THE WASHINGTON CANAL, &c. This canal, until 1831, belonged to a private company, and was imperfectly constructed. that time the Corporation purchased all the rights of the company in the canal, and proceeded to complete it, in a manner highly creditable to the city. It extends from the termination of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, at Seventeenth street west, to which it is connected by a lock at that street, to the Eastern branch. The canal and all the basins are walled with stone on both sides, throughout its whole length. From Seventeenth to Fourteenth street, is a spacious basin five hundred feet wide; from Fourteenth to Sixth street, where there is another ample basin, its width is one hundred and fifty feet; and from Eighth street to its termination in the Eastern branch, its width varies from forty-five to eighty feet, and its depth is four feet below low tide throughout. At its eastern terminus there is another spacious basin, and a wharf which extends to the channel. The cost of this canal has been $230,000, and the annual expense in keeping up the bridges which cross it, and making the excavations and repairs necessary to render it navigable, is considerable. A substantial wooden Bridge, nearly a mile in length, crosses the Potomac, at the western end of Maryland avenue, and leading to Alexandria and Virginia, which has been built at the expense of the Government; and three wooden bridges cross the Eastern branch, which were built by individuals and private companies but which it is pected, will soon be substituted by one substantial free bridge, to be erected by the Government, that the same facility of access to the city may be afforded to Maryland as has been to Virginia. Near the Potomac bridge are several wharves, for the accommodation of steamboats and other vessels coming to the city; and several also on the Eastern branch, west of the Navy Yard, used for the landing of lumber, wood, coal, stone, and other articles brought to this market. There are three Turnpike Roads, one leading from the city to Montgomery Court House, one to Alexandria, and one to Baltimore. MARKET HOUSES. The city has four market houses, one in the First ward, one on Capitol Hill, one at the Navy Yard, and one in the centre, between Seventh and Ninth streets, and near Pennsylvania avenue. This is the principal market of the city, and in the quality and abundance of the commodities brought there for sale, is not excelled by any market in the United States. Markets are held every other day, Sundays excepted, throughout the year-from the 1st of May till the 1st of October, from four till nine o'clock in the morning, and from the 1st of October till the 1st of May, from five to ten o'clock. A market is also held every Saturday evening, at each of the Market Houses in the city, and to each Market House there is a clerk of the market, appointed by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, whose duty it is to see the laws enforced and the market kept clean; for which he receives, in the Centre Market, one dollar, and in the other two markets, seventy-five cents per diem, for every day he attends. An assistant clerk is appointed for the Centre Market, who receives seventy-five cents per day. TIBER. This stream runs through the city in a southwest direction, and formerly emptied into the Potomac, but now it flows into the canal at Third street. It was once called Goose creek, and expanded towards its mouth to a considerable width. Its banks were originally covered with trees and underwood of different kinds, and formed a romantic stream, which was overspread in spring and autumn with wild ducks, and often penetrated as far as the present railroad depôt, by multitudes of shad, herring, pike, perch, &c. This stream is said to have derived its classical name from an European who owned a farm near the Capitol, and whose name was Pope; but the name is found in deeds at least a century old. He called his farm Rome, the stream at the bottom of it the Tiber, and the hill Capitol hill, on which he predicted, many years before the event took place, that a magnificent edifice would be erected which would be called the Capitol. CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company derives its power from a charter granted by the Legislatures of the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and assented to by the Congress of the United States. Its object is to connect the waters of Chesapeake bay with those of the river Ohio. The capital of the company is unlimited, and is made up of individual, State, and other corporate subscriptions. Of this, the United States. have taken $1,000,000, the city of Washington $1,000,000, the cities of Georgetown and Alexandria $250,000 each, the State of Maryland $5,000,000, the State of Virginia $250,000. The funds of the company have been increased from time to time, by loans, of greater or less amount, as exigencies have required. The canal is arranged into three grand divisions, denominated the Eastern, Middle, and Western sections. The first extends from Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, to Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, following the left bank of the Potomac river, with such occasional divergences therefrom as the face of the country and facilities of construction require. The survey of the middle and western sections has not been definitely made; consequently the precise location and distance are not correctly ascertained. Operations were first commenced on the Eastern section on the 4th of July, 1828, when ground was broken by John Quincy Adams, then President of the United States, in presence of a large concourse of citizens, assembled to witness the ceremony. Since that period, the canal has been completed from Georgetown to dam No. 6, a point above the town of Hancock, a distance of one hundred and thirty-six miles from tide water. On this portion there are fifty-three locks, one hundred feet in length between the gates, by fifteen in breadth, and averaging eight feet lift; one hundred and fifty culverts, of various dimensions, many of them sufficiently spacious to admit the passage of wagons; and several aqueducts, as follows: do. of 54 do. do. 90 do. do. 62 do. No. 1, over Seneca Creek, 2 arches of 30 ft. span each. 2, do. Monocacy River, 7 3, do. Catocten Creek, 3 4, do. Antietam Creek, 3 5, do. Conococh'gue Cr. 3 6, do. Licking Creek, 1 7. do. Gt. Tonalowa Cr.l This extent of the canal is fed from the Potomac by six dams across the river, of from five hundred to eight hundred feet in length, and from four to twenty feet elevation. The breadth of water surface is sixty feet for the first sixty miles above Georgetown; for the remaining distance fifty feet, and six feet depth throughout the entire line. The aqueducts, locks and culverts are constructed of stone, laid in hydraulic cement.. That portion of the canal now under contract extends from dam No. 6 to Cumberland, (the western terminus of the eastern section,) a distance of fifty miles. On this line there will be twenty-two locks, forty culverts, two dams, and four aqueducts, as follows: No. 8, over Sideling Hill Creek, 1 arch of 70 feet span. 9, do. Fifteen-Mile Creek, 1 do. 50 do. 10, do. Town Creek, 1 do. 60 do. 1 do. 70 do. About midway of this distance is a funnel, through the spur of a mountain, called the "Pawpaw Ridge." This tunnel is three thousand one |