USA > Pennsylvania > The Delaware and Hudson Canal, a history > Part 5
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. Construction of these aqueducts, when the company was able to finance them, had been contemplated since 1841. In fact John Wurts stated, at the Kingston hearings in 1858, that they had been under consideration from the very early days of the canal but in any event their construction was hastened by the approach of the Erie Railroad into the Delaware Valley as the D. & H. wished to prevent the prior location of the Erie tracks from affecting the most advantageous location of the new canal route.
Estimate of Repairs and Superintendence of Canal in 1847.
Wages of lock-tenders, oil-lamps, &c. $17,000 00
Repairs on lock-tenders' houses, roofs, chimneys, sills, &c 1,200 00
Repairs on locks, paddle-gates, floors, sluices, &c .. .... 5,000 00 Repairs on waste-weirs, bulkheads, acqueducts, bridges, railing on high slope-walls, &c 3,500 00
Repairs on feeder-dams, bulwarks, reservoirs, &c .. 2,000 00
Winter and spring work, clearing out bed of canal, &c .. 8,000 00
Five superintendents at $650 each, and one at $750 per annum
4,000 00
128 men, including mechanics, watchmen and laborers, at an average of $24 per month, including use of tools, &c., for eight months.
24,576 00
21 horses, towing gravel scows, &c., at $16 per month, including harness, keeping, &c., eight months. . 2,688 00 .. Salary of engineer $2,500, stationery, postage, &c. $125. 2,625 00
Add for contingencies 6,000 00
Total $76,589 00
Estimated amount of canal tolls in 1847 25,000 00
Excess $51,589 00
50
DELAWARE AQUEDUCT.
There will probably be required for the construction of Delaware Aqueduct, during the year 1847 $40,000 00 There are 81 canal boats being built on line of canal at $410 per boat $33,210 00
Roebling completed the masonry on the Delaware aqueduct in January, 1848, at which time the cut stone for the Lackawaxen aqueduct was on hand and Engineer Lord wrote to Mr. Wurts stating that both spans would be ready for use in the fall of 1848. However, they were not brought into use until April 26th, 1849, when the canal opened for the season.
Poling the boats across the Delaware, on the pond created by the dam just below the mouth of the Lackawaxen, had always been slow, danger- ous and subject to frequent delays because of high water in the spring and fall. The mules seem to have been the only one to profit by the old route for they were afforded a well-earned rest as they were carried across the old rope ferry.
The new aqueducts necessitated the construction of three new locks (Numbers 70, 71 and 72) on the Delaware to bring the boats to the new high level but at the same time locks Numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the Lackawaxen were eliminated. The Lackawaxen aqueduct crossed that river three hundred yards above its mouth, the Delaware span about the same distance below. There being no physical obstruction to prevent it, why did not the company build a single aqueduct across the Delaware River above the mouth of the Lackawaxen, rather than bridging both rivers?
Delaware Aqueduct
51
These aqueducts are monuments to the engineering skill and courage of their builder.
The Delaware span, now (1945) a highway bridge, is probably the oldest suspension span still in use. Roebling built to endure and never did he compromise for economy's sake. He demanded the best material available, the most exacting workmanship and personally supervised every detail.
CABLE ANCHORAGE
In January, 1849, Roebling wrote to Henry V. Poor, in New York, giving the following specifications:
"Delaware aqueduct, four spans, 132 to 142 feet each.
Trunk width at bottom
17 feet 6 inches
Trunk width at top
20 feet
Depth of water
6 feet
Weight of water in 142 foot span
484 tons
Tension of cables
708 tons
Diameter of cables
81/2 inches
Each cable contains
2150 wires
Cable wt per lineal foot
130 lbs.
Ultimate strength of cables
3870 tons
Lackawaxen aqueduct two spans 114 feet each
Each Cable seven inches in diameter
(Same as Pittsburgh aqueduct)
The wires do not extend below the ground but connect with anchor chains, the cross section of which exceeds that of the wire by 50%.
Strength of wire being 90,000 lbs. per superficial inch while chains will not bear over 60,000 lbs."
Later that year, Roebling is quoted in the Honesdale Democrat as stating that there were 7688 cubic yards of hydraulic cement masonry in the Delaware aqueduct.
52
More modern bridges have been swept away but Roebling's have with- stood every flood and ice for almost a century.
