a full day—$460 for the average ship—would be saved in shipments
between Baltimore and Philadelphia.

In addition to time savings between American ports, sponsors said
that 115 nautical miles would be cut from transatlantic crossings.
The canal is expected to pay for itself in 14 years.
Actual work on the improvement of the Canal to the depth of
27 feet and width at the bottom of 250 feet was started in August,
1936. Dredging was started at Court House Point, in the Elk River,
about 4,000 feet below the mouth of Back Creek and proceeded toward
Chesapeake City; dry excavation was between the Pennsylvania Rail-
road bridge, .west of St. Georges, Del., to Bethel, and was started at
both points simultaneously.

Those In Charge of the Work

Direction of the entire project was under Lieutenant-Colonel John
C. H. Lee, District Engineer, Philadelphia; his assistants were Lieu-
tenant Howard Ker, military assistant in charge of the canal; Harry K...
Doyle, engineer in charge of dry excavation; Martin G. Moore, assist-
ant engineer in charge of dredging, and R. Y. Taggart, assistant
engineer, operation and maintenance.

During October, 1936, five hundred and forty-five men were re-
ported at work dredging the Canal, and later the number was in-
creased to nearly 3,000.

The Principal Contractors

The companies that have done the greater portion of the dredging
were the Arundel Corporation, the Continental Dredging Company,
the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Dredging Company, the Standard
Dredging Company, and the Hill Dredging Company.

The principal contractors on the dry excavations were Burkett
Construction Co., of Vineland, N. J.; the Richardson-Kelly Co., of
Philadelphia, and Edward H. Ellis, Inc., of Westville, N. J.

Traffic Greatly Increased

According to an announcement by Lieutenant-Colonel John C. H.
Lee, U. S. Engineer, Philadelphia office, the value of the volume
of commerce through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, during
the year 1935, showed an. increase of 6.9 per cent., and a tonnage
increase of 2.1 per cent. over the previous year.

The tonnage handled on the canal during 1935 amounted to
1,061,207, compared with 1,039,225 during 1934. The 1935 value was
$47,25.5,478, compared with $44,195,038 for 1934.

Passengers on vessels passing through the canal increased from
6,013 in 1934 to 7,621 in 1935.

Vessels passing through the canal during 1935 numbered 9,034,
about 500 more than in 1934. Total number of ton-miles, through
the canal during 1935, amounted to 98,692,251.

The increase of traffic in spite of the work being done on the
canal is a high tribute to the skill of the army engineers and con-
tractors on the job. Traffic was maintained continuously and with
practically no delay.

Prior to work being started on the present sea-going Canal, the
channel of the waterway was only 12 feet deep and 90 feet wide.

Several new and up-to-date bridges have been erected over the
waterway.
First Survey In 1764

Original surveys for the canal were made in 1764, and Benjamin
Franklin and George Washington were among the first interested.
Construction of a 10-foot canal with locks was begun in 1825, when