USA > Pennsylvania > The Delaware and Hudson Canal, a history > Part 6
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BOAT YARD
LIGHT TRHER
ENGINE
13
PLANE
POST OFFICE
THE HAWLEY BASIN
40900
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The famous "Shepherd's Crook" a scenic spot.
1824, Engineer Sullivan proposed carrying the canal to Keen's Pond 1277 feet above sea level!
Keans Pond
August 8th 1829, over this trestle and along the Lackawaxen River Horatio Allen drove the first locomotive ever to move on rails In America!
1829-1899, The D.& H. Canal Co's Gravity Rallroad. Honesdale to Valley Junction. 30 Miles and 28 Planes.
Farview Rixe's Gap
Prompton
Waymart
Seeleyville en
Carbondale
BoEast Honesdale Boot Yard
37-38
36
35
Indian Orchard Beerdsley's Basin
Bushwick
34-
Beech Flots
White Mills
33-
Archbald
XIN105
Brink's Dam 32- Daniel's
3029,28272625
19
17
Olyphant
Kimbie
Valley Jct.
Weigh Lock
Lake Ariel
7
Tunnel
Scranton
C W.C.H.S.
The Gravity Railroads
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18
90
21 2420
16
Hawley
lenEy
COUNTY. AINDO-INTUM
1814, Maurice &William Wurts acquired first coal lands.
RIKE
COUNTY
31 Newcastle
LACKAWANNA
WAYNE
1850-1885. The Pennsylvania Coal Co's Gravity Railroad. Hawley to Port Griffith on the Susquehanna. 47 Miles 22 Planes. 6
Honesdale
Telegraph on the Canal
Another important innovation which was introduced along the canal during these fast-moving years was the telegraph, for in 1848 the canal company granted permission to an organization, out of which developed the Western Union Telegraph Company, to construct a telegraph line along its right of way. The line ran from Lake Erie following the turn- pike through Owego, Montrose and Dundaff to Carbondale; thence along the right of way of the "Gravity" to Honesdale, then down along the canal tow path to Port Jervis, from which place it followed the newly completed Erie Railroad to the Hudson River.
The next year, 1849, the Erie Railroad, or to use the full name by which it was then known, The New York, Lake Erie and Western, had completed the laying of its track through the Delaware Valley, but in spite of the rivalry and ill will which then existed between them, the D. & H. constructed a canal basin at the present town of Lackawaxen for the transfer of freight between the rivals. The Erie was, however, not yet a serious competitor.
Boat Yard at Hawley
Also in 1849 Levi Barker, anticipating the demand for many more boats to haul the coal of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, left the employ of Christopher Lane's boat works at Honesdale and established a boat- yard and drydock at Hawley. He was immediately given a contract by the Pennsylvania Company for the construction of twenty-five deck-type boats which were to have a capacity of one hundred forty tons in antici- pation of the enlargement of the canal. These were somewhat larger in capacity than those being built for the D. & H., but were as fine as any boat ever put upon the canal and cost $1,600 each. Barker, during the forty years he continued in business at Hawley, built over six hundred boats.
Although many hundred Irish and German laborers were brought into the country, at the time the Pennsylvania Company's Gravity road was being built, the D. & H. Company required many laborers for the work of enlargement of the canal and the Erie needed hundreds more, never- theless, work on the Pennsylvania Gravity progressed fairly well. This newcomer was able to profit greatly by the experience of twenty years of operation of the D. & H. Gravity line, and furthermore, iron (but not steel) rails were being conveniently manufactured by the Scranton brothers at Slocum Hollow. Thus they could avoid one great handicap which had retarded the D. & H. The road was patterned closely after the D. & H. but was much longer; forty-seven miles to the seventeen of the early D. & H. Both the loaded track and the light track were the same length but followed widely separated routes. They were, in fact, five miles apart at one point. Much better use than in the building of the D. & H. Gravity was made of the contour of the country through which it ran, for on the loaded track one of the "levels" measured fourteen miles, while one on the light track measured twenty-one. On the loaded track there were twelve ascending planes and ten descending "levels"
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but on the light track there were ten ascending planes and twelve de- scending "levels."
