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16 MARINE REVIEW New York's New Canal System. BY COL. THOMAS W. SYMONS. Member of the Evie Canal Advisory Commission, Government Engineer im ch In 1895 when I arrived in Buffalo from the Pacific coast, the state of New York was just finishing the work under the $9,000,000 appro- priation. This appropria- tion had been secured through the deliberate de- ception of the people. A low estimate of the cost of lengthening the locks and deepening the canal as pro- vided in the plans was $20,- 000,000, but this estimate had been pared down and arbitrarily reduced to $o,- 000,000 because this was considered by those having the matter in charge to be the biggest sum that the state could be induced to appropriate for the _ better- ment of the canals, [he work itself had been very badly managed, and_ the whole great commonwealth was in a state of bitter in- dignation and disgust at the deception which had _ been practiced in getting the ap- propriation and the lack of good judgment and business ability displayed in the con- duct of the work. The outlook was beyond question most unpromising for the state taking up the subject of canal improve- ment again for many years, and it certainly is most. re- markable that it has in the short time that has elapsed since then gone so far as it has in this way. My first official introduction to the canal question was being called upon to make a report on a bill which had been intro- duced in congress for widening the locks of the Erie canal for military purposes. My report was to the effect that such widening would have little value for military reasons, but would be valuable commercially. I was next called upon to make a report to the general government on the broad subject of what was the best and most economical canal from the great lakes to the sea. This involved a great deal of study and research and very hard work. The net result of my labors was the conclusion that a ship canal by the Erie canal route was impracticable, and by way of Lake Ontario inadvisable, and that the proper and best solution of the canal problem was to build a large barge canal by the general route of the Erie canal, as large as the natural features, water supply, and prevailing conditions would permit. Soon after the submission of this report te the general government, Governor (now president) Roosevelt with the unerring judgment which guides him in all public matters, appointed a committee of business men to examine into the whole canal question and advise him what the state should COL. THOMAS W. SYMONS arge of Executive Mansion at Washington. do 'with its canals. This advisory board, of which I had the honor to be a member, struggled with the question for over a year, collected a vast amount of statistics, and considered every possible solution of the problem that could be suggested and finally unani- mously agreed that the thing for the state to do was to build a barge canal along the general route of the Erie canal suitable for boats of about 1,000 tons capacity with locks of -- sufficient length to take two boats at one lockage. The board also recom- mended that before going further the state appropri- ate $200,000 for surveys and the preparation of plans and estimates. This was done and the results -indicated that the enlargement of the Erie and Oswego canals to the 1,000-ton barge size and a lesser improvement of the Champlain cana! would cost $82,090,000. Based upon these plans and estimates. a bill was pre- pared for submission to the legislature and the people. This was drawn by Mr. Abel E. Blackmar and my- self after much study and consideration, as it was nec- essary in the bill to provide for raising the money for the work, and to provide for carrying on the work in an effi- cient and economical manner and all within constitutional limits. While in the hands of the legislature the work was re-estimated as to cost and much other work added, bringing the total cost up to $101,000,000. One of the main items added was to provide for the enlargement of the Champlain canal to the full barge size, as prescribed for the other canals. This bill finally passed both houses of the legislature, was signed by the governor, and last year at the general election was submitted to the people of the state and approved by about 250,000 majority. New York is thus committed to this great work and active operations have already begun on it. Thus only about eight years after the $9,000,000 fiasco, the state has plunged into another canal scheme involving over $100,000,000. OLD AND NEW CANALS. The existing navigated canals of the state of New. York are the Erie, Oswego and Champlain canals, connecting re- spectively Lakes Erie, Ontario and Champlain with the navig- able waters of the Hudson below Troy. The new and improved canals are to perform exactly the same functions, but they differ from the existing canals in three important respects: First, as to size and capacity; sec-