Values of freight carried, per unit of each class, since 1887-Continued.

Statement of commerce through both American and Canadian canals at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario, for each season or calendar year from their opening in 1855.

Statement of commerce through both American and Canadian canals at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario-Continued.

Statement of commerce through both American and Canadian canals at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario, etc.-Continued.

PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAFFIC-Continued.

St. Marys Falls Canal, Michigan, State lock, 1855 to 1887.

St. Marys Falls Canal, Michigan, Weitzel lock, since September 1, 1881.
St. Marys Falls Canal, Michigan, Poe lock, since August 3, 1896.
Sault Ste. Marie Canal, Ontario, Canadian lock, since September 9, 1895.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

The fall in St. Marys Rapids varies from 16 to 20 feet in a distance of three fourths of a mile.

The first lock was built on the Canadian side of the river by the Hudson Bay Fur Company in 1798. It was 38 feet long, 8 feet 9 inches wide, with a lift of 9 feet. A towpath was made along the shore for oxen to pull the batteaux and canoes through the upper part of the rapids. This lock, excepting its timber floor and miter sills, was destroyed in 1814 by United States troops from Mackinac Island under command of Major Holmes.

The first ship canal, known as the State Canal, was built on the American side of the river in 1853 to 1855, some 750,000 acres of land in Michigan having been granted

by the United States Congress for the construction thereof. The canal was 11⁄2 miles long, 64 feet wide at bottom, 100 feet wide at water surface, and 13 feet deep. There were two tandem locks of masonry, each 350 by 70 feet, having 11 feet on the miter sills and a lift of about 9 feet each. Charles T. Harvey was superintendent of construction, and the St. Marys Falls Ship Canal Company was the contractor. The locks were destroyed in 1888 by excavations for the present Poe lock.

The Weitzel lock, 515 feet long, 80 feet wide in chamber, narrowing to 60 feet at the gates, was built by the United States in the years 1870 to 1881. The depth of water on the miter sills is 17 feet when the upper pool is 601.9 feet and the lower pool 584.4 feet above mean tide at New York. At the same time the depth of the canal was increased to 16 feet, the mean width to 160 feet; and the stone slope walls were replaced with timber piers having a vertical face. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel was the engineer officer in charge of the district from 1872 to 1882, and Alfred Noble was the assistant engineer in local charge from 1870 to 1882. Boyle and Roach were the principal contractors.

The Canadian canal, 1 miles long, 150 feet wide and 22 feet deep, with lock 900 feet long, 60 feet wide, having 22 feet on the miter sills, was built on the north side of the river between the years 1888 and 1895. Hon. Collingwood Schreiber was chief engineer of Dominion canals, etc., and W. G. McNeill Thompson was the Government engineer in local charge of construction work. Ryan & Haney were the contractors.

The Poe lock, 800 feet long, 100 feet wide, and having 22 feet of water on the sills, was built by the United States in the years 1887 to 1896. Gen. Orlando M. Poe was the engineer officer in charge of the district from 1884 to 1895, and E. S. Wheeler the assistant engineer in local charge of construction work from 1882 to 1897. Hughes Brothers & Bangs were the principal contractors.

The American Canal since 1892 has been deepened to 25 feet, and its entrance piers have been extended so that its total length at the falls is now 13 miles. Its width is variable, being 500 feet at the upper entrance, 108 feet at the canal gate, 270 feet at the basin above locks, and 1,000 feet at the lower entrance. Dunbar & Sullivan and James B. Donnelly were the principal contractors.

The canal also practically includes that part of the channel through St. Marys River which has been gradually improved through shoals of sand, clay, bowlders, sandstone, and limestone rock for a distance of 34 miles, so that for a least width of 300 feet there is a safe navigable depth of about 19 feet at present stage of water. Col. G. J. Lydecker was the engineer officer in charge of the district from 1896 to 1902, and Maj. W. H. Bixby from 1902 to 1904. John Hickler & Sons, C. F. & H. T. Dunbar, and Carkin, Stickney & Cram were the principal contractors.

The approximate cost in round numbers of the several improvements is as follows:

Hydraulic power is used for operating the American locks, a pressure of 115 pounds per square inch being used for the Weitzel lock machinery and a pressure of 380 pounds for the Poe lock machinery. Electricity generated by water power is used for operating the Canadian lock.

