The Old Pike. Thomas B. Searight
You shall in a few days receive further instructions on this subject.
Very respectfully, &c.,
WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut. and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
Engineer Department,
Washington, July 20, 1833.
Sir: On the 16th you were advised to delay any further action as to the location of the Cumberland Road until you were again written to.
Mr. Purcell reports to the Board of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company that the road being at the site now chosen will occasion an increased cost to the Canal Company of upwards of $16,000. It is very desirable to avoid this state of things, for, as their charter claims precedence, it would necessarily create a demand upon the government commensurate with the injury sustained.
Major Eaton, president of the Canal Company, will direct Mr. Purcell, the engineer, to proceed forthwith to Cumberland, with you, to ascertain the best mode of making the location by which to avoid any injury or increased expense to the Canal Company. You are instructed to confer freely with Mr. Purcell, holding the object suggested steadily in view, and give such direction to the location of the road as may best attain this object. This done, you will forward a plan of the route agreed on, and a minute detail of everything, particularly what increased expense to the Canal Company will probably be occasioned. On receiving your report, the case will be considered here, and you be advised immediately of the course to be pursued.
Very respectfully, &c., &c.,
By order:WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut. and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
Philadelphia, July 26, 1833.
Sir: The order of your department of the 16th instant was received by me at Cumberland, and its injunctions forthwith carried into effect. The communication of the 20th has since been received, explanatory of that order. In relation to locating that part of the National Road that might probably interfere with the Canal Company, measures were taken to procure from the Company such information as would enable me to locate the road without coming in contact with any part of the Canal route; and, so far as the information was furnished, I have endeavored so to do. I enclose copies of the letter and information received from the president of the company, in reply to a request for such information as would enable me to “ascertain at what point the Chesapeake and Ohio Company contemplate erecting their dam across Wills creek, and to what height it will be raised above low water. The information desired is for enabling me to locate the bridge for the road at a point, and elevate its arches to such a height that the interest of the Canal Company will not be effected; and that I may at the same time, fulfill the objects contemplated by the law authorizing the new location.”
In reply to which you will perceive “the location of the canal is that recommended by General Bernard, and the Board of Internal Improvement, over which he presided,” and that it was proposed to feed the canal at Cumberland, and below by a dam to be erected across the Potomac about a mile above Cumberland. The water of the Potomac was to be carried over Wills creek twenty-one or two feet above ordinary water in the creek.
Such is the information furnished me by the president of the Canal Company, and by which I have been governed in the location of the road. On the eastern side of Wills creek the grading is finished to the site of the bridge; on the western side I have directed no work to be executed that can have any bearing upon this point.
You perceive it has been my study to avoid conflicting with the interests of the Canal Company; but, from the want of knowing the exact location of their works, will occasion to them an increased expense, as reported by Mr. Purcell, of 16,000 dollars if the bridge is constructed at the point now chosen. If, then, the Company will cause the Canal to be located through the gap of Wills mountain, and give me bench marks from which to ascertain the cuttings and embankments they propose making, I will then locate the road on such ground as not to interfere in any manner with their operations, and such as shall be most advantageous for the public interest. I judge the communication of the department was written under the impression that an interference with the works of the Canal Company was unavoidable, and that some compromise of advantages and disadvantages would necessarily have to be made. Such, however, I do not conceive to be the case.
I have located as high up the creek as would give room for a six horse team to turn off and on a bridge at right angles with the stream with facility. If the Canal Company make choice of this ground, I have but to make a bridge oblique with the current, and thus avoid the work of the Canal Company. To ascertain this, it is essential that the Canal Company should make choice of the ground and locate their works; after having so done, if they will favor me with plans and sections, with bench marks of reference of the part in the valley of the creek, the road shall be made not to interfere with their interest, which has always been looked upon by me as claiming precedence.
I have here pointed out a course for the consideration of the department, differing materially from the one ordered by the letter of the 20th instant. First, in consideration of its not being acquainted with the nature of the case, and, next, with its requiring me to perform a service in no way necessary to a proper understanding of the interests of the Government connected with the road; to do which, surveys, levels, calculations of excavation and embankment must be made, that the time of neither myself nor the officers associated with me could accomplish.
What I ask is, information from the Company as to their own works solely. It will suffice for all purposes connected with the location of the road.
Be pleased to address me at New Castle, and on any matter relating to the section of the road near Cumberland requiring immediate attention, a copy of the communication forwarded to Lieutenant Pickell, at that place, would prevent any delay; Lieutenant P. being the officer to whom I have assigned this particular section of the road.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICH’D DELAFIELD.
Captain of Engineers.
Brig. Gen. Charles Gratiot.
Chief Engineer.
Washington, D. C., May 10, 1832.
Sir: Your letter to Mr. Ingle, the clerk of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, has been handed over to me, and I am authorized, on the part of the president and directors, to express to you our thanks for the considerate regard you have paid to the location adopted by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, for the part of their work which will pass through Cumberland. The location adopted is that recommended by General Bernard, and the Board of Internal Improvement, over which he presided.
When the proposed change of the Cumberland Road immediately above the town was under consideration of the Committee on Roads and Canals, I suggested the very precaution you now practice, which was to see that no conflict would arise in hereafter conducting the canal over its long established route, by a conflict with the location of the improved road, the value of which I know well how to appreciate. The hill above Cumberland, which it is proposed to avoid, was the worst between that place and Wheeling, if reference be had to the inclination of its surface. General Bernard proposed to feed the canal at Cumberland, and for some distance below it, as far, at least, as the mouth of the South branch, by means of a dam to be erected at a ledge of rocks crossing the Potomac about a mile above Cumberland. The dam was to be elevated so high as to conduct the canal over Wills creek at Cumberland, with an elevation of twenty-one or twenty-two feet above ordinary water in the creek. This was to be effected by an aqueduct across the creek. I presume at this season of the year the ledge of rocks is visible above Cumberland. Enclosed I send you extracts from General Bernard’s report, which accompanied the President’s message to Congress of December 9, 1826, and is now a congressional record. From that you may perhaps infer all that is essential to your purpose of avoiding a collision with the rights of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, who have adopted