Operation of Planes
All of the motive power on the loaded track was furnished by stationary steam engines at the head of each plane but on the light track the first four planes counting west from Hawley were operated by water power obtained from Middle Creek.
Coal breakers, repair shops, storage yards, and a canal basin were built at Hawley and for a few years that little town went through an era of prosperity matched only by the gold rush towns of the same year. Their railroad was finished and the Pennsylvania Coal Company was able to begin shipping coal from Hawley on June 8, 1850, but although the enlargement of the canal was almost entirely completed, it was not pos- sible to load the new boats with more than one hundred tons each.
HIGH FALLS.
This last enlargement of the canal had been more an enlargement of the locks rather than the trunk of the canal itself, for while this latter was made navigable for one hundred forty-ton boats, this was accom- plished by changing the prism of the canal by cutting out the lower portion of the sloping sides of the canal and building these up, nearly vertical, with dry stone walls. Thus while the canal was deepened and made navigable for boats of greatly increased capacity, the surface width was increased only slightly throughout most of the length of the canal. It should be remembered that, as originally constructed, the canal meas- ured thirty-two feet in width at the water line, but only twenty feet wide at the bottom. The original boats had a maximum width of only eight feet, four inches, whereas the large boats had a width of fourteen feet, four inches; therefore, a cross section of the canal was now only three times that of a loaded large boat, whereas in the old canal it had been at least four-and-a-half times that of the smaller boats. The result was
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greater resistance to be overcome in proportion to the size of the boats used.
As was to be expected, the embankments had not, during the first two years after the enlargement, become sufficiently water-tight to hold the full six-foot head of water. As a result, the large boats could be loaded only to about two-thirds of their capacity, but nevertheless, they were much slower than the many smaller old boats which were still in use. Consequently, they caused considerable annoyance to the masters of the small boats who, in spite of the rules for navigating the canal, were not "afforded reasonable facility to pass by" although the penalty for each violation of this rule was ten dollars. Until the small boats, the forty and fifty tonners, were finally gone from the canal, the infraction of this one rule probably caused more fights between crews than any other one cause on this, the most business-like of all canals.
Enlargement Problems
The greatest amount of labor in this enlargement was expended on the locks, which had to be rebuilt throughout. The new locks were one hundred feet in length and fifteen feet wide, except the six near Summit- ville, which were slightly wider. The original locks had been seventy- six feet in length by nine feet wide.
The increase in the size of these locks presented a problem in itself, for while the capacity of the smaller locks had averaged six thousand, eight hundred cubic feet; consequently, the loss of water each time a boat locked through was much greater. To supply this new need, in case of drought, several new reservoirs were built and the existing feeder dams were raised and improved.
The location of all of the locks remained the same, except for locks 1, 2 and 3, near the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, which had been eliminated by the construction of the two aqueducts there.
Upon the completion of this enlargement the D. & H. Company decided to experiment with different type boats and accordingly purchased forty square bowed section scows from the Lehigh Canal. It appears that the company did not depart from this practice of "Hiring out" these boats and accordingly contracted for their operation through two men, Barnes and Harlan. After a brief period of use, these scows, with their square bows, were found to offer too much resistance to the water so a more streamlined (if that word can be applied to a canal boat) bow section was built to match the stern sections with more satisfactory results. Although these section boats or "squeezers" which were really two boats hinged together, do not seem to have met with much favor on the D. & H. Canal, apparently ten more were purchased later in the season of 1850 and to these were added new round nose bow sections, making in all one hundred of these section scows now in use.
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L ATE at night on the 25th of April, 1851, a terrible fire broke out in the village of Honesdale, and before the flames had been brought under control, almost the whole of the town had been destroyed. The fire is believed to have started in Murray's store on Front Street (Main Street) from where it spread rapidly to the adjoining canal docks, and coal storage yards. The company's loading equipment and many boats in the basin including the old packet boats "Fashion" and "Daniel Webster" were destroyed. Ten days later, by a strange coincidence, Philip Hone, for whom this village had been named, died at the age of seventy- one. He had been the company's greatest benefactor and his influence in political as well as financial circles helped the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to weather the first difficult years.
