Northumberland, at the junction of the north and west branches, where it unites with the north and west branch divisions. Ascent, eighty-six and a half feet; length, thirty-nine miles.

The North Branch section opens at Northumberland, and follows the north branch of the Susquehanna to the mouth of Lackawana, in Luzerne county, above Wilkesbarre. There is a dam across the river at Nanticoke, and the upper end of the canal is supplied with water from the Lackawana. Locks, seventeen feet by ninety feet; total lockage, 112 feet; length, seventy-three miles.

The North Branch extension is unfinished; it was intended to communicate with the New York state, by joining the Chenango canal, as a northern outlet for the coal and iron of Pennsylvania, and to obtain back freights of salt and gypsum. From Lackawana, it follows the north branch to Athens, in Bradford county, near the northern line of the state. The cost of work done on this extension up to December 1, 1841, amounted to 2,348,276 dollars; estimated cost of work remaining to be done, 1,298,416 dollars; total estimated cost, 3,646,692 dollars. Length of canal, ninety miles; lockage, 193 feet.

The West Branch section is a lateral canal from the Susquehanna section, beginning at Northumberland, and extending up the west branch of the Susquehanna, by Milton, Williamsport, and other places, to the bituminous coal region in the vicinity of Farrandsville.

Two lateral branches from the West Branch section extend, one to Lewisburg, about half a mile, and the other to Bald Eagle creek, near Lock Haven, three miles and a half in length.

The Sinnemahoning extension is a continuation of the West Branch canal to the mouth of Sinnemahoning creek, a distance of about thirty-six miles above Farrandsville. It is unfinished, the work being suspended in 1839.

The Wiconisco canal is also unfinished. It extends along the east bank of the Susquehanna, from the dam at Clark's ferry, near Duncan's island, to Millersburg, at the mouth of Wiconisco creek, a distance of twelve miles; ascent, thirty-five feet. By the act of July 13, 1842, this canal was transferred to an incorporated company, "reserving the right to the state to reclaim it after twenty years, upon paying to the company the amount expended by them in its completion."

The Western section, near Johnstone, the western termination of the Alleghany Portage railroad, the Western section of the canal, opens and continues down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas to the River Alleghany; crossing which, near the mouth of Kiskiminetas, this canal winds along the western bank of the river to Alleghany city, opposite Pittsburg, where it crosses an aqueduct, and thence runs through Pittsburg to the Monongahela river. There are ten dams on the route, and upwards of twenty miles of slack water, navigable on

their pools. Below Blairsville, the canal passes through a tunnel 817 feet in length. Descent by lockage, 471 feet; distance, 105 miles.

The Beaver section extends from a town of the same name, on the Ohio, up Beaver river to the Shenango, and thence up that stream to the head of slack water navigation, about six miles above Newcastle. Length, thirty-one miles; ascent, 132 feet.

A little below Newcastle, at the mouth of Mahoning creek, this section is crossed by the Mahoning canal, which extends into Ohio, and at Akron it intersects the Ohio and Erie canal. The Beaver section is only a part of a canal, intended to connect the Ohio river, by way of Conneaut lake, with Lake Erie.

The Erie extension is unfinished, it is divided into the Shenango section, commences at the head of the Beaver section, above Newcastle, and extends northward to the town of Erie. The ascent from the Shenango pool to the summit at Conneaut lake, is 287 feet; the descent thence to Lake Erie, 510 feet. The level of Conneaut lake is 419 feet above low water in the Ohio, at Beaver, and the surface of Lake Erie, ninety-one feet lower than the Ohio. Length of the Erie extension, 105 miles.

The French Creek feeder, is a navigable canal, twenty-seven miles in length, from French creek above Meadville to the Erie extension at Conneaut lake.

The Franklin line joins it at the aqueduct, seven miles below Meadville, where the water in the feeder is on a level with Conneaut lake, and gives it an extension to Franklin on the Alleghany river. Descent of lockage, 128 feet; length twenty-two miles.

PENNSYLVANIA STATE RAILROADS.-The Philadelphia and Columbia railroad commences at Philadelphia, crosses the Schuylkill by a viaduct about two miles from the city, and follows a western course by Downingtown and Lancaster, to Columbia on the Susquehanna, a distance of eighty-two miles. Here it joins the eastern section of the Pennsylvania canal.