While the construction of these aqueducts was in progress, construc- tion was begun on suspension aqueducts to replace the original wood and stone aqueduct across the Neversink River near Cuddebackville and the stone arch aqueduct across Rondout Creek at High Falls. Except that these aqueducts were single spans they were similar in construction to the Delaware and Lackawaxen aqueducts. Both were ready for opera- tion when the 1851 season opened. Speaking of the Delaware and Lacka- waxen aqueducts, Chief Engineer Lord estimated that they had avoided delays due to high water totaling nine days during their first year of use and furthermore, with the elimination of the first three Lackawaxen locks, the delay in getting the mules on board the ferry and in putting the boat itself across the Delaware, not less than one day was saved each trip.
During the years in which the aqueducts were under construction, the canal was very active, for the demand for Lackawaxen anthracite was increasing rapidly and every effort was being made to meet it, but nature and the Erie Railroad seemed bound to thwart them. During the season of 1847, which opened March 26, flood waters held up the boats at the Delaware Crossing and at Honesdale for two days in May. In June a breach occurred on the summit level which held up the boats for nine days. In July a freshet made the Delaware impassable for two days and in August a breach occurred at White Mills, blocking traffic for a day and a half. Labor was scarce because of the construction then going forward on the Erie Railroad and elsewhere, and the price of oats, hay, and provisions had risen to new heights. To offset these difficulties, the company offered to pay the boatmen a premium of $2.00 per trip, but this does not seem to have been sufficient inducement, so the freight rate was increased to $1.00, 96 cents, or 92 cents per ton, depending upon the length of the trip. Still, the boat owners were not at all satisfied, for those who were still operating smaller boats, which were not fully paid for, did not bother to care for them and in some instances abandoned them outright.
D.+H. Lock
A T DEPOSIT in the Delaware Valley just north of the Pennsylvania line, on November 7, 1835, ground was broken for the construc- tion of the New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad, now the "Erie." It will be recalled that the sponsors of the D. & H. Canal had hoped that a branch canal would eventually be built up the Delaware from the mouth of the Lackawaxen. It never materialized, nor did the Erie reach the Delaware Valley for another twelve years, for, after the elaborate ceremonies at Deposit, there were no funds to proceed with the work.
Early Survey Discounted
In this connection a map by Daniel Burr, dated 1839, is of interest as it shows the route originally surveyed for the Erie. A more accurate survey in 1845 proved this route to be too mountainous and the atten- tion of the Erie engineers was directed to the Valley of the Delaware which was already occupied by the Delaware & Hudson Canal. Erie engineer A. C. Morton proposed building the railroad along the route of the canal. The route was surveyed and it was found that between Port Jervis and the mouth of the Lackawaxen it would be necessary to bridge the canal seven times but, what is more astounding, he pro- posed that, under Hawke's Nest Mountain, the railroad should be built upon the bed of the river. The canal already hugged the base of the cliff which rises several hundred feet abruptly out of the river. How long such a roadbed would have withstood the battering of the ice is a moot question.
The canal company (to the good fortune of the Erie) lost no time in obtaining an injunction prohibiting the Erie from building over this route, leaving but one alternative-the Erie must cross over into Pike County. The difficulties of obtaining the necessary legislation both from Penn- sylvania and New York State are not pertinent to this story, but when the citizens of Wayne County learned that the Erie was about to come into their State a number of them seeing the benefit to be derived from it, made strenuous efforts to induce the Erie to consider a route up the Lackawaxen, past Honesdale, to the headwaters of Starucca Creek and thence to the Susquehanna River, but they were stalemated at every turn for the then existent legislature would not permit the use of this route and at each meeting called by these far-seeing citizens, every proposal favoring the Erie was voted down. It developed later that the canal com- pany had "packed" the meeting with its employes and their friends. This route, by the way, was some twenty miles shorter and of much easier grade than the one followed.
Reasons for Obstructions
The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, it now appears, had two rea- sons for obstructing these plans: first, they feared the Erie as a rival coal carrier, and second, they were then in the process of buying more coal lands in the Lackawanna Valley and the approach of the Erie most certainly would have caused the value of these lands to sky-rocket. (At the time, Senator Dimmick, of Honesdale, represented Wayne and Pike
54
ARTICLES Transported on Delaware and Hudson Canal, in 1846.
WHERE CLEARED.
Total in 1846.
Total in 1845.
Increase in 1846.
Decrease Tim 1846.
Total Increase.
Eddyville.
High Falls.
Ellenville.
Wurstboro'
Port Jervis.
Honesdale.
Merchandise.
4,300
..
··· ·
11
135
4,453
4,242
211
·
Liquors, furniture, &c. ....
625
14
4
5
12
....
660
674
....
....
Molasses, sugar, pot ashes, Iron, &c ..
750
43
3
3
14
384
1,197
647
550
....
