GREAT CALAMITIES CAUSED BY FLOODS 251 intelligent men for more than half a century, it was commenced with enthusiasm, and successfully prosecuted for more than two years. During this time all the preliminary operations were completed, and considerable progress was made in cutting the canal itself; but at the expiration of this time it became absolutely necessary to suspend it from no other cause than the failure of funds, arising from the neglect of the stockholders to pay up their subscriptions. At length, however, the means required to complete the work were realized from various sources, and through it wealth from the North poured into Baltimore, which had already acquired a commercial importance second only among the great cities of the Union. 16. By the great floods in the year 1817, turnpike roads, canals, and other public improvements, as well as private property in Maryland, suffered to the amount of millions of dollars. On the 9th of August, in that year, great rains prevailed over the state. On Friday night, the 8th of the month, they commenced to fall with exceeding violence. It was almost an unceasing torrent, or deluge of water, until about one o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th. 17. Calamitous accounts from all parts of the state rapidly came in; of houses, mills, mill-dams, and public improvements swept away. Eight persons lost their lives, and sixteen houses were destroyed by the rising of the waters at York, in the state of Pennsylvania. On the Great and Little Gunpowder Falls, Jones's Falls, Gwynn's Falls, and Patapsco Falls, scarcely a single bridge remained, and those on most of the streams between Baltimore and York were swept away. At Washington city the floods came in great force. Turnpike and other roads were washed so as in many places to be almost impassable. 18. Jones's Falls, which runs through the city of Baltimore, was swelled to an alarming height. The stream is about fourteen miles in length, with a very rapid descent. It passes through a hill country, and affords, perhaps, more mill-seats than any stream of its length in the United States, nearly all of which were, at the time of the flood, very highly improved. In general, it might have been forded anywhere without reaching above a horse's knee, and within those parts of the city which had been built up it was confined by stone walls erected on piles, by houses on its banks, or wharves, to a space of sixty feet wide above Market Street bridge, but of some greater width below to the basin. 19. At one o'clock, on the 9th of August, the wooden bridge at Center Street was lifted from its abutments and happily deposited in a garden below. Many of the milldams above had, by that time, been swept away, and their accumulated waters were added to the torrent. The next bridge at Bath Street, also of wood, shared the fate of the former, but passed in an unbroken body down the stream and lodged against the stone bridge at Gay Street. 20. Here it instantly collected an immense mass of floating timber and parts of houses, forming an obstruction to the water, which then spread itself over the low grounds west of the falls, and impetuously passed down Fish Street to Harrison and Frederick Streets. That part of the city called "the meadow" was overflowed to a depth of ten or fifteen feet. 21. The greatest force of the torrent fell against the brick houses near the intersection of the south side of Gay with Frederick and Harrison Streets, and especially in the latter, where some frame buildings were swept off in a moment; their foundations, even, being nearly rooted up. Harrison is a wide street, extending from what was then called Market Space, or the place where the principal market house of the city was located, and afforded vent for an immense quantity of water. It was in many places more A SCENE OF DEVASTATION. 253 than six feet deep, and of such power at the head of the market-house as to render it unsafe for man or horse to cross it. Except for about half an hour, when the flood was at its greatest height, it was forded by carts loaded with people, but a coach, in attempting to cross, was swept off and lodged against the posts of the market-house, the horses narrowly escaping destruction. 22. Market Street bridge, built of stone, and not obstructed as that at Gay Street, but protected by the diversion of water, caused by the obstructions at the latter, stood the current, which passed under it with the rapidity of an arrow. 23. The two foot-bridges between Market and George Street bridges, had given way, and that of George Street soon followed, and lodged crosswise against the stone bridge at Pratt Street, soon forming another complete obstruction. The water then took an additional rise of about three feet in less than three-quarters of a minute, and a large quantity of property, yet but partially injured, was suddenly sacrificed. 24. Pratt Street bridge was the lowest one on the falls, and the water, after passing it, spread over the low grounds in its course to the basin, doing but little damage. Of all the bridges on the falls, that at Market Street only was uninjured. 25. It was impossible to give a proper view of the scene which this deluge presented. Houses, horses, cattle, with many swine, carts, drays, and other carriages, with, perhaps, thousands of cords of wood, and immense quantities of heavy timber, sometimes large trees, were seen mingled in awful confusion, dashing against each other as they were impelled by the foaming flood. 26. Women and children in the upper stories of houses were loudly calling for assistance from others as helpless perhaps as themselves, as multitudes of articles of furni ture, heavy hogsheads, barrels, and, in two or three instances, human beings were carried down the raging flood. 27. The water was at its principal height at three o'clock, after which hour it rapidly fell, exposing to view a situation of things which defied description. It was impossible to give anything like a true account of individual losses. The city corporation sustained damages to the amount of about one hundred thousand dollars; the works of the water company were extensively injured, and the entire loss within the city was estimated at a million and a half of dollars. 28. In 1818 Charles Goldsborough was elected governor of Maryland, and in 1819 Samuel Sprigg succeeded him. In 1822 Samuel Stevens was elected, and he was succeeded by Joseph Kent in 1825. 29. On the 25th of February, 1822, William Pinkney died, aged fifty-eight years. He was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of Maryland. He was born in Annapolis on the 17th of March, 1764. From 1807 to 1811 he was minister resident in London, and in this latter year was appointed attorney-general of the United States by President Madison. His written opinions are said to be "finished models of judicial eloquence, uniting powerful and comprehensive argument with a copious, pure, and energetic diction." CHAPTER XXVII. 1826-1828. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.--The Fairfax Stone.-Travels in the Mountains. -Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1. IN 1824 a company was formed in Maryland called "The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," for the purpose of constructing a canal from the Ohio River to the District of Columbia. 2. In order to ascertain the practicability of constructing this canal, a party of gentlemen, including the secretary of war, visited the mountains on the route. They examined the sources from which the canal could be fed with water, and found that Deep Creek, a branch of the Youghiogheny, in the dry season furnished sufficient water at what was called the summit level, to fill a lock sixty feet long, ten feet deep, and twelve feet wide, in thirteen minutes. 3. The Little Youghiogheny River could also be brought to the summit level at a point near Armstrong's in the Green Glades, and the Great Youghiogheny could be brought to the same place at a point where the state road crosses that stream. The question of water sufficient for canal navigation east and west was therefore considered as finally settled. 4. From a point on the Deep Creek glade, called Hinch's Arm, forty-six feet of elevation above the bridge on the creek, the tunnel would be about two miles to Crabtree run, a branch of the Savage River. 5. From the mouth of the North Glade run, a branch of |