. Artificial waterways of the world. of the opening of the GrandCanal, as it was called for many years, was sentfrom Buffalo to Sandy Hook, over 500 miles, in81 minutes, by means of booming cannon placedat proper distances along the Mne. Our forbears,rejoicing over this great achievement in trans-portation, sought to hasten the news of thecanals opening, as fast as sound travels, by boom-ing cannon. They httle dreamed that in less thana century BujBfalo and New York would conversewith the same ease and certainty as persons seatedface to face. The construction of the Erie Canal was op-posed by
. Artificial waterways of the world. of the opening of the GrandCanal, as it was called for many years, was sentfrom Buffalo to Sandy Hook, over 500 miles, in81 minutes, by means of booming cannon placedat proper distances along the Mne. Our forbears,rejoicing over this great achievement in trans-portation, sought to hasten the news of thecanals opening, as fast as sound travels, by boom-ing cannon. They httle dreamed that in less thana century BujBfalo and New York would conversewith the same ease and certainty as persons seatedface to face. The construction of the Erie Canal was op-posed by the penny-wise economists, as asenseless squandering of the peoples was opprobriously called Chntons Ditch,and sections of the State not adjacent to theHne of the canal were vehement in oppositionto being taxed for an enterprise of most ques-tionable value, and which, should it prove asuccess, would build up canal counties at theexpense of the northern and southern tier coim-ties of the State. This spirit of rivalry < -s H ^ s fe y F^ ,° C5 if Fi 3 o 5 iH iiT a Q ^ H 3 2 THE CANAL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 53 when the success of the canal was recognizedby all, resulted in the construction of a series ofcanals reaching practically all parts of the State,for which there was no commercial justification,and whose recognized uselessness induced theirsubsequent abandonment. There was, perhaps,a pardonable hope that these lateral canals woulddo for their localities what the Erie was doingfor the country between Buffalo and Albany andNew York but the leverage which insured theirbuilding was the pork barrel principle whichobtains in River and Harbor appropriations atWashington. These outlying canals were sup-ported as the price of maintenance of the maincanals. THE CANAL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK The Period of Development Thus Clintons Ditch, as his opponents inpolitics contemptuously called it, was a fixedfact, notwithstanding ex-Governor (then VicePresident) Tompkins declaratio
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidcu31924, booksubjectcanals
