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CHAPTER X V.

THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL.

Do the residents of Johnstown know that portions of the Third, Ninth and Tenth wards of the city from 1832 to 1857 formed one of the important points of the great transportation system of our country; that this territory was covered with water from four to six feet in depth, and scores of boats floated over the space now occupied by the Gautier Steel Department of the Cambria Iron Company, the electric street cars, stores, shops, mills, churches and houses?

The Acts of the General Assembly for the State of Pennsylvania passed March 27, 1824, and April 11, 1825, authorized surveys to be made to ascertain the most practicable route to connect the effete East with the wild and woolly West, wherein the Allegheny mountains were the division line.

The Act of April 11, 1825, authorized surveys to be made for the Pennsylvania Canal, directing that the following routes be examined:

First. From Philadelphia, through Chester and Lancaster counties, and thence by the west branch of the Susquehanna, and the waters thereof, to the Allegheny and Pittsburg; also, from the Allegheny to Lake Erie.

Second. From Philadelphia, by the Juniata, to Pittsburg, and from thence to Lake Erie.

Third. From Philadelphia to the northern boundary of the State, toward the Seneca or Cayuga Lake.

Fourth. And one other, through Cumberland and Franklin counties, to the Potomac river.

Fifth. And one other, by the Conococheague, or Monocacy, and Conewago to the Susquehanna.

Sixth. And one other, through the county of Bedford, to connect the route of the proposed Chesapeake & Ohio canal with the Juniata route, as aforesaid.

The Board of Canal Commissioners made their report, after an examination of the aforementioned routes had been made, and adopted the one through Johnstown, and they were authorized to build the line by Act of Assembly of February 25, 1826.

This action of the General Assembly determined the question of the natural advantages which we possessed over all others.

The first systematic method of transportation after the pack mules were the turnpikes. The Federal Government built the National Pike in 1822, under the Monroe Administration. It began at Cumberland, Maryland, and terminated at Wheeling, West Virginia, but was subsequently extended to Illinois. 'The Somerset and Bedford pike had been authorized in 1816, and the Northern pike, passing through Ebensburg, and other turnpikes were in operation on the Alleghenies. In competition with these methods the State of Pennsylvania attempted the experiment of crossing the mountains by a railroad, and built the Pennsylvania canal, and the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The former was ready for business in the spring of 1832, and the latter in the spring of 1834. The Erie canal between Albany and Buffalo had been opened in 1825.

The Pennsylvania system of improvements contemplated and constructed consisted of a canal, with locks and dams, from Pittsburg to Johnstown; a railroad on which the cars were to be drawn by horses, afterward by locomotives, between Johnstown and Hollidaysburg; a canal from Hollidaysburg to Columbia, through the Juniata Valley and along the Susquehanna river, and a railroad from Columbia to the Schuylkill river, in Philadelphia.

It was a combination of steam and water. When this system was completed Andrew Jackson was serving his second term as President of the Union of States, and, considering the progress made in the arts and sciences, and the better means men and women have of gaining a livelihood, the nineteenth century bids fair to stand as a chief epoch in the history of the world, and when it is thus truthfully recorded, Johnstown will be one of the landmarks in the methods of transportation.

To operate the canal system it was as essential to have a basin for the loading and unloading of boats and transferring goods in bulk from the railroad on land to the boats on water and vice versa, as it is now for railroads to have transfer depots and great yards for the shifting of cars and making up trains. There were two basins on the Pennsylvania canal-one at Pittsburg and the other in Johnstown-the latter, with its appurtenances, occupying that part of the Third, Ninth, and Tenth wards between Clinton and Railroad streets on the west and

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south and the "Five Points" and Portage street on the east and north.

