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THE GREAT AMERICAN CANALS

bria, a distance of about thirty eight miles, according to the extent, route and plan thereof, stated in their report of the twenty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty, excluding the plan of a tunnel as recommended by Moncure Robinson in his report of the twenty-first November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine; and also, that they shall commence and prosecute, without delay, the extension of the Juniata division of the Pennsylvania canal, from the town of Huntingdon, in the county of Huntingdon, to the basin at Hollidaysburg, in the same county, either by canal or slack water navigation; towards the expenditures of which rail-road and canal or slack water navigation, as specified in this section, during the present year, the sum of seven hundred thousand dollars is hereby specifically appropriated, to be paid out of the loan hereinafter mentioned."[1]

The great work was now actually begun. Sylvester Welch, formerly superintendent of the western division of the canal,

  1. Laws of Pennsylvania, 1830–31, no. 104 (p. 195).