....
Salt and salted provisions. .
1,600
18
3
1
13
...
1,635
1,457
178
....
Flour, meal, and grain.
1,850
77
14
...
....
2,138
2,074
64
....
....
Plaster. .
590
150
· ...
....
....
752
1,133
·
381
....
Cement .. .
7,820
20
....
....
... .
. ...
7,840
7,439
401
. .
....
Tanners' bark.
152
16
. .
.. . .
. .. .
168
555
387
. ...
Leather and hides.
765
394
648
155
1
225
2,188
2,137
51
. ...
....
Stone, brick and lime ..
1,800
31
24
37
146
....
2,038
1,388
650
....
....
Millstone ..
184
. . .
....
....
184
113
71
....
....
Staves, hoop poles, lath, &c .. .
100
284
735
21
105
1,245
1,052
193
....
....
Manufactures of wood ...
....
8
738
....
....
25
771
896
....
....
Coal screenings up canal. ..
. .
. ..
. .
.
....
. ...
730
413
317
....
Sundries, pig iron, &c.
250
104
79
18
29
480
955
....
. .. .
Total tons.
20,560
1,905
3,347
608
551
1,271 318,400
28,242 318,400
26,737 266,072
2,967 52,328
1,462
....
Anthracite coal by D. & H. C. C. tons
. .. .
Total tons, exclusive of timber ) and wood, transported in 1845-6. S
346,642
292,809
55,295
1,462
53,833 tons.
Firewood ..
.cords.
1,100
1,192
250
417
12
2,971
2,644
327
... .
Shingle pine.
.number.
Do. hemlock
40,000
211,000
16,000
9,500 17,168
24,740
48,375
64,346
15,971
. . .
Hard wood lumber. . board measure
32,500
1,277,141
957,581
140,182
253,752
. .. 509,067
3,170,223
1,324,218
. ... 1,846,005
Pine
do
. .
. . . .
388,734
132,578
158,942
46,811 1,156,228
729,465 6,774,724
898,441 5,324,466
1,450,258
Total amount of toll received.
$14,709 85
2,760 49
2,494 29
967 62
1,072 56
2,497 42
24,502 23
24,294 13
208 10
2,749,943 ft.
...
13,900
. .. .
13,900 278,900
203,200
189,300
. .
2,400
... .
451,300
....
172,400
....
Ship timber.
.cubic feet.
...
Hemlock
do
. .
....
2,866,255
2,325,103
2,400 297,643
129,491
502
1,763
1,482
281
... .
....
=
....
80
....
Charcoal. .
110
. . .
384
236
. .. .
....
80
. .
125
Glass and glassware ..
426
692
132
11
. . .
. .. .
475
...
.
5,400
1,067
168,976
·
... ... tons.
7
14
....
197
12
METHOD OF SECURING IRONS WHICH HELD THE LOCK TINIBERS -
Counties in the State Legislature, and was also attorney for the D. & H. Canal Company.)
As the raftsmen twenty years before had resented the coming of the canal the boatmen now resented the coming of the Railroad, through the valley of the Delaware, for they. saw in it a threat to their means of livelihood, but again it is hard to say which side was the aggressor. The intruding railroad crossed the line of the canal at what now is the town of Lackawaxen, but at the time the Erie was under construction through Pike County, the railroad bridge across the Delaware at Saw Mill Rift had not yet been completed. Consequently, when a locomotive was needed to speed the construction in the Delaware section, the new engine "Piermont" was dismantled and shipped through the canal to Lacka- waxen. The shriek of the "Piermont's" whistle terrorized the canal mules and heaped coals on the fire, but this was of minor importance compared to the havoc caused by the blasting being done between Saw Mill Rift and Shohola. Here the hard feeling between the boatmen and the rail- road builders flared into open conflict.
"Wild Irish" Labor
The Erie (as had the D. & H. before them) used newly imported "wild Irish" laborers who would rather fight than eat. It was alleged by the boatmen that the blasts were set off by the workmen only as a boat was passing and that as a result stones, roots of trees, and clods of earth were
56
hurled across the river onto the passing boats.
The Erie side stepped the issue by denying that they had any control over the contractors and the D. & H. made several fruitless attempts to obtain injunctions against the contractors but the danger continued, in fact it grew worse and according to one account "violent personal attacks were made upon boatmen by laborers in which severe injuries were sus- tained by some of the boatmen." The situation became so serious that the women and children could no longer be taken on the boats and many of the men themselves refused to operate boats between Port Jervis and Lackawaxen. On June 3, 1848, a large party of railroad laborers waylaid a number of boatmen near Mongaup and in the fight which followed severe injuries were sustained by both sides. Some of the leaders were caught and imprisoned but the menace continued so long as the work- men were in that section of the valley and throughout most of the season of 1848 many boats lay abandoned while their captains and crews sought work elsewhere.
