Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 215, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1918 — Great Lakes Linked With Atlantic [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Great Lakes Linked With Atlantic

Great Barae Canal of New York. Marvel of Enoineerina. Aids Wax Transportation

By ROBERT H. MOULTON.

f" |HE opening for through trafTflc of the Barge canal of NewYork, remarkable both for its picturesqueness and for the mmbi engineering difficulties overjS come in construction, which links the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean was formally celebrated recently. The completion of this great Inland waterway, which required 13 years to build and involved the expenditure of approximately $150,000,000, will be a wonderful boon to wartime transportation. It will relieve the railroads of a tremendous quantity of nonperishable freight. Its capacity is estimated at ten million tons annually, which is the equivalent of half a million carloads. The canal is made up of four different channels, all of which have the same general dimensions, the depth being about 12 feet and width varying from 75 feet in earth sections of “land line” to a minimum of 200 feet in the beds of canalized rivers and lakes. These channels are: The Erie canal, or main line, between Buffalo and Troy; the Oswego, running from Syracuse to Lake Ontario; the Champlain, extending from Troy up the Hudson to Lake Champlain, and the Cayuga-Seneca, connecting the so-called “FingerLakes” with the main channel. By means of the Hudson river, New York city and the municipalities and villages south of Albany are brought into touch with the system. This new channel was constructed in accordance with principles radically different from those which governed on old canals. On these old channels the idea was to keep the hillside above the rivers and streams and to use animal power for towing purposes. In the present work, however, the practice in vogue on the Continent, where the lowwater routes available In natural streams are used, has been followed wherever practicable. In fact, the larger part of the new system consists of the canalization of the rivers and lakes. Locks and Dams Built In order to make navigation possible on the rivers and lakes it was necessary to maintain a specified minimum depth and provide what is termed “slack-water navigation.” • This was accomplished by the construction of dams and locks, the dams holding the water at a 5 more or less fixed elevation above the level of the stream and the locks permitting the barges to move from one level to another. Between Little Falls and Troy, on the Erie canal, tin dams have been constructed, which provide for navigation on the canalized Mohawk river. Two of these structures are of the “fixed type” while eight are movable. These actually make the river a series of lakes, the water between the dams being practically level and ordinarily without much current. A lock is constructed at one side of each dam to enable the barges to pass from the different levels. Many travelers across the state have wondered at the movable dams which appear to be steel bridges, yet have no approaches. This type of structure was necessary, however, because from the bridge floor of each structure the controlling works, which swing underneath, are operated. These works consist of heavy steel frames and gates which may be lowered or raised at will by operating electric winches running on the bridge floor of the dam. The particular function of the movable dam Is shat when the gates are raised, during the winter months and spring

quantity of water, thus keeping each pool at its proper level. Highest Lift Locks. There are 36 locks on the Erie canal, all of which are massive concrete structures, having Inside rectangular dimensions of 300 by 44.44 feet and a lifting capacity varying from a few feet up to 40% feet At Waterford the locks are so constructed that a series of five serves to lift the barges from the Hudson river to the canalized Mohawk river, 169 feet above the level of the government lock at the Troy dam. These structures have been called the world’s greatest series of high-lift locks and their lift is double that of the locks in the Panama canal from sea level to summit One of the highest lift locks in the world is located at Little Falls, where the difference in pool elevation is 40% feet. This massive structure has concrete walls, which stand 80 feet high and are 30 feet wide at the base. The lower gate is of the lift type and is raised and lowered, instead of being swung open and shut as are the gates on other locks. In the operation of all locks the water is admitted to and drawn from the chamber by means of culverts running through the side walls, and the openings have been so designed that the filling and emptying of the chamber is only a matter of a few minutes.* The locks are all electrically operated and the chambers are filled or emptied while the gates and valves are opened or closed by simply turning a lever. Safety devices are also arranged so that, errors in operation or navigation are practically eliminated. The Erie canal is spanned by 232 bridges, of which 50 are railroad crossings. The clearance under these structures must be at least 15% feet. Guard Against Accident. In the “land line,” guard gates have been provided which are located about ten miles apart. These are steel structures, suspended from towers and may be lowered to hold the water, in case of emergency, such as might exist if an embankment became weakened or any similar accident made it desirable to unwater any section of the channel. Numerous culverts and spillways which keep the water from overflowing the banks bave been provided and a hundred million yards of earth and rock have been removed, while three million yards of concrete have been placed. Whilß the actual construction period has been about 13 years, this, considering the magnitude and ramifications of the work, is a very short time. The many structures and the nature of the territory through v\hich the different channels run has made this one of the really important engineering undertakings of the age, and. the construction details have been the most extensive, the plans alone being some of the most elaborate and complete ever drawn up for any large construction work. The cost of handling freight on the railroads, before recent Increases went into effect, varied from two to seven mills per ton per mile, the average being between three and six mills per ton mile. It is now estimated that this figure will be reduced more than onehalf on the new canal system, owing to the larger barges and the thoroughly up-to-date facilities. The method of propulsion used is by power boats driven either by steam, electricity or the internal combustion engine, and it has already been determined from trial trips that the speed which may be maintained throughout the system is considerably in excess of that main-

tained by ordinary freight trains, either in normal times or under present conditions. Transportation Problem Acute. It Is admitted that the transportation facilities of our country, as well as our transoceanic shipping, underlie our ability to carry the present war to a successful conclusion.. The war has, indeed, brought us face to lace with a problem in transportation that is vital and critical. There is not a business community from one end of the country to the other that is not dealing with the question. A congestion has arisen that has affected almost every factory In the United States and even extended to our homes. The New York Barge canal offers a solution to many of our transportation problems. This waterway —and it may be called the most Important canal in the United States —has been thrown open at a time when its usefulness can be fully appreciated, and when it can fulfill a mission not dreamed of by its original projectors. It can easily carry a total of ten million tons of freight and this is as much as can be carried on one-fifth of all the freight cars on all the rail lines in the United States. It is equivalent to what could be carried on a string of freight cars which, if placed end to end, would extend from Denver to New York city.