The Schuylkill viaduct for the rails is 984 feet in length, it has also a way for carriages and foot passengers. Immediately west of this, the road ascends by an inclined plain, 2805 feet in length, with a rise of 187 feet, on which cars ascend and descend at the same time, by being attached to an endless rope, moved by a stationary engine of sixty-horse power. The railroad then ascends gradually to near the West Chester railroad, about twenty-two miles from Philadelphia, where its height is 543 feet above tide-water. The railroad then descends 293 feet, at a grade of twenty-nine feet to the mile, to the Brandywine viaduct near Downingtown; from thence it again ascends, after crossing the West Brandywine near Coatesville, over the North Valley hill, at Mine Ridge gap, by a grade increased for about three-quarters of a mile, to forty-five feet per mile. From this

height the road descends 250 feet into the Lancaster valley, by the city of Lancaster, and descends but twenty-five feet, by a route of six miles, to the Susquehanna river, Columbia.

There are several viaducts over the streams crossed by this railroad, particularly those over Valley creek and West Brandywine; the latter is 835 feet in length, and seventy-two feet above the water. Those over the Big and Little Conestoga creeks are 1412 feet and 804 feet long. The highest embankment is eighty feet, and the deepest cuttings from thirty to forty feet. The locomotive engines for the transportation of freight, are capable of drawing upwards of 100 tons each, exclusive of the weight of cars, engine, &c., or nearly 200 tons in all, at an average speed of ten or twelve miles per hour.

The Alleghany Portage railroad commences at Hollidaysburg, at the western termination of the Juniata canal, and crosses the Alleghany ridge at Blair's gap; thence it descends to the valley of the Conemaugh, to Johnstown, at the western division of the Pennsylvania canal. There are ten inclined planes on this railroad from Johnstown eastward, and eleven " levels," or graded lines of road, the inclination of which is from ten feet to fifteen feet to the mile, except that between Johnstown and the first plane, which has a grade of about twenty-four feet, between the eastern plane and Hollidaysburg, where the maximum grade is fifty-two feet. Blair's gap is 2325 feet above the level of mean high water of the tide on the Susquehanna; the ascent from Hollidaysburg to the summit, is 1398 feet in ten miles, and the descent to Johnstown 1171 feet in twenty-six miles and a half. There are five inclined planes on each side of the summit; the longest being the third one west of Hollidaysburg, which is 3117 feet in length, with a rise of 307 feet; and the shortest, the third east of Johnstown, 1480 feet in length, rising 130 feet. At the head of each inclined plane, there are two stationary engines of about thirty-five horse power each, which draw up and let down, by the endless rope, the cars attached. Four cars, each loaded with a burden of 7000 pounds, can be drawn up at once, and as many let down at the same time, from six to ten times in an hour. On the short levels between the planes, horses are used for drawing the cars.

A viaduct over the Conemaugh, consists of a single arch of eighty feet span, at a height of seventy feet above the water of the stream. Through a ridge near the head of the first plane, east of Johnstown, there is a tunnel, 901 feet in length, twenty feet wide, and nineteen feet high. This railroad is thirty miles and a half long.

The Gettysburg railroad, intended to communicate between the Pennsylvania improvements and those of Maryland, from the Baltimore to the Ohio railroad, and also with the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. After expending more than 700,000 dollars, on the eastern end between Gettysburg and the summit of the south mountain, the work was suspended.

-

PENNSYLVANIA CANALS AND RAILROADS CONSTRUCTED BY COMPANIES.The Lehigh navigation consists of a succession of canal and slack water navigation constructed by the Lehigh company, numerous dams built across the river form navigable pools, and between these there are canals of various lengths. These works join the Delaware section of the state canal at Easton on the Delaware, and extend up the Lehigh river by Bethlehem and Allentown to Mauch Chunk, at the eastern termination of the great southern anthracite coal basin. The canals are sixty feet wide at the water line, forty-five feet at bottom, and five feet deep; locks 100 feet long and twenty-two feet wide, capable of passing boats carrying more than 100 tons; dams from 300 feet to 564 feet long, and eight feet to nineteen feet and a half high. Distance, forty-six miles and a half, with a rise in lockage of 353 feet.

