Estimated cost of adding 2 feet in height to two locks and pier-walls, West Troy side-cut.

From Hudson River, via Old Mohawk and Erie Canal, to Albany.-Property damages.

From Hudson River, via Old Mohawk River and Erie Canal, to Albany, Mohawk River di

From Hudson River, via Old Mohawk and Erie Canal, to Albany, Erie Canal division,6.06 miles.

In obedience to law, a copy of the reports of Maj. William P. Craighill, of the Corps of Engineers, on the examination and cost of construction of the third subdivision of the central transportation route.

JANUARY 27, 1875.—Referred to the Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard and ordered to be printed.

WAR DEPARTMENT, January 27, 1875. The Secretary of War has the honor to transmit to the United States Senate, in compliance with the requirements of the river and harbor act of June 23, 1874, copy of report of Maj. William P. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, upon the examination and cost of construction of the third subdivision of the central transportation route, this being one of the routes indicated in the report of the Senate Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard.

WM. W. BELKNAP,
Secretary of War.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS,
Washington, D. C., January 25, 1875.

SIR: In further compliance with the requirements of the river and harbor act of June 23, 1874, for surveys and estimates for the improvements recommended by the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, I have the honor herewith to submit a copy of the report of Maj. William P. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, upon the examination and cost of construction of the committee's third subdivision of the central transportation route, which comprises a connection by canal or freight-railway from the Ohio River, or Kanawha River, near Charleston, by the shortest and most practicable route through West Virginia to tide-water in Virginia.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. A. HUMPHREYS, Brig. Gen. and Chief of En ineers.

Hon. W. W. BELKNAP,

Secretary of Wer.

THIRD SUBDIVISION OF THE CENTRAL TRANSPORTATION ROUTE.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,
Baltimore, Md., January 13, 1875.

GENERAL: On the 2d of July, 1874, instructions were received from you of the following tenor:

The river and harbor act, approved June 23, 1874, contains an appropriation of surveys and estimates for the improvements recommended by the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard upon four routes indicated in the report of said committee, to be expended in such manner as will secure the greatest amount of exact information for each of said routes.

The survey of that portion of the central route designated as "a connection by canal, or a freight-railway, from the Ohio River, or Kanawha River, near Charleston, by the shortest and most practicable route through West Virginia to tide-water in Virginia," is assigned to you.

The nature and object of these surveys are fully set forth in the report of the committee, with its appendix and evidence, copies of which have been forwarded to you from this office for your information and guidance. You should, as far as practicable, carry out the views of the committee.

The sum of $48,000 will be allotted to you for this service from the above appropriation, and you will please enter upon this duty as early as practicable.

No delay was permitted in unnecessary preparations for the perform ance of the duty thus marked out, but some time was requisite for secur ing the services of persons competent to do thoroughly much and diffi cult work in the remainder of the season for such operations, which was then nearly or quite half past. It is proper here to explain that the responsibility resting upon me for the supervision of and disbursement of public funds for numerous works of river and harbor improvement in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina as far south as, and including, the Cape Fear River, made it impossible that I should take any part in the actual surveys, although frequent visits were made to those having them in charge, and a constant intercommunication was maintained by mail and telegraph.

The surveys were naturally divided into those relating to the waterline and those pertaining to the alternative freight-railway. The opinion has been more than once expressed that further surveys were necessary to procure more definite and detailed information concerning the waterline, and that a sum, not less than $25,000, was required for that pur pose. I had also, when called upon officially for an opinion, stated that $25,000 were also needed for surveys for the location of the alternative freight-railway, but in making that statement it was my understanding that the surveys for the freight-railway would be confined to a narrow tract quite near the water-line for which it was to be the alternative. When, however, the field of investigation was extended by the Committee on Transportation to a search for a railway-line "from the Ohio River, or Kanawha River, near Charleston, by the shortest and most practicable route through West Virginia to tide-water in Virginia," it became obvious at once that more time and money would be necessary for proper surveys and estimates than had been expected. It was deemed fair to apply equal shares of the allotted $48,000 to the waterline and the railway-surveys and estimates.

The report of the committee indicated (p. 182) the points to which special attention should be given in the water-line surveys. That report

says:

From the opinions expressed by the board of engineers it appearsFirst. That the exact location of the tunnel is undetermined as yet. It is decided by the board that the size of the tunnel shall be changed to the dimensions above men tioned.

Second. That additional surveys are necessary in order to determine the question as to whether it is better to construct a canal from the summit to the Kanawha River, or to adopt the present plan of slackwater navigation, and that additional surveys are necessary for determining the principal points referred to in the report of the board.

The surveys relative to the summit-tunnel were committed, early in July, 1874, to the immediate charge of Lieut. Thomas Turtle, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, under instructions, from which the extract below is made:

As soon as you can complete the necessary arrangements, you will proceed to the neighborhood of the Lorraine tunnel, on the Alleghany summit of the central water-line, and there undertake such further investigations and surveys as may be required to furnish the information needed to enable a definite and final location to be made of that important feature of the line, and to put the work promptly under contract should Congress provide the means.

While locating the tunnel as a means of passing a great communication through the mountain, you will bear in mind also its office as the summit-level of a canal, and consider carefully the best means of connecting it with the canal or slackwater at either end, and of maintaining its supply of water by suitable feeding arrangements, assuming that supply to be sufficient.

