LIBRARY
BUREAU OF RAILWAY ECO^A/UC:
WASHINGTON. D* G-
REPORT
RELATIVE TO THE CONDITION
OF THE
NORTH BRANCH CANAL
BY
<
WILLIAM H. MORELL,
CIVIL ENGINEER.
PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. k P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.
1856.
Vy_V-
REPORT
TO THOMAS KIMBER, JR.,
Pres't of the Williamsport and Elmira Railroad.
Sir—I have, at your request, made a thorough per¬
sonal examination of the North Branch Canal from
Pittston to the State line, and of the Junction Canal,
which connects it with the canals of New York, for
the purpose of ascertaining their present condition,
the probable time at which they can be brought into
use, and the cost of transporting coal over them when
completed.
The portion of the North Branch Canal under con¬
sideration is ninety-four miles long, of which four are
in the valley of the Chemung and the balance in that
of the Susquehanna Biver. From Athens, at the con¬
fluence of the Susquehanna and the Chemung, to
Towanda, a distance of fifteen miles, it is constructed
along the west bank of the Susquehanna, and from
Towanda to Pittston, a distance of seventy miles, it is
upon its eastern bank. From Athens to Towanda it
is fed by the Chemung. At Towanda there is a dam
across the Susquehanna from which the canal is sup¬
plied with water for forty-two miles, when the river
is again introduced, and furnishes the supply for the
balance of the distance to Pittston. Of the entire
distance, two miles are in the pool of the Towanda
4
dam, and four in the pool of the feeder dam next be¬
low Towanda; and the length of canal supplied by
the respective feeders is, in the first instance thirteen,
in the second thirty-eight, and in the third thirty-two
miles.
The construction of the canal was commenced in
1836 and progressed with up to 1841, when thirty-
two miles were completed, the remainder being mostly
under contract and in various stages of progress. The
work was resumed in 1849, and reported finished in
the Canal Reports of December, 1853. Since then
the Agents of the State have been diligently engaged
in the as yet unsuccessful effort to get it in navigable
order. This work is now being conducted under the
direction of Mr. Moffit, an engineer of ability and
long experience in canal construction, and who is
wisely using all the means at his disposal to secure an
opening of the navigation, which shall be permanent,
at the earliest day possible.
At Athens the Susquehanna encounters the Alle¬
ghany range of mountains, which it cuts transversely,
by an extremely sinuous course, forming a series of
alternating alluvial bottoms and precipitous bluffs,
along which the canal is constructed, about two-thirds
of its distance being upon bottom lands and the re¬
mainder along the bluffs. The alluvium of the bot¬
toms is generally a loose porous gravel, and the bluffs
are either of shales and other rocks that form the
lower series of the coal formation, or of masses of
boulders intermixed with clay, sand, and gravel. The
rocky bluffs are full of fissures, running in all direc¬
tions, and forming avenues for the transmission of the
water from the canal wherever its communication is
not effectually cut off by artificial means. The bluffs,
5
not of rock, are constituted of materials that have
very little coherence, and are consequently subjected
to numerous and extensive slides during the wet sea¬
sons and the freezing and thawing of the spring and
fall months, and to abrasion from the effects of rain.
The canal is, unfortunately, crowded hard into these
bluffs, and necessarily becomes the immediate recep¬
tacle of whatever descends their slopes, by which its
navigation is subjected to frequent and serious inter¬
ruptions.
Along the rocky bluffs the canal was constructed
by cutting into them till a quantity sufficient to form
its trunk, up to within three feet of bottom, was ob¬
tained; the filling in to bottom and the towing path
and berme banks were then made from the debris of
decomposed and fragmentary rocks adhering to the
slopes of the bluffs, the most rocky portions being
placed on the outside of the banks. Where the en¬
gineer deemed it necessary, slope and retaining walls
were constructed to sustain and protect both the tow¬
ing path and berme banks. As a general thing the
walls were well and substantially built, and the same
is true of nearly all the masonry on the line, the great
defect in construction being in that of the main trunk
of the canal. Puddle ditches were not thoroughly
dug nor properly filled; the meaking under the banks
was either omitted entirely, or imperfectly executed;
the lining of the rock sections was frequently not of
the prescribed thickness, nor was it properly freed
from the large stone which abounded in the material
from which it was obtained. Even where the work
first completed had originally been well executed and
the material used was of the proper quality, the effects
of time and disuse had made it so porous that it would
6
not retain water; and, indeed, tlie general condition
of the canal was such that, after several months of
trial, the effort to fill it was abandoned as hopeless
without a previous thorough overhauling and renova¬
tion of the whole work.
