Massena's Great Boom

THE ST. LAWRENCE CANAL CONTRACTORS AT WORK.

Nikola Tesla Makes a Remarkable Prophecy in Connection With the Enterprise — Says New York Will Be Benefited.

The New York Herald gives the following concerning the work on the St. Lawrence Canal, the object of which is to tap the river of the same for electrical power. The village of Massena, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., once noted as a summer resort, and largely visited on account of its sulphur springs and pure air, is the seat of one of the largest proposed pieces of engineering work this country has seen for some years, being exceeded only by the Chicago Drainage Canal. The village is located on the Grasse River, about three miles south of the St. Lawrence, of which the Grasse River is a tributary. The country intervening between these rivers is comparatively low and flat and furnishes pasture for a large number of dairy farms, for which this section of New York State is noted. The enterprise consists of diverting a portion of the water of the St. Lawrence River just above the Long Sault Rapids and conveying the same a distance of three and one-tenth miles through a canal to Massena, at which point it has a fall of forty-five feet into the Grasse River. It is proposed to construct this canal and utilize the energy of the falling water to drive turbines, which in turn will drive dynamos generating electricity equivalent to 150,000 horse power. The original promoters and the men to whom Massena and the surrounding country will always be grateful for having founded this gigantic enterprise are Albon Man, of New York City; Charles H. Higgins, Henry H. Warren and M. H. Flaherty, all of Massena, and Charles A. Kellogg, of Ogdensburg. These men secured the franchise, which they sold to the St. Lawrence Power Company, of New York, which, after due consideration, awarded the contract for construction of this canal to the Lehigh Construction Company, Limited, of South Bethlehem, Pa., of which W. A. Wilbur is President, H. O. Duerr Treasurer, John Rice General Superintendent and H. O. Duerr, Oakleigh Thorne and J. D. Brodhead managers.

The St. Lawrence Power Company, which has acquired considerable property in that neighborhood along the line of the canal, proposes to have industries established, for which they will furnish power. The power will be furnished not only to these local industries, but also to neighboring cities and towns — Potsdam, Norwood, Ogdensburg and others. If the prophecy of Nikola Tesla, the well known electrician, is fulfilled, New York City will receive some of the benefits of this great undertaking. The canal will be 147½ feet at the bottom, with the sides sloping one and three-quarter horizontal to one vertical height. The canal will be excavated so as to maintain a depth of twenty-five feet of water. In order to accomplish this it will be necessary to remove the earth at various places to a depth of from thirty-five to ninety-five feet. Owing to the topography of the country, this will require the removal of 8,000,000 cubic yards of material, which, if piled 545 feet high, would entirely cover a ten acre field. The longitudinal grade of the canal will be six inches per mile, causing the water to flow about four miles per hour. The turbines and generators will be placed in a massive stone building, 65 feet wide by 525 feet long, supported upon huge walls of concrete. This power station will be located on the bank of the Grasse River, and before the same can be constructed 150,000 cubic yards of material will have to be removed. Immense intake gates and spillways will be constructed of concrete, making the total amount of that material required 200,000 cubic yards.

Incidental to the use of the canal for power purposes, it is the intention of the company to use it eventually, in addition to this, as a ship canal in connection with the Grasse River, whose depth will be materially increased by the large quantity of water discharged from the turbines. Vessels utilizing this canal by a circuit of some eleven miles will avoid passing through the Long Sault Rapids, which are both extremely dangerous and delaying.

The contractors now have a large force of men at work installing their machinery, which is of the latest and most improved type for handling earth and rock. It is their intention to complete the work by January 1, 1900, which will require them to work both night and day during the summer months, as the climate will not permit much work during the winter. In order to do this work in this limited time, it will require about 1,200 or 1,500 men, 400 or 500 teams, eighteen eighty-ton steam shovels, four huge conveyors, and several thousand horse power of air compressor plant. In order to transport this large machinery to the site of the canal, the contractors are building a railroad, which will be connected with the New York Central. It will also be necessary for them to construct a pumping station and lay a pipe line along the line of work to supply the machinery in operation. In order to work at night it will be necessary to install an electric plant which will be sufficiently large to illuminate a town of 10,000 inhabitants. Already over one-half million feet of lumber have been used in erecting buildings for accommodating the men already employed constructing the canal.

Through the canal’s being located at Massena, that small town of 1,000 inhabitants is having a boom. Real estate has already advanced fifty per cent., and it has been an encouragement to the surrounding country to note the steady rise in merchandise and produce. The merchants have sold out and again restocked their stores with a much larger supply. New stores have been started in buildings hurriedly put up for the purpose. The hotels are overcrowded and there is not a vacant house within a radius of five miles. Men are buying supplies for food and at night seek shelter in stables and sheds. Massena has realized its day and is the envy of all the towns in Northern New York State.

On the 11th inst., the opening exercises of the work were held in the presence of several thousand spectators, who are as much interested in the canal as the promoters themselves. They consisted of speeches by the promoters, engineers in charge of the work and contractors, as well as representatives of the townspeople, and of the excavation of the first shovelful of earth which was dumped into cars attached to a locomotive and hauled to the site upon which factories will be built later on.

And thus has been started another great enterprise, through the combined agencies of nature, man and machinery.