Your service with the board of engineers last winter and spring, and your knowledge of the various points connected with this subject, discussed verbally and in written reports by them, make it unnecessary for me to give further than the general instructions above.

It is my expectation that, upon completing the field-duties thus indicated, you will supervise the preparation of illustrative drawings and maps, accompanied by a full report, in which, with other questions, I desire you to discuss the use of the tunnel by the application of horse-power or steam in the various modes which have been elsewhere tried and suggested, and all other matters pertaining to it.

It is important that a report, as complete as time and means will permit, shall be made to Congress at as early a day in the next session as possible; not later than Jannary 1, 1875.

*

*

You will engage as many assistants, of different grades, as may be necessary, keeping down their compensation, and, indeed, all expenditures, to the minimum limit compatible with fairness, and the accomplishment of much and reliable work in a comparatively short time.

Free and full communication of your views at all times is invited. I shall watch your operations with very great interest, expecting most valuable and creditable results therefrom, to the attainment of which you shall have my constant and ready aid by every means whereby it can be properly rendered.

The further surveys of the Greenbier and New River were placed in the hands of Mr. A. H. Hutton, assistant engineer, under instructions from which the following extracts are made, some of the other general paragraphs, not quoted, being identical in phraseology with those ahead given from the instructions of Lieutenant Turtle.

You will enter upon a re-survey of the Greenbier River below Howard's Creek, and of New River below the Greenbier, the objects being to fix the precise location of dams and other details of the slack-water navigation of these streams, with the collection of such additional information as will enable a detailed determination to be made of the location and cost of the canal, which by some engineers is considered a necessity for that part of the line, and by others a desirable though not a necessary alternative to the slack-water. You will keep in view, also, the possible advantages to be gained by resort to tunnels for avoiding difficult localities in the valley of New River specially, and thereby at the same time shortening the line either of the slack-water or canal navigation. It is desired, if possible, that the information you gain will be such as to enable the work along that portion of the line to be put promptly under contract should Congress provide the means.

Much valuable matter has been already accumulated concerning this part of the line through the labors of your able predecessors, which should be freely used.

*

Well-organized and equipped parties of competent assistants were very speedily in the field and actively at work. Mr. Hutton commenced operations at the mouth of Howard's Creek on the Greenbier River, but it soon became apparent that there was an unequal distribution of work

between him and Lieutenant Turtle, and, in consequence, Mr. Hutton's parties were moved down to the mouth of the Greenbier, and it was arranged that Lieutenant Turtle's parties should complete the Greenbier field-work after finishing what was necessary for the summit division.

Still later in the season, and quite unexpectedly, I was directed to relieve Major Merrill, Corps of Engineers, of the charge of the improvements of the Great Kanawha River, and of its surveys from the Great Falls to the Ohio River.

I was unable to meet Major Merrill until the middle of August, as he was detained elsewhere by duties which he found himself unable to postpone. As soon thereafter as possible, about the 20th of August, 1874, the survey of the Great Kanawha was placed in the hands of Mr. A. M. Scott, the competent local assistant-engineer, in charge of the improvement of the river. The instructions given him were the fol lowing:

Wishing to avail myself of your assistance and special local knowledge of the Great Kanawha River, having in view the necessity of further surveys to enable such a report to be made as seems to be required by the Senate Committee on Transportation, in order to the formation of a definite conclusion as to the proper method aud the cost of permanently improving the river so as to give a useful depth of not less than six feet at all stages of water, which means actually a depth of not less than seven feet, I have to request you to make such additional examinations from the falls to the mouth of the river as will give you the means for the following objects:

1st. A revision of Mr. Lorraine's estimate for sluice-navigation, with the help of a reservoir.

2d. A revision of Mr. Lorraine's estimate for a lock-and-dam navigation, with locks 240' x 40'.

3d. An estimate of the cost of a lock-and-dam navigation, the lock to be about 250' X 50'.

4th. An estimate of the cost of movable dams, with large locks.

The estimate should be in detail, and be liberal. The accompanying report should treat the whole subject fully, and should be in my hands by December 15, 1874.

Under the phraseology of the Senate Committee, designating the eastern termination of the freight-railway as "tide-water in Virginia," it became necessary to consider in that connection the whole line from Alexandria to Norfolk, and a communication by mail thence to the Ohio.

The language of the committee probably excluded from examination the claims to consideration of the route of the great and highly important and valuable artery of trade and travel known as the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, although (by its Parkersburgh and Metropolitan branches, the former intersecting the Ohio in West Virginia, and the latter and its connection debouching on the Potomac River, the great tidal-stream of Virginia, and by the main road and its branches passing through much of the territory of Virginia and West Virginia) the combination fills nearly the requirements of my instructionn. The merits and advantages of that route are too well known by the whole country to require anything more in this report than a simple reference to them. It became necessary, however, to look over the whole of Virginia south of the Baltimore and Ohio line, and to discover any other which was practicable through "West Virginia to tide-water in Virginia,” in order to determine which was "the shortest and most practicable." Several railroads had been already constructed in whole or in part, and several others had been projected, and it was therefore desirable to utilze, as far as possible, the information already gained from previous surveys for those routes, and with that object to have the service of