An act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, the following year, tended to offset these losses, for it extended the charter privilegs in perpetuity. It will be recalled that the charter granted Maurice Wurts provided that the privileges would revert to the State at the end of thirty years. This would have occurred in 1853.
Although the enlargement had been completed for some time it was not until July 28, 1853, that the full six-foot head of water could finally be let into the canal and the boats loaded to their intended capacity, but a survey made at the time revealed that there were still two hundred forty-seven one-horse, fifty-ton boats still operating on the canal, though they had been "hipped," increasing their capacity to about seventy-five tons. In addition, there were the one hundred remodeled section scows, six hundred thirty-eight of the new large boats, and seventeen "lattice- type" boats with which the D. & H. was experimenting. This latter type boat never proved very satisfactory and, although a few more were added to the fleet during 1854, their number never did exceed twenty-five. This list brings the total number of boats in operation for the D. & H. to just over one thousand, in addition to which there were, by the end of that year, four hundred ninety-five large boats operating for the Penn- sylvania Coal Company.
To facilitate handling the increasing volume of coal being shipped by the Pennsylvania Coal Company (3,978 cargoes in 1854) a weigh-lock and collector's office was established at Hawley.
With the acquisition of the business of the Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany in 1850, the income on tolls from sources other than D. & H. coal began a sudden increase reaching a peak in 1864, but, except for approxi- mately $50,000 annual tolì from lumber, cement and general merchandise, these tolls were mostly on paper for, owing to the dispute which arose with the Pennsylvania Coal Company over the increase in toll following
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the enlargement of the canal, these tolls remained for the most part uncollected.
Maurice Wurts, "Father of the D. & H. Canal," died on December 29, 1854. This man, whose foresight and courage had been largely responsible for the development of this great enterprise had lived to see his first meager scratching at the coal outcropping grow into extensive mining operations and his first efforts to float a few raft loads of coal to Phila- delphia grow into one of this country's great transportation lines.
SNUBBING POST. GRANITE DEEPLY GROOVED BY THE ROPES.
A new practical, time-saving innovation, the drop-gate, was first tried out on the D. & H. Canal in 1855. This device proved so satisfactory that, as soon as the canal closed for the season, in December of that year, the work of replacing the upper gates of each lock throughout the canal was begun. The work progressed rapidly and by May, 1856, the new gates were ready for use. These new gates, together with the improved machinery for operating the lower gates, which were not in themselves changed, now made it possible for one lock tender to lock a boat through more efficiently and easily than two men had done before.
At this time the practice of basing the freight payment, to the boat owners, upon the length of time taken for the trip was abandoned and the freight rate at ninety-two cents per ton for the trip, with an additional allowance of five cents per ton to boatmasters who conformed strictly with their contract, and the rules for navigating the canal. This rate was not deemed satisfactory by the boatmen, who struck at Eddyville on May 15th, demanding a rate which would enable them to meet the higher living costs. The demands seem to have been justified, for the company's offer of $1.05 per ton was accepted and eight days after the strike had begun, the boats were moving again.
While, during 1855 and again during 1856, over a million tons of coal were hauled through the canal. About half of this quantity was coal of the Pennsylvania Coal Company; still the capacity of the D. & H. Gravity was below that of the canal, but in 1856, even though the coal on hand at tidewater and the capacity of the canal seemed equal to any
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Just South of Ellenville
demand then, in immediate prospect, the board of managers decided to further improve the gravity railroad and enlarge its capacity. The work was begun early in 1856, and continued over a period of two years. This improvement consisted of the relocation of the planes to the west of Rixe's Gap, and the addition of two more planes up the mountain from Carbon- dale. All of these planes and the intervening levels were double tracked and the grades again improved.
During these two years, the company's business was good and a divi- dend of eighteen per cent per share was declared in 1855, sixteen per cent in 1856. Eighteen fifty-seven was a depression year, however, and busi- ness fell off sharply. In 1858, it reached bottom. Not only did the busi- ness of the Canal Company decline sharply, but the Pennsylvania Coal Company had defaulted in the payment of tolls, based upon the previously mentioned contract, to the extent of over six hundred thousand dollars. The dispute over the legality and interpretation of the contract was taken before the courts in 1856, and dragged along for seven years until a ver- dict in favor of the D. & H. in the amount of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars was finally handed down. True, this was a legal victory for the canal company, but a hollow one, for the sum recovered was less
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than one-quarter the amount then accrued and, while this legal decision was probably not the only factor involved, it undoubtedly hastened the day when the D. & H. Canal would lose the business of the Pennsylvania Coal Company to the Erie Railroad.