Larger Boats Built
In the meantime the work of enlargement was progressing as well as could be expected in view of the difficulties and throughout the length of the canal many boat builders were busy building larger boats to meet the growing demand. One of the first of these large boats to be built for the D. & H. Company was built by William Turner at Honesdale. Finished in October, 1848, it was launched in the spring of 1849, and, being 91 feet in length, 141/2 feet wide, and 8 feet high, it was much too large for the canal at that time, so it was floated down the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers to Trenton, thence through the Delaware and Raritan Canal to New York Bay and up the Hudson to Rondout. (Those Lacka-
90 f) long
-14 feet -
H
D
I feel
Del. & Had.\Canal Co.
N Large
H Boat of
H
H
D
90 t:long
D
Meet D
Del& Hud
Canal Co.
Section
.Scon
JO !!
D
il icet
-8+ sin
R Del. & Hud.
H Canal Cos
H 50 Ton
1. Boul
D
Boats in use before and after final enlargment of the cona! in 1850.
Explanation. H Open space or Batchwar.
D Deck's.
' Couplings of Section Seew
(A)
57
D
waxen raftsmen would try anything once.) Turner himself acted as captain.
Towards the close of the season of 1848, and in 1849, traffic on the canal was again on the increase and the locks throughout the canal were ordered to be kept open eighteen hours a day, from four a. m. to ten p. m. Some locks where traffic jams were most likely to occur, because of the short levels between them, were to be kept open all night. These were Neversink locks 55 to 60 and Lackawaxen locks 1 to 6. In addition, Creek Locks were given extra help.
Labor Troubles
One difficulty after another seems to have beset the company, and now with laborers still in demand, the boatmen continued their independent
CENYSTORE
61
ROWLAND'S, THED.&H. CANAL
ho ka
attitude and to grumble at every possible delay. Now, they complained, the loading facilities at Honesdale were inadequate, and caused many delays; consequently the company wisely continued the inducements pre- viously offered but when, on June 25, 1849, cholera broke out at Rondout, the boatmen became alarmed and, when the plague spread along the line of the canal, hundreds of boatmen, lock tenders and other workers forsook the canal for work in far-away places where they would not be exposed to the dread plague. In fact, so many left their jobs on the canal that season that normal operations could not be resumed until the following year.
58
In the twenty years during which the Delaware and Hudson Canal had been in operation, the public had gradually come to realize that anthracite coal was far more practicable as a fuel than wood. All of the facilities of the company combined were not now sufficient to supply the demands of the expanding market so, when the Washington Coal Com- pany, with coal lands in the lower Lackawanna Valley was organized, in 1847, the board of managers of the D. & H. at once realized that the business of this rival could be turned into an asset if the D. & H. could handle the transportation of their coal. Accordingly, an open letter ad- dressed to the citizens of Luzern County was published in local papers. In it were set forth the "favorable tolls on articles reaching the D. & H. Canal by means of a railroad to be constructed through Cobbs Gap." There was, however, a joker in the offer, for the toll on coal was to be governed by the price brought by D. & H. coal at Rondout. At the same time, consideration was given to the possibility of extending the D. & H. Company's gravity railroad to a junction with that of the Wash- ington Coal Company at Providence, but this move was decided against, for the capacity of the "Gravity," even with its recent improvements, would not be equal to half that of the enlarged canal. In August, 1847, an agreement between the D. & H. and the Washington Coal Company was arrived at, but this agreement was still based upon the D. & H. Company's selling price at Rondout, for it provided that "$2.50 shall be deducted from price coal brings at Rondout and one-half of the remainder shall be the toll per ton for that calendar year". BUT it also provided that "In case of an enlargement of the canal, the company (the D. & H.) may charge the toll at a rate per ton to be established after the enlargement is completed, to be based upon an estimate of re- duction of cost of transportation produced by the enlargement."
OFFICE OF THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL CO., New York, April 24th, 1847.
The Board met.
Present-The PRESIDENT.
Messrs. Herriman,
Talbot,
Hawley, Le Roy,
Young, Post,
Holmes,
Platt, Vice-President.
