. Rambles in the path of the steam-horse. An off-hand olla podrida, embracing a general historical and descriptive view of the scenery, agricultural and mineral resources, and prominent features of the travelled route from Baltimore to Harper's Ferry, Cumberland, Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Louisville . M.,^ Falls of the Ohio. The navigation of the river being here interrupted by the falls, especi-ally in low water, gives the city extraordinary advantages for trade andcommerce, and furnishes the principal reason of its past success, as wellas the grounds for its future promise. The falls are avo
. Rambles in the path of the steam-horse. An off-hand olla podrida, embracing a general historical and descriptive view of the scenery, agricultural and mineral resources, and prominent features of the travelled route from Baltimore to Harper's Ferry, Cumberland, Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Louisville . M.,^ Falls of the Ohio. The navigation of the river being here interrupted by the falls, especi-ally in low water, gives the city extraordinary advantages for trade andcommerce, and furnishes the principal reason of its past success, as wellas the grounds for its future promise. The falls are avoided by means ofa canal, two and a half miles in length, erected by a Company in 1833, towhich the general government contributed one-half the capital. Thewater-lift of the locks is twenty-two feet; and the canal has been cut outof a solid lime-stone rock, at a cost of seven hundred and fifty thousanddollars. The canal having been erected at a time when little improve- RAMBLES IN THE PATH OF THE STEAM HORSE. 411 RAMBLES IN THE PATH OF THE STEAM HORSE. 413 ment had been effected in steamboat navigation, and when the boats weregenerally much smaller than they now are, its capacity is not sufficient topass those of the first class, and it has therefore been proposed toresort to the old expedient, originally adopted in England, to supersedewater-lifts, of constructing a railroad around the fliUs, running into theriver at each end, and conveying the boats around by means of stationerysteam power ! This is an experiment of the practicability of which somepersons will entertain doubts. It is hardly probable that the scheme willever be carried out. It would be more practicable to enlarge the entire trade of Louisville was estimated, in 1850, at fifty millions ofdollars per annum ; but since that period, its business has increasedamazingly. There are now at least one hundreri houses doing an exclus-ive wholesale business,the amount of whichalone is computed atover
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbaltimoreandohiorail
