The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad buys out the Schuylkill
Navigation. ** William Roberts presents his Ohio River plan to
Colonel William E. Merrill's committee. ** 'Francis Folly' dam
on the Merrimack River canal system is reconstructed. ** Despite
the failure of the Duluth Harbor Bill in Congress, financier Jay
Cooke founds the Minnesota Canal and Harbor Improvement Company
and begins construction on a canal to sever Minnesota Point, opening
the Port of Duluth directly to Lake Superior.
June
Superior, Wisconsin, obtains an injunction against the completion
of the Duluth, Michigan, harbor canal. Before the papers can arrive
from Leavenworth, Kansas, the citizens of Duluth complete the
construction.
The Seneca River Towing Path of the New York State Barge Canal, connecting Mud Lock on the Oswego Canal to the outlet of Onondaga Lake, is discontinued. ** The Pennsylvania Railroad buys out the Camden and Amboy Railroad, acquiring the Delaware and Raritan Canal. The D&R loses its use of the Schuylkill Navigation. ** Net earnings of the Delaware and Raritan Canal - $1,202,419. ** Chicago completes the deep cut necessary to convert the upper sections of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to a sanitary canal, reversing the flow of the Chicago River. ** Michigan's St. Clair Flats Ship Canal opens.
Canada
Chicago businessman George W. McMullen arrives in Ottawa as part of a delegation to confer on an enlargement of the Chicago and Huron Shipping Canal.
Jul 8
Construction begins on the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, connecting
Green Bay with Lake Michigan.
Maine's Cumberland-Oxford Canal ceases operations.
Erie Canal
17 boats sink on Section I this year. ** The steam-powered canal
boat William Newman is built in Buffalo, New York.
The William Newman makes a record run between Troy and Buffalo
- four days and twenty-two hours.
Erie Canal
Navigation on the Erie Canal is held up at lock 6 in Watervliet
for 72 hours when a weak foundation under the lock, gives way.
** 12 boats sink on Section I this year.
12,424,705 barrels of wheat and corn are shipped on the Illinois
and Michigan Canal. ** Once again work begins on Wisconsin's Portage
Canal. The U. S. Government begins rebuilding the Fort Winnebago
lock. ** Colonel Merrill recommends Congress authorize thirteen
locks and movable dams on the Ohio, between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and Wheeling, West Virginia.
June
The Portage Canal is completed.
Jun 30
The Boscobel becomes the first boat to use the Portage Canal.
The need for the graving docks at Brooklyn's Erie Basin begins to slacken. ** The Chenango Canal has largely fallen into disuse.
January
A state investigating commission recommends abandoning the Chemung
Canal.
May
U. S. canal engineer William Gooding dies.
Jun 28
The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal opens; currently for small craft only.
France obtains a Columbian charter to build a canal across Panama. ** The Chenango Canal ceases operations.
The Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique de Panama is
formed.
© 2001 David Minor / Eagles Byte