*
*
* * * *
*
A report, of which the following is a copy, was presented by the committee to whom was referred the communica- tion of the president to the board at the meeting of the 23d December last :
59
The committee to whom was referred the devising of a plan to fill up the capacity of the canal, in order to an in- crease of the revenue of the company, have reflected much upon the subject, and it is with regret they are compelled to state their embarrassment in recommending a plan like- ly to accomplish so desirable an end.
-
If a railroad could be made from the lower part of the Lackawanna Valley to connect with the canal, said road to be in a measure under the control of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and the coal brought thereby so disposed of at Rondout as not to conflict with the sales and general business of the company, the committee would feel little loss in recommending a tariff of tolls which might in- duce capitalists and owners of coal-lands (if they can be so induced) to make a road; but, as the opinion has been expressed by persons supposed to be more familiar than your committee with the feelings of the residents in the lower part of the Valley, that a road, if made, must be a public one, free to all who desire to have coal transported thereon, with, of course, a like freedom on the canal and sales of coal at Rondout, the committee feel embarrassed as to the measures which may be most wise for the board to adopt. Under these embarrassments, in view of the decided expression of the president heretofore made of the propriety of a tariff of tolls, the committee suggest that it may be wise in the board to make a tariff of tolls, and that the same be fixed at one-fifth of the sum at which the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal Company shall sell their coal at Rondout. This rate not to be increased prior to the year (1860) eighteen hundred and sixty, unless the company shall expend money to double or enlarge the locks, or otherwise improve the canal, by which enlargement or improvement freight on coal shall be reduced; in such case, said reduction shall accrue to the company by in- crease of tolls over rates above named.
Which is respectfully submitted.
New York, April 13th, 1847.
W. M. HALSTED. ISAAC L. PLATT. IRAD HAWLEY. SILAS HOLMES. A. G. STOUT.
60
By an arrangement between the two companies it is stipulated, that the coal entering the canal from the new road shall pay to this company a canal toll equal to half the difference between $2 50 and the market price of coal at Rondout, which market price shall be determined in each and every year by ascertaining the average rate per ton of the sales of the Del. and Hudson Canal Co., up to the first of May, and if the canal shall be enlarged, this toll is to be increased, by adding thereto half the amount thereby saved in freight, as compared with the rate of freight paid on the present canal. This arrangement must add largely to the revenue of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and, taken in connection with the consid- erations which have already been submitted, presents, in the opinion of the Board, conclusive reasons for an enlarge- ment of the canal.
If, for example, the market price of the coal at Ron- dout should be four dollars per ton, the toll to be paid by the new company to the Del. and Hud. Canal Co., irrespective of any enlargement of the canal, would be 75 cents a ton, and if, by the enlargement of the canal, a saving of 40 cents per ton be made in freight, it would make the toll 95 cents. This, on a business of 500,- 000 tons from the new road, would yield to the Del. and Hud. Canal Co., the sum of 475,000 dollars, and if to that be added the assumed saving that this com- pany would make on its own quantity of 500,000 tons, viz., 40 cents a ton, the aggregate gain to the company would be 675,000 dollars. This sum will be considerably increased by a large amount of miscellaneous trade that will be drawn to the canal by the new railroad. It will penetrate the val- ley of both the Lackawanna and Susquehannah rivers, reach the public improvements of Pennsylvania, and open a country rich in resources, whose trade has hitherto taken a different route, but the natural channel for which will be the Delaware and Hudson Canal as soon as the new road is finished. It would be difficult, and perhaps unsatisfactory, to attempt an estimate of the revenue likely to be derived from this source. But it could not fail to carry the aggre- gate considerably beyond 700,000 dollars.
61
When we read this agreement we cannot but wonder whether or not the Washington Company signed "with their tongue in their cheeks" but as has been pointed out that while the charter of the Delaware & Hudson Company limited the toll charged on general commodities, the toll on coal was not so limited; hence they were within their rights in this agreement. Work on this new railroad, which was to be a gravity road, closely patterned after the D. & H. Gravity, was begun on March 28, 1848, and shortly thereafter the Washington Coal Company merged with the Pennsylvania Coal Company, assuming the name of the latter.
Among the names of the founders of the Washington Coal Company is that of John Wurts, who was then president of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, but he seems to have dropped out shortly after the consolidation of the Washington and Pennsylvania Coal Companys. Irad Hawley, a New York City engineer and financier, was elected president of the new Pennsylvania Coal Company and it is only fitting that, as the building of this company's railroad contributed so greatly to the growth of the town, which mushroomed overnight from a raftsmen's village of a few houses into a booming town, should be named "Hawleys- burg" in his honor.
15 HIS
MIL
15
SECOND
STREET
STREET
FIRST
BAZIN
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