This process of renovation is now going on; the bed
and banks of the canal, where the material is good, are
being ploughed, harrowed, raked, and rolled, so as to
comminute and consolidate the earth and prevent per¬
colation through it; the lining in other parts is being
thoroughly overhauled, and, by means of rakes and
screens, freed from the rocky masses and coarse mate¬
rial which it contained in large quantities; new ma¬
terial, of proper quality, is being added where the
present quantity is insufficient; puddle ditches are
being dug and properly filled; slides, &c., are being
removed, and where practicable, at a reasonable cost,
the trunk of the canal is being excavated to the di¬
mensions originally prescribed for it. This last be¬
came necessary from the omission, in many instances,
of those who constructed the canal to carry the exca¬
vation to bottom, or to make it of the required width.
When all the work here enumerated shall have been
completed, the canal will be in the condition it should
have been at the time it was reported as finished, in
1853: it will then be ready for the introduction of the
water, and a trial of its capacity to hold it. The
work of tightening and consolidating its banks will
then commence, and must be continued from year to
year, till it is perfected.
The renovation now in progress will probably be
such as to permit the introduction of water through¬
out the whole extent of the canal by the month of
September next; but it is not probable that its banks
7
will be sufficiently tight to maintain a proper depth
of water for the passage of boats, lightly laden, before
the rainy season preceding winter sets in.
The water has been admitted into the division ex¬
tending from the State line to Towanda, and boats
drawing two and a half feet of water can now tra¬
verse it.
The water will be let into the Junction Canal
during the whole of this month, so that by July next
navigation for boats of light draught will be opened
from Towanda to the canals of the State of New
York. The Junction Canal, which constitutes eigh¬
teen miles of this navigation, is in the valley of the
Chemung, the characteristics of which are very favor¬
able for the construction of a canal, and but little labor
will be required to make it retain water; but its navi¬
gation will be liable to occasional interruptions from
wash and slides at a few points, where, to economize
in construction, it has been, unwisely, crowded too
far into the hill-side. The navigation of the North
Branch will be subjected to like interruptions, and to
a greater extent, from the same cause.
After these canals are made to hold water, the main
hindrance to the ascending navigation will be in the
rapid current to be encountered. This, on the Junc¬
tion Canal, will be inconsiderable, from the fact that
the Chemung is introduced at short intervals, thus
making the distance to be fed from any one point but
a few miles in extent, while, on the North Branch, it
will be a very serious matter in consequence of the
remoteness of the feeding points from each other; and
the limit of its capacity for through transportation
will be controlled by the resistance to be encountered
in that section of it fed from the pool of the Towanda
8
dam. On this section the water for all purposes of
leakage, filtration, absorption, evaporation, and lock¬
age, for thirty-eight miles of canal, has to pass through
the feeder level. The quantity of water required for
these purposes during the first season of navigation
subsequent to its introduction, is estimated by the
superintendent at from four hundred to four hundred
and fifty cubic feet per mile per minute, which will
be gradually diminished from year to year, as the
canal becomes tightened and consolidated, till it is
reduced to two hundred and fifty feet per mile per
minute, which is the present consumption of the old
work below Pitts ton. With four hundred cubic feet
per mile per minute, the consumption per minute on
this section of thirty-eight miles will be fifteen thou¬
sand two hundred cubic feet; and with two hundred
and fifty feet, will be nine thousand five hundred cubic
feet, which will create a current through the feeder
level varying from one-half to one and a quarter miles
an hour, decreasing from the maximum as the capa¬
city of the canal to retain water is increased.
The value of this hindrance to the ascending trade
will be appreciated when it is considered that the re¬
sistance to the passage of a body through water is as
the square of the velocity, and that the mean rate of
traction of a loaded canal boat is two miles an hour.
This obstacle might have been, and may yet be,
materially reduced in amount by giving to the feeder
and other levels cross-sectional areas proportioned to
the quantity of water to be passed through them, and
by the construction of additional feeders; but until
this shall be done the capacity of these canals for an
ascending trade should be considered as controlled by
9
the conditions above presented, and which, in my
judgment, warrant the conclusions following, viz:—
1st. That there will be, this season, a limited navi¬
gation through the Junction Canal, after the middle
of July next.
2d. That boats, with nominal loads only, may be
taken through the upper North Branch Canal this
year, with the aid of the fall rains.
3d. That in 1857 a navigation, liable to frequent
interruptions, may be established from the Wyoming
coal basin to the New York canals, for boats with a
load averaging, for the season, thirty-five tons.
4th. That in 1858 the load may be increased to an
average of forty-five tons, drawn by three horses.
5th. That thereafter, as the canal business is per¬
fected, and the consumption of water for purposes
other than lockage and evaporation becomes less, the
load may be increased till it shall reach sixty tons,
where it will remain until—
6th. The feeder levels are enlarged, and additional
feeders constructed, and a depth of water permanently
established that shall permit the passage of boats
drawing three and a half feet of water.