The Poe lock can be filled or emptied in about seven minutes, and an up-lockage of a boat 350 feet long has been made in as short an interval as eleven minutes. The gates can be opened or closed in two and one-fourth minutes, although three to five minutes are usually taken. The Weitzel lock can be operated in about the same time as the Poe lock. The Canadian lock can be operated in about nine minutes.

REPORT OF MR. JOSEPH RIPLEY, ASSISTANT ENGINEER.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., July 1, 1904.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report relative to operating and care of St. Marys Falls Canal, Michigan, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904:

ORGANIZATION.

The regular force of 93 persons, viz, 1 general superintendent, 1 superintendent, 4 clerks, 1 chief engineman, 3 assistant superintendents, 1 overseer, 6 lockmasters, 6 enginemen, 7 watchmen, 1 storekeeper, 2 recorders, 3 messengers, 9 first-grade lockmen, 9 second-grade lockmen, 15 third-grade lockmen, and 24 linemen were severally employed from nine to twelve months in locking boats, office work, and care of property.

There were 15 laborers employed six months in repairing piers, grading, and care of grounds.

Carpenters, a painter, stonecutter, and calker were occasionally employed.

REPAIRS.

The ordinary maintenance and fitting-out repairs included the fixing or renewal of all damaged, worn-out, or broken parts of the operating machinery, the painting of gates, the refilling of piers, and the replacing of broken masonry with concrete. The repairs specially made on the Poe lock were as follows: After laying up the lock for the winter season the regular operating force was employed removing oil from the pressure pipes, taking apart hydraulic force pumps, turbines, and capstans, cleaning, repacking same, and testing of all the machinery.

Under emergency contract dated August 26, 1903, the Vulcan Iron Works, Chicago, Ill., furnished and delivered 10 valve engines for the Poe lock culverts. The shopwork and tests were inspected by Chief Engineman E. Green at the company's works in Chicago, and after delivery in December the engines were put on scows and lowered to place on floor as the lock was pumped out.

The old valve engines and their timber beds were removed from the culverts, recesses cut in the concrete and timber bulkheads, and the 10 new 12-inch valve engines installed. This work necessitated turning of the valves end for end, riveting loose plates on same, reboring brasses in lugs, making new rod pins, reriveting brackets, and the bolting of timber buffers on culvert walls.

From the three accumulators in the power house 75 tons of iron weights were removed in order to reduce the working pressure 200 pounds, the operation of the new 12-inch valve engines requiring only half the pressure used for the old 8-inch

ones.

The pressure pipes leading to new valve engines were fitted and those to reversing cylinders rearranged to permit of easier access in case of accident. A plank conduit 4 by 4 feet and 600 feet long was built around pressure pipes along south side of Poe lock, and the excess excavation from the trench was used for grading and filling piers.

The iron gratings over the culvert wells were remodeled to fit about the new valve engines, and those over the emptying well were lowered 8 inches, so that the intermediate gates will swing clear of loose rope fenders.

The cleaning and painting interiors of lower, intermediate, and upper lock gates was thoroughly done. The interior of upper gates had not been painted for eight years. Eight manholes were put in those gates to permit easy access and to provide ventilation for the painters.

Repairs to lock floor were made by cutting and threading 50 broken rods in filling culverts for turn-buckles.

The broken stone in coping and hollow quoins of lock walls were repaired with concrete, and new oak fenders were made to replace worn-out ones on face of lock walls at gate recesses.

The rusted sheets of iron roofing on power house and office building were replaced with zinc ones.

The Weitzel lock repairs included the placing of center cable sheaves on upper breast wall, the overhauling and packing of wall and valve engines, turbines, accumulator, and hydraulic force pumps, adjusting and fastening gate cables; the painting of gates, snubbing posts and electric-light poles; and repairing broken masonry with

concrete.

Repairs to south leaf of lower lock gate consisted in removing miter post and replacing all broken bolts in girders and fender straps, erecting shed on lock floor for shelter of carpenters, framing new miter post out of three pieces of oak, strapping it in place, adjusting truss rods, and replacing sheathing on gate.

The platforms on lock floor of Weitzel lock were cut down 3 inches to increase draft of water, but still leaving them 3 inches above lower miter sill.

The repairs to canal piers consisted in rebuilding 200 feet of superstructure_to south pier below Weitzel lock, and the raising and repairing cement sidewalk adja

cent thereto.