From Mauch Chunk the navigation is continued up the river to Whitehaven, twenty-four miles and three quarters; and thence to the falls at Stoddartsville, thirteen miles and a half, there is a descent for boats by artificial freshets, chiefly for bringing down lumber. The distance from Mauch Chunk to the northern termination of the works, is thirty-eight miles and a quarter. Ascent, 936 feet. The locks above Mauch Chunk are of the same length as those below, and twenty feet wide; one of them has a lift of thirty feet, and can be filled or emptied in two minutes and a half. On this upper division of the work are twenty dams, from fourteen to thirty-eight feet high, and from 187 to 375 feet long. Total length of the Lehigh navigation, eighty-four miles and a half.

The Lackawaxen canal is an extension of the Delaware and Hudson canal into Pennsylvania. It enters the state near the mouth of Lackawaxen, and extends up that stream to Honesdale, in Wayne county, where it connects with a railroad to the Lackawana coal mines at Carbondale. Length, twenty-five miles; lockage rise, 187 feet from the Delaware to Honesdale, which is 870 feet above tide water.

The Schuylkill navigation commences at Fair Mount dam, near Philadelphia, and follows the Schuylkill by Norristown and Reading to Port Carbon. It opens a water carriage between the Philadelphia and the Schuylkill coal region. It was commenced in 1815, and completed in 1826. Like the Lehigh navigation, it consists of pools formed across the river, with intervening lines of canal, sometimes on the east and sometimes on the west side of the river, which the canal crosses several times. Near Reading it is intersected by the Union canal, which joins the Susquehanna, and the state canals of the interior. Length of navigation from Philadelphia to Port Carbon, 108 miles, of which fifty-eight is canal and fifty slack water. The longest line of canal on the route is twenty-two miles, called the Girard, the upper end of which is five or six miles below Reading. Width of canal, thirty-six feet at top, twenty-two at bottom, and four feet deep. Locks, eighty feet by seventeen, total ascent, 610 feet.

The Union canal passes from the Schuylkill, near Reading, westward up the valley of Tulpehocken creek, to the summit between the head waters of that stream and those of the Quitapahilla, a branch of the Swatara. It then descends the Swatara to the Susquehanna, near Middletown. A branch, twenty-three miles in length, serves the double purpose of a navigable canal and a feeder, and extends up the Swatara northward to Pine Grove, in Schuylkill county, from which railroads extend to the coal mines. Near the gap by which the Swatara passes through the Blue mountain, a large dam is constructed which forms a pool or reservoir several miles in extent. The feeder on the Swatara being lower than the summit level of the canal near Lebanon, water works have been constructed, which are now aided by steam engines, for the purpose of raising the water, which is conducted in a trunk several miles to the main canal. From the commencement of this canal on the Schuylkill to the summit level, the decline is forty-one miles and a quarter; ascent of lockage, 311 feet. The summit level is seven miles long, and 498 feet above tide water. From this to the Susquehanna is thirty-three miles and three quarters; descent, 208 feet. Width of canal, thirty-six feet; depth, four feet. Locks, seventy-five feet by eight feet and a half. Length of canal, eighty-two miles.

The Susquehanna or Tide Water canal, commencing at Wrightsville, opposite Columbia, and continues along the west side of the Susquehanna river to Havrede-Grace, in Maryland. This canal opens a communication between the eastern division of the Pennsylvania canal and the tide water of Chesapeake bay. Canal, fifty feet wide, five feet deep; locks with double chamber, admitting the passage of two boats at the same time, or of a raft 170 feet long, and sixteen feet wide. Length, forty-five miles; descent, 233 feet.

The Conestoga navigation consists of dams and locks, on Conestoga creek, from the city of Lancaster to the Susquehanna river. Locks, 100 feet by twentytwo feet; length of navigation, eighteen miles; descent, sixty-two feet.

The Codorus navigation, by dams, locks, and canals on Codorus creek, from the borough of York to the Susquehanna river. Length, eleven miles.

Bald Eagle and Spring Creek navigation, extends from the West Branch State canal, at Lock Haven, in Clinton county, up the Bald Eagle and Spring creeks to Bellefonte, in Centre county. Length, twenty-five miles; nineteen of which are finished. Lockage, 183 feet.

Monongahela Improvement navigation, extending up that river to the Virginia line; unfinished. Length, about forty miles.

Mahoning canal, eight miles of which are in Pennsylvania, extends from the Beaver division of the State canal, near Newcastle, in Mercer county, up the valley of Mahoning river into the state of Ohio, and joins the Ohio and Erie canal at Akron, Ohio. Length, eighty-five miles.

CORPORATED RAILROADS.-There are in the city of Philadelphia and the

n