OFFICE OF THE DEL. & HUD. CANAL CO., New York, July 28, 1853. 1
JOHN EWEN, Esq.,
Prest. of the Penna. Coal Co .:
Dear Sir,-I am instructed by the Board of Managers of this Company to notify the Penna. Coal Co. that the en- largement of the canal of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., contemplated by the articles of agreement between it and the Wyoming Coal Association is now completed, and that this Company will hereafter charge and collect the additional toll on coal entering the canal at Hawley, to which it is entitled by said contract.
And I have it further in charge to say, that said Canal Company have, according to the requirement of said agree- ment, made a fair estimate of the amount of savings in the transportation of coal growing out of said enlargement, and find it to be forty- cents per ton ; and said Canal Com- pany therefore claim of said Coal Company the one-half of said amount, that is to say, twenty cents per ton additional toll on all coal hereafter to be transported by said Coal Company on said canal.
Nothing herein contained is intended to waive any claim made by this Company in former communications.
Respectfully, WM. MUSGRAVE, V. P.
OFFICE OF THE PENNA. COAL CO., New York, Augt. 1st, 1853.
WM. MUSGRAVE, Esq.,
Vice-Prest. Del. & Hud. Canal Co. :
Dear Sir,-Your letter of the 2Sth ult., in reference to the enlargement of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the additional toll to grow out of the same, Has been duly
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received and laid before the Board of Directors of this Company.
I am desired by the Board to inform you that this Com- pany has also made a careful examination in regard to such additional toll, and does not find the savings in the trans- portation of coal which are alleged in your communication to have been produced by the said enlargement ; and that, not being able to agree with your Company in respect thereto, it is ready to proceed in the manner contemplated in such contingency by submitting the matter in difference to the arbitration provided for in the contract to which you have referred.
Respectfully,
JOHN EWEN, Prest.
To place its business on a more independent basis and avoid further friction with the D. & H. over these tolls the Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany in 1860 began the construction of a six-foot gauge steam railroad from Hawley to a junction with the Erie Railroad at Lackawaxen, sixteen miles to the east. While the grade here is about seventeen feet to the mile a continuation of the gravity road was out of the question because the Lackawaxen Valley is very narrow and confined between steep moun- tain sides. The work progressed slowly and the road was not finished until December 14, 1863, when the first coal train was run over the line. The fact that a railroad could be operated the year round was thus driven home with such emphasis that it could not well be ignored by the man- agers of the D. & H. Canal and it unquestionably started them thinking in terms of locomotive railroads. In fact, it was the handwriting on the wall insofar as the canal was concerned, although the D. & H. Canal still had many more years of hearty life before it ultimately succumbed in the unequal struggle.
The abrupt change in the outlook of the D. & H. management in favor of railroads is more apparent after reading a letter written by S. B. Ruggles on August 26, 1859, who, while his interest was the Erie Canal and the efforts of railway interests to cripple it, said:
"The Delaware & Hudson Canal now carries 1,300,000 tons of coal in addition to considerable other merchandise and its intelligent officers declare that notwithstanding that their canal is navigable only seven months a year, nothing could induce them to exchange for a railroad."
Within a few years the metamorphosis of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company into a railroad company was begun; not, however, with any thought in mind of ever abandoning the canal, for the majority of the board of managers remained canal minded for many years. In evidence of this it can be pointed out that in 1869 a substantial majority recom- mended greatly increasing the capacity of the canal by building double or twin locks, although this enlargement progressed no further than a
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CRANK
-PINION
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-MAIN GEAR
.
TRAVELER
PADDLE GATE HANDLES
HEEL POST
TOP BEAM
GOON NECK
BERM
BANK
.
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ISOMETRIC VIEW of
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PATH
This machinery came into use in 1850 at which time the cumbersome ballance beams were dis- carded. The upper gates were replaced by a single drap gate which was operated fram this bridge by a winch (not shown).
