1820..

1821.

Years.

STATEMENT-Continued.

Commerce, navigation, valuation, and population of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, with the customs' revenue at each port.

The foregoing statements show, that while the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia have made a rapid advance in population, their foreign commerce has remained very nearly stationary for a long series of years, proving most conclusively that a large foreign commerce can only be maintained by a city that is able to make herself the depot of the domestic products of the country.

The Erie canal secured to the city of New York the trade of the interior, because it occupied the only route practicable for such a work. So long, therefore, as canals continued the most approved of known modes of transportation, the superior position of that city in reference to the internal trade of the country remained unquestioned. Such is now no longer the case. For travel, and for the transportation of certain kinds of merchandise, the superiority of railroads is admitted. It is also claimed that they can successfully compete with the canal in heavy freights. However this may be, the correctness of the assumption is admitted by the construction of railroads parallel to all the canals, for the purpose of competing for the business of the latter. The conviction is now almost universal, that commercial supremacy is to be secured and maintained by this new agency, which neutralizes, to a great extent, the advantages arising from the accidents of position; and that the commerce of the country is still a prize for the competition of all cities which may choose to enter the lists. Influenced by these views, all the great commercial towns have either completed, or are constructing, stupendous lines of railroad, with the confident expectation of securing to each a portion of the trade which, up to the present time, has been almost entirely monopolized by one.

It is proper to state, that the people of New York, in view of the competition and rivalry with which they are threatened, have determined to complete the enlargement of the Erie canal within the shortest practicable period. It is calculated that this enlargement can be completed within three years after it shall be undertaken. The enlarged canal will allow the use of boats of 224 tons burden, or three times the capacity of those now employed; and will, it is estimated, reduce the cost of transporting a barrel of flour from Buffalo to Albany to twentyfive cents, and other merchandise in like proportion. As the canal is abundantly supplied with water, the only limit to its capacity is the time required for passing boats through the locks. It is calculated that an average of 26,000 boats can be locked each way during the business season. Allowing each boat to be fully loaded, the total tonnage capacity of the enlarged canal would equal 11,648,000 tons. But as the proportion of down to up freights is as four to one, the average tonnage of the boats is estimated, in the reports of the State engineer for 1851, at 140 tons for each boat, which, for 52,000 boats, would give an annual movement of 7,230,000 tons as the total capacity of the canal, or 5,824,000 tons down, and 1,406,000 tons up freight. It is estimated that upon the enlarged canal the cost of transportation, embracing tolls, will be reduced to five mills per ton per mile upon ordinary merchandise, or to $1 82 per ton for the entire distance from Albany to Buffalo.

Champlain canal.-This work, though originally constructed for the accommodation of the trade of the country bordering upon that lake,

bids fair to become an important avenue for the trade of the St. Lawrence basin. This lake is now connected with the St. Lawrence river at Ogdensburg, above the rapids, by the Ogdensburg or Northern railroad; at Montreal, by the Champlain and St. Lawrence railroad; and will soon have a farther connexion at Lachine, by means of the Plattsburg and Montreal railroad, now in progress of construction. It is also connected with the St. Lawrence river, at the mouth of the Sorel, by means of the Chambly canal. Through this last channel the State of New York now receives a large and annually increasing amount of lumber. The Ogdensburg railroad was built expressly for the purpose of diverting a portion of the trade of the St. Lawrence at that point, and it is reasonable to suppose that all the roads named will, in time, become, in connexion with the lakes and canal, important outlets for western trade. They promise to open not only cheap, but expeditious routes, which, in a press of business, must be well patronized. It may be stated here, that the proposed ship-canal from Caughnawaga to Lake Champlain will open a practicable route for the largest class of vessels from the upper lakes to Whitehall, within seventy-five miles of tide-water.

As the route of the proposed canal is remarkably favorable, and as it can be fed from the St. Lawrence, and built at a moderate expense, it is believed that it must be constructed at no distant day.

Railroads of New York.

Railroads from Albany to Buffalo.-The first continuous line of railroad to connect the lakes and tide-water was that from Albany to Buffalo, following very nearly the route of the canal. As it was a private enterprise, and came into direct competition with the State works, the canal tolls were imposed upon the carriage of all freight, in addition to the cost of transportation. From this source the State has derived a large revenue. This tax has had a tendency to confine the business of the road to the less bulky and more valuable articles of freight, and to those of a perishable nature. The tax was removed on the first of December, 1851, by an act of the legislature; hence the road is now brought into free competition with the canal, and has, during the present season, carried flour from Buffalo to Albany for sixty cents per barrel, which is nearly fifty cents below the average price by canal for nearly twenty years subsequent to its opening. The quantity of freight is still restricted for the want of sufficient equipments and suitable accommodations for receiving and storing it, particularly at Albany. This fact operated as a serious drawback on the past winter's operations. The necessary facilities for business will soon be supplied, and there can be no doubt that the railroad will engage in a large carrying business in direct competition with the canal.

The above road will soon have practically a double track for its whole line. It already has such from Albany to Syracuse. From the latter place a new road is nearly completed to the Niagara river, composed of the straight line between Syracuse and Rochester, and the Rochester and Niagara Falls road. Its capacity for business will,

therefore, be unlimited. It connects with Lake Erie at Buffalo; and with Lake Ontario, through branches already in operation, at Sackett's Harbor, Cape Vincent, Oswego, and Lewiston; and, by lines in progress, at Great and Little Sodus bays, and at Rochester. By presenting numerous points of contact with western trade, it will escape all the inconveniences of too great a concentration of business at any one point, and will be enabled to offer great facilities for the cheap and easy transport of freight.

At Albany, it will connect with the Hudson river and Harlem roads, the former of which will be a double-track road. In connexion with these a double track will be formed from New York to Buffalo, and to various points upon Lake Ontario. At Buffalo this line is carried forward to the roads of Ohio by the Lake Shore road. The great western roads of Canada, now in progress, will form a connexion with Detroit, by way of the north shore of Lake Erie. From Detroit, the Michigan Central railroad is completed to Chicago; as is the Michigan Southern from Monroe; so that by January, 1854, New York will have two parallel lines of railroad to Chicago, each of which will be about one thousand miles long. From Chicago to the Mississippi river two important roads are in progress-the Galena and Chicago, and the Rock Island and Chicago, both of which will be completed in the course of 1853. The length of these lines will be about one hundred and eighty miles each.

Although the carriage of freight has been denied to the above line, except on payment of canal tolls, which amounts to a virtual prohibition of many articles, it has exerted an influence on the growth and pros-. perity of New York second only to that exerted by the Erie canal. In connexion with the great lakes and the western lines of improvement, it commanded, as soon as opened, the travel between the Atlantic States. and the West and Southwest, and concentrated this travel upon that city, which in this manner became a necessary point in the route of every western or southwestern merchant, visiting the eastern States. The result was, the introduction to merchants of that city of a large class of country traders who would otherwise have continued to purchase, at points where they had been previously accustomed to trade, By passing through New York, the whole business population of the country established business relations more or less intimate in that city.

Erie railroad and its branches.-The Erie railroad, unlike the Central line, was planned and has been executed with special reference to the accommodation of the trade between New York and the West. It is the greatest work ever attempted in this country, and its construction is the greatest achievement of the kind yet realized. The road and all its structures are on the most comprehensive scale, and its facilities for business are fully equal to the magnitude and object of the work.

As the lake, on the one hand, and the Hudson river on the other, are approached, the road spreads out into a number of independent lines, forming at each terminus a sort of delta, to accommodate its im mense business. Its outlets to tide-water are at Newburgh, Piermont, and Jersey City. At the two former places the company