen Aqueduct
At Rowlands
49
The bank of the canal along the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers was to be made more secure against the wash from the boats by the erection of stonework where necessary, for there had been many delays resulting from boats grounding on sandbars caused by the inside embankment washing down into the canal. The work of enlargement was begun upon the cessation of boating early in December, 1847, and about the same time Chief Engineer Lord made a trip to Pittsburgh to examine the aqueduct built by John A. Roebling who many years later was to win everlasting fame as the engineer of the great Brooklyn Bridge. Lord's report was most favorable for the Pittsburgh aqueduct was a substantial work and Roebling's engineering ability was far ahead of the times. Roebling was engaged to begin work for the D. & H. at once.
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