Actually the "gaan neck"arms would be beneath the planking. The "top beam" is in fact the old ballance beam cut off in line with the heel post.
Nº.200-344.
E.D.L. Roy, April 1945
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LOWER LOCK GATE MACHINERY used on the DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL
pair of terminal locks at Honesdale.
The Pennsylvania Coal Company continued to ship large quantities of coal through the canal from Hawley throughout 1864, but from that year on their shipments decreased almost to the vanishing point, except for the fulfillment of a few of their contracts, along the canal, which could not be reached by the Erie. The Erie had taken over the franchise for the dormant Hudson and Delaware Railroad, mentioned earlier in this story, and had built a branch line to the Hudson River at Newburgh. Consequently, when in 1865 the Pennsylvania Coal Company began shipping the coal via the Erie they moved their storage yards from Port Ewen to Newburgh. Their towboat "Pittston" which had been hauling their boats from tidewater lock at Eddyville to Port Ewen since 1852 was sold to Thomas Cornell, who placed it in service hauling the D. & H. boats to various points on the Hudson River. The tow boat "Maurice Wurts" owned by the canal company, had been placed in service in 1857 and continued its run, hauling boats between Eddyville and Rondout until 1875 when it was replaced by the "Pittston."
Going back a few years in 1851 we find that the Pennsylvania Legis- lature had just chartered the "Jefferson Railroad" which was proposed to be built over the Lackawaxen route earlier considered by the Erie. Find- ing the local political opposition of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Com- pany too strong to overcome directly, Charles S. Miner, an attorney of Honesdale, aided by a number of influential citizens, struck upon the simple subterfuge of using the name "Jefferson Railroad." There being no locality in the vicinity having a similar name, they reasoned, the antagonists would not recognize the bill before the Legislature. They were right, and the bill was passed, but unfortunately for the prosperity of Honesdale, it was never possible to finance the construction of this rail- road, but in 1867 the Erie took over the section of the "Jefferson" route between Hawley and Honesdale. The first train over this line was run July 13, 1868. All thought of completing the extension north to Starucca Creek was abandoned when, in 1869, the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company financed the building of the railroad southward from Starucca Creek through the Valley of the Lackawanna rather than down the Valley of the Lackawaxen. The local protests over this change in route, though loud, were of no avail, and the chances of the Lackawaxen Valley towns ever being on the Erie main line seem lost forever.
Additional improvements on the "Gravity" were begun in 1866 and continued through 1869. These were the final improvements of a major nature and left the railroad nearly in its final form. The most important improvement in this final work was the construction of a new "light" track down the mountain westward into Carbondale, giving a continuous down grade of eight miles. This section of track included the well-known "Shepherd's Crook." The track, after reaching an elevation of nineteen hundred and seven feet at Rixe's Gap, swung slightly southerly then, constantly dropping down, maintaining an even grade, the track turned north along the face of the mountain for a distance of a little over two miles, where at the "Shepherd's Crook" it turned to run abruptly south. To make this turn it was necessary to cut into the side of the mountain
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and then run out onto a high embankment, thus forming the famous loop which had a diameter of about four hundred feet. This new construction eliminated the need for lowering the light cars as was formerly done at the old planes on the west side of the mountain.
The Shepherd's Crook
This is probably an appropriate place to give a description of the man- ner of operating the "Gravity," before returning to the canal. As will be recalled, the original road consisted of parallel tracks at each plane, where each car being lowered counterbalanced one being raised; chains were used briefly, then unweildly hemp ropes, and finally iron wire cables. With the latter there were two cables for each single track plane. One of these was the hoisting cable, the other the tail rope, (or cable) which served to pull the hoisting cable back to the foot of the plane after each trip.
At the foot of each plane was a man whose duty it was to attach each train, or "trip," as it was called, to the hoisting rope. As each "trip" coasted into the foot of the plane, this man fastened the hook, at the end of the first car, to a short chain which was attached to the end of the hoisting rope. As soon as he had thus made the trip secure, he signalled the head of the plane by pulling on a bell wire and the cars were hauled away at a speed of about twenty miles per hour. Each "trip" consisted of five cars, each of five tons capacity.
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