This Pennsylvania route was likewise famous because it included the first tunnel in America; but with the advance of years, tunnel, planes, and canal were supplanted by what was to become in time the Pennsylvania Railroad, the pride of the State and one of the great highways of the nation.
In the year before Pennsylvania investigated her western water route, a joint bill was introduced into the legislatures of the Potomac Valley States, proposing a Potomac Canal Company which should construct a Chesapeake and Ohio canal at the expense of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.The plan was of vital moment to Alexandria and Georgetown on the Potomac, but unless a lateral canal could be built to Baltimore, that city--which paid a third of Maryland's taxes--would be called on to supply a great sum to benefit only her chief rivals.The bitter struggle which now developed is one of the most significant in commercial history because of its sequel.
The conditions underlying this rivalry must not be lost sight of.
Baltimore had done more than any other Eastern city to ally herself with the West and to obtain its trade.She had instinctively responded to every move made by her rivals in the great game.If Pennsylvania promoted a Lancaster Turnpike, Baltimore threw out her superb Baltimore-Reisterstown boulevard, though her northern road to Philadelphia remained the slough that Brissot and Baily had found it.If New York projected an Erie Canal, Baltimore successfully championed the building of a Cumberland Road by a governmental godmother.So thoroughly and quickly, indeed, did she link her system of stone roads to that great artery, that even today many well-informed writers seem to be under the impression that the Cumberland Road ran from the Ohio to Washington and Baltimore.Now, with canals building to the north of her and canals to the south of her, what of her prestige and future?
For the moment Baltimore compromised by agreeing to a Chesapeake and Ohio canal which, by a lateral branch, should still lead to her market square.Her scheme embraced a vision of conquest regal in its sweep, beyond that of any rival, and comprehending two ideas worthy of the most farseeing strategist and the most astute politician.It called not only for the building of a transmontane canal to the Ohio but also for a connecting canal from the Ohio to the Great Lakes.Not only would the trade of the Northwest be secured by this means--for this southerly route would not be affected by winter frosts as would those of Pennsylvania and New York--but the good godmother at Washington would be almost certain to champion it and help to build it since the proposed route was so thoroughly interstate in character.With the backing of Maryland, Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and probably several States bordering the Inland Lakes, government aid in the undertaking seemed feasible and proper.
Theoretically the daring scheme captured the admiration of all who were to be benefited by it.At a great banquet at Washington, late in 1823, the project was launched.Adams, Clay, and Calhoun took the opportunity to ally themselves with it by robustly declaring themselves in favor of widespread internal improvements.Even the godmother smiled upon it for, following Monroe's recommendation, Congress without hesitation voted thirty thousand dollars for the preliminary survey from Washington to Pittsburgh.Quickly the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company and the connecting Maryland Canal Company were formed, and steps were taken to have Ohio promote an Ohio and Lake Erie Company.
As high as were the hopes awakened by this movement, just so deep was the dejection and chagrin into which its advocates were thrown upon receiving the report of the engineers who made the preliminary survey.The estimated cost ran towards a quarter of a billion, four times the capital stock of the company; and there were not lacking those who pointed out that the Erie Canal had cost more than double the original appropriation made for it.
The situation was aggravated for Baltimore by the fact that Maryland and Virginia were willing to take half a loaf if they could not get a whole one: in other words, they were willing to build the canal up the Potomac to Cumberland and stop there.
Baltimore, even if linked to this partial scheme, would lose her water connection with the West, the one prized asset which the project had held out, and her Potomac Valley rivals would, on this contracted plan, be in a particularly advantageous position to surpass her.But the last blow was yet to come.Engineers reported that a lateral canal connecting the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay was not feasible.It was consequently of little moment whether the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal could be built across the Alleghanies or not, for, even if it could have been carried through the Great Plains or to the Pacific, Baltimore was, for topographical reasons, out of the running.
The men of Baltimore now gave one of the most striking illustrations of spirit and pluck ever exhibited by the people of any city.They refused to accept defeat.If engineering science held a means of overcoming the natural disadvantages of their position, they were determined to adopt that means, come what would of hardship, difficulty, and expenditure.If roads and canals would not serve the city on the Chesapeake, what of the railroad on which so many experiments were being made in England?