The lower North Branch Canal permits the passage
of boats drawing three feet, their full load being about
sixty tons, drawn by two horses, the current being in
the direction of the trade. The exact average load,
as furnished me by Mr. Grey, the intelligent and ex¬
perienced agent of the Baltimore Coal Co. at Wilkes-
barre, being fifty-nine and three-quarter tons, in the
transportation of seventy-five thousand eight hundred
tons, for that company, the last season.
The upper North Branch Canal will not have a
greater depth of water, nor permit the passage of
10
boats of greater draught, than the lower now does,
until the requirements of the 6th of the above enu¬
merated conditions are complied with—an event which
may be considered as very remote, unless the work
shall cease to be the property of the State.
In estimating the price at which coal from the
Wyoming basin can be delivered to the New York
canals and railroads at Elmira, over these works, the
navigation will be considered as commencing in the
year 1858 with an average load for the season of forty-
five tons. The other data for the estimate are derived
from what is believed to be reliable information, ob¬
tained from persons actually engaged in the respective
operations of mining, shipping, boating, and market¬
ing coal from the Wyoming basin.
The nearest coal in the basin reached by the canals
is at Pittston (112 miles), ninety-four of which is by
the North Branch and eighteen by the Junction Canal.
The amount of lockage on the former is two hundred
and twenty-two feet, overcome by thirty-one locks:
the amount on the latter is seventy-one feet, overcome
by eight locks: the average lockage per mile in the
first instance being about two and a half feet, and in
the last four. The detention occasioned by three
lockages may be considered as equivalent, in time, to
the addition of a mile to the length of the canal, and
the detention caused by the thirty-nine locks would,
consequently, be equivalent to thirteen miles addi¬
tional canal navigation; so that the whole time con¬
sumed in passing through these canals would be equi¬
valent to that required by a canal one hundred and
twenty-five miles long.
The velocity of loaded boats upon
canals is about . . .2 miles per hour.
11
The velocity of empty ones . 3 miles per hour.
The time of ascending will he .6 days.
Of descending, the detention by lockage
being fully as great as in ascending . 4.5 "
Time consumed in loading ... .5 day.
Time consumed in unloading . . 1 "
Average detention by reason of breaks
and slides, &c. . . . . . 1 "
Total time required for a round trip . 13 days.
The expense of a boat and three horses, manned
by two men and a boy, per day, is, on an average, not
less than $8 00; amounting, per trip, to $104 00.
Toll on boat, exclusive of cargo, at two cents per
mile, amounts, on the round trip, to $4 48.
Tolls, per thousand pounds, on the North Branch,
three mills; equal, per ton, to mills per mile.
Tolls on the Junction Canal twenty-five cents per ton
for the entire distance.
Average cost of coal delivered in boats $1 25 per
ton.
On the foregoing data an estimate is submitted:—
lsf. For a load of Forty-five Tons.
Expense of boat per round trip . . $104 00
Tolls on " " 4 48
Total per trip $108 48
Which for forty-five tons, is per ton . $2 41
Tolls on the North Branch, 6.72 mills per
mile, amounting on the 94 miles to 63
Tolls on the Junction Canal ... 25
Cost of coal delivered in the boat . . 1 25
Total coal delivered at Elmira from Pittston $4 54
I
12
*
2d. For a load of Sixty Tons. .
Total expense of boat per trip, as before . $1*08 48
Makes for a load of 60 tons, per ton . $1 80
Tolls on the North Branch " . 63
" " Junction " . • 25
Coal delivered in boats " . 1 25
Total per ton . . . . . . $3 93
It will be observed that the foregoing estimates are
for the minimum distance that the coal would have
to be transported. The Wyoming coal basin extends
below Pittston about eighteen miles, making Wilkes-
barre its centre point on the canal, and the mean dis¬
tance to the New York canals at Elmira, one hundred
and twenty-one miles, which would add about fifteen
cents per ton to the above estimate, and make the
total amount in the first place $4 69 per ton, and in
the second $4 08.
In closing, it is proper that I should express my ob¬
ligations to Mr. Moffit for the very full and satisfac¬
tory explanations given me of the manner in which
he is prosecuting the work he has in charge, and for
the information furnished me in relation to its condi¬
tion, for which purpose he obligingly accompanied me
over the entire work.
I am also under great obligations to Mr. Grey, the
agent at Wilkesbarre of the Baltimore Coal Com¬
pany, for valuable information in relation to the cost of
mining, shipping, and transporting coal.
Respectfully, &c.,
WM. H. MORELL.
SEP £ ;> WA