THE AVERAGE COST OF REPAIRS OF MACHINERY PER PASSENGER, AND PER TON OF FREIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE. THE AVERAGE COST OF OPERATING THE ROADS PER MILE RUN BY THE TRAINS. THE SAME PER PASSENGER AND PER TON CARRIED ONE MILI The receipts per mile run by the trains are as follows: 2,833 40 289 70 6,392 88 $1.34 173 1 56 1.75 cents. 2.8 By comparing the foregoing average expenses with those furnished in the last report, it will be observed that the cost of the repairs of the track per mile of road, exceeds that of the preceding year nearly fifty per cent, but that the repairs of machinery per mile run by the trains is about the same. The better condition of the track has pre vented the expense for repairs of machinery from increasing with the increased rates of speed which are now adopted. The expenses of operating the roads have increased about twenty per cent over those of the preceding year, owing to the increased speed of the trains, and to the higher price of labor. The following statements, which are exhibited by the tables, will show how widely the cost and expenses of the various roads differ from each other: To obtain an accurate average, it has been necessary to reject some of the lowest results, and such of the reports as appeared to be evidently erroneous. The tables, in some cases, show pretty plainly that these errors are caused either by carelessness or design, probably for the purpose of reducing the expense of some particular item. The number of passengers carried on the cars, as reported by 20 roads, One passenger was killed for every 35,516,116 miles traveled, and one passenger was injured for every 48,834,660 miles traveled. The classification of these accidents is as follows. The whole number of passengers carried in the cars on 20 railroads, was 8,174,363 897,272,298 The whole number of passengers injured... 19 Of whom were killed .. 11 The whole number of employees injured.. 97 The whole number of others injured. Of whom were killed.. Of whom were killed..... Making the total number injured. Of whom were killed ... One passenger was killed for every 36,115,663 miles traveled, and one passenger was injured for every 49,669,037 miles traveled. The classification of these accidents is as follows: 56 93 70 209 137 Trains thrown off the track ..... 19 8 9 13 Run over while walking, standing, or lying on the track. It will be observed how few accidents have occurred to passengers from causes beyond their own control. One passenger was killed from such causes for every 198,636,149 miles traveled, and one passenger injured for every 66,212,050 miles traveled. Twenty-one per cent only of the accidents causing death, and thirty-three per cent of the accidents not causing death to the employees, were from causes beyond their control. By a comparison of the ratio of accidents and miles traveled in 1852 with that of 1853, it will be observed that during the last year the passengers traveled nearly three times the distance traveled in the former year before meeting with an accident causing death, and one quarter farther before meeting with an accident not resulting in death. These evidences of the increased safety of railroad traveling, both to the passenger and the workman, will be as gratifying to the passengers of railroads as they are to the public, especially when it is remembered that the speed of trains has been greatly increased during the past year. This is partly due to the better condition in which the track and machinery are now maintained, and partly to the observance of greater care on the part of the travelers, and to the exercise of greater skill on the part of the managers and workmen. RATES OF TRANSPORTATION ON CANALS AND RAILROADS. A correspondent of the Toledo Blade states that there exist great errors of opinion and action in reference to the value of these modes of conveyance. For passengers, the railroad has no rival in the canal; and for the transportation of most kinds of heavy freight, the canal is not less pre-eminent over the railroad. One great cause of error lies in the fact, now becoming apparent among well-informed railroad men, that many of our railroads, for the purpose of making a great show of business, have carried freights at a loss. This is notorious in reference to the Northern Railroad between Ogdensburg and Rouse's Point, and of the connected lines thence to Boston. The through freights on the New York and Erie Railroad have, undoubtedly, been below the cost to the company. The following are the rates, according to the New York State Engineer, Mr. McAlpin, of transportation between the seaboard and the West, by the various rail roads and water lines as now used : The charge on the Wabash and Erie Canal is probably based on information obtained of the business of 1852. Mr. McAlpin, in his late report to the Legislature of New York, says that his full examination of the subject of railroad and canal transportation "resulted in showing that the aggregate cost of the Central and Erie roads was much greater than that of the Erie Canal, when its enlargement is completed, while their capacity was less than one-fourth as great; and also, that the cost of transportation on these roads was three times that of the Canal, and the charges more than double." His conclusion is, that railroads are not rivals of canals in the carriage of freight, but auxiliaries, giving them more freight than they take away; and that no line of railway is better located for a paying business, other things being equal, than in the neighborhood of a canal. THE CANALS AND OTHER PUBLIC WORKS OF NEW YORK. NUMBER I. PROGRESS OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STATE. The last annual report of WM. J. MCALPINE, Esq., who retired from the office of State Engineer and Surveyor, at the close of 1853, is a document of more than ordinary interest, furnishing, as it does, a brief retrospect of the public works of New York, their past history, their present condition, and the effects of their completion. The report is at once systematic, concise, and comprehensive, and we propose in the present and subsequent numbers of the Merchants' Magazine, to embody under general heads, the substance of the report, adopting the facts and generally the language of the author. We begin with THE PROGRESS OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENST IN NEW YORK. The canals of this State have mostly been constructed at the expense of the State government, and the railroads by private capital, aided in some instances by loans and donations from the government. These works are more remarkable for their extent than for the natural obstacles overcome, and required in their execution more ability from their financial than from their engineering managers. The latter have, in most cases, been restrained by the former from expenditures for any purpose not demanded by the most rigid utility, and hence no opportunity has been afforded for those exhibitions of engineering talent which have distinguished the profession in other countries. The State works, especially, have been constructed with an economy of expendi、 ture that is hardly credited by the engineers of Europe. In some instances this economy has been carried to such an extent as to require the works to be re-built in a more permanent manner. Yet this policy has seldom proved injudicious, as the construction of the first works lessened the cost of those subsequently built, by facilitating the transportation of the materials used, and by developing the resources of the country and demonstrating the value of the improvement. The State works exhibit the best specimens of the construction of earthen banks for the retention of water, and of well arranged and durable masonry, which are to be found in the world. In this respect, the enlarged Erie Canal and the Croton Aqueduct, (built by the City of New York,) surpass any similar undertakings in the judicious permanency of their various works. The works of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, built by an incorporated company, and those of the Chenango Canal, built by the State, furnish the most favorable specimens of a rigidly economical application of expenditure suited to the circumstances of the respective cases. The railroads of New York State show every variety of construction, from that which involved the largest expenditure, to that which was executed with the most rigid economy. The former has been chiefly caused by the progressive improvements which have been made in the construction of this species of internal improvement. The engineers of this country began the construction of railroads by following the plans laid down by their European brethren; as the latter had unlimited command of capital, so long as their plans were followed in this country the progress of the railroad system was comparatively slow, because capital could not be obtained, and roads thus constructed were not remunerative. The Albany and Schenectady Railroad, in New York State, and the Baltimore and Ohio, in Maryland, were commenced on these expensive plans, copied mainly from those of the Liverpool and Manchester Road, in England. The substitution of a gravel road bed and wooden cross-ties for the expensive foundations of McAdamized stone, timber, and cross-ties of the English roads, is due to an engineer of this State. This substitution has caused a radical change in the system of railroad construction, not only in this country but in Europe. The railroads of New York now furnish the best specimens of large wooden bridges, locomotives, engines, and cars, and we hope soon to be able also to record the successful application of wire suspension bridges to railroad purposes, which has been pronounced impracticable by European engineers. The project of improving the navigation of the Mohawk, and extending a water line across the portage to Lake Ontario, attracted the attention of the public men of this State at a very early day. The cost of transportation of furs and the Indian supplies between the interior lakes and the Hudson was alluded to by the surveyor general in 1724, and the improvement, by means of a canal, of the rapids of the Mohawk, by the governor in 1768. Immediately after the Revolution this subject was again brought forward. In 1784 a plan for improving the Mohawk was proposed to the Legislature, and in 1791 they directed surveys and estimates to be made for building canals across the portage from the Mohawk to Lake Ontario, and from the Hudson to Lake Champlain. The following year they chartered a company who built canals and locks at the Little Falls, the German Flats, and at Wood Creek, at a cost of $400,000. In 1808 the surveyor general was directed to survey a route for a canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie. He employed James Geddes, who reported that canals could be made from Oneida Lake to Lake Ontario, around the Falls of Niagara, and on a direct route from Seneca River to Lake Erie. Three years later a commission reported that a continuous canal, on an inclined plane, from Lake Erie to the Hudson was practicable, and would cost $5,000,000. The Legislature of that year, 1811, directed the construction of the Erie Canal, but the war prevented any further action until 1816, when a new commission was formed, |