That portion of land lying between the Basin and the Little

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Conemaugh river, from the "Five Points" to the waste weir, at the Overhead Bridge, was known as Long Island, but commonly received only the name of "The Island." The waste weir

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at the entrance of the basin and under the bridge, was one hundred feet in width, and from the waste weir to the aqueduct, in the rear of the Cambria Iron Company's office, all the land lying between the canal and the river was known as "Goose Island." The widest point on "The Island" was about three hundred feet, while "Goose Island" was a little less. The "Five Points" was so called on account of the converging of five thoroughfares at that place, namely: Portage, Railroad, Church, and Depot (also known as Fenlon) streets, and the Old Portage railroad, coming in from the east. This was the connecting link of the land and water system of transportation of that day.

The Overhead Bridge, built in 1835, was a wooden structure, extending from Canal street, below Clinton, across the canal and waste weir, and a point of "Goose Island" to "The Island." It was three hundred feet long and sufficiently wide to allow teams to pass; it rested on an abutment and pier on the Canal side, and had a gradual grade to the level of Portage street, on the Island.

The roadway on the Canal-street side was rather steep, with steps on the lower side for foot travelers. The bridge was not taken away until after the war. William Flattery was a justice of the peace, whose office was on the "Goose Island" side and midway on the bridge. Here justice was administered in an able manner for many years. The 'Squire was elected one of the associate judges in the old district court when it was established in this city in 1869.

The water for the basin and canal was let into the former through a sluice from the Little Conemaugh river at the "Five Points" also in another way, through a forty-foot feeder, from Suppes' Dam, in the Stonycreek, down along the present line of the Baltimore & Ohio road, through Sharpsburg (named thus in honor of Thomas Sharp, and a part of the present Fourth ward, between Green Hill and the Stonycreek river, from the corner of Bedford and Baumer streets, up to the Horner line), thence across, in a straight line with Feeder street, to the Basin. The Feeder was the division line between the boroughs of Johnstown and Conemaugh, and is now the line separating the Third and Ninth wards of the city. The Feeder was finished in 1833, a year after the opening of the canal.

The canal proper, which was about sixty feet wide on the top line and intended to contain at least four feet of water, began at the Overhead bridge, situated about fifty feet below

the mouth of Clinton street, and followed the present line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the continuation of the tracks of the Cambria Steel Company to the blast furnaces.

For the purpose of controlling the quantity of water necessary to float the crafts, or to draw off the water to make repairs, a waste weir was run from the Basin to the Little Conemaugh river, dividing "Goose Island" and "The Island" commencing at the upper side of the Weighlock. It also formed an outlet from the weighscales which were immediately west of the bridge connected with the waste weir.

Within a short time after the canal was put in operation it was discovered necessary to have a reserve body of water to fill the canal during the dry season, and in 1835 the State began to construct the South Fork Reservoir, which was situated about sixteen miles from Johnstown, at an altitude of four hundred feet above the town. It was an immense affair, having a basin of thirty-two acres, its extreme length being three miles, from one-fourth to a mile in width, and at the breast about seventytwo feet in height. The State exhausted its finances, and did not have money enough to finish the dam, which was abandoned for a few years. In 1845 it was completed, and water was stored therein. In 1847 it broke and caused considerable damage to the canal and basin in Johnstown. One boat was taken through a break in the canal and passed under the aqueduct, in the rear of the Cambria Iron Company's office. In July, 1862, two small breaks occurred but no serious damage followed and the dam was again practically abandoned until about 1880, when it was rebuilt by the South Fork Fishing Club. On the 31st of May, 1889, the dam broke the second time, with terrible results to human life.

The Weighlock was on the north side of the canal, at the entrance to the basin, about a hundred and fifty feet below Clinton street, and immediately below the bridge which connected "The Island" with the town. From the beginning of the operation of the canal up to 1835, when the bridge was erected, the only way to get a team to town from that portion of "The Island," or "Goose Island," was to cross under the aqueduct on the bed of the river, which became impassable during high water, or go up around the "Five Points." Until 1835, when a weighlock was built here, all the boats, with their lading, were weighed in Pittsburg. The manner of weighing a boat was a very interesting proceeding. After it had been run into the lock

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