For the first time in the history of these endeavors the question had become a practical one—as to which of two routes was the superior for both commerce and war.
The second of the two maps shows at a glance the situation of the two routes, especially the manifest advantage of the Sassafras, chiefly on account of the greatly decreased distance from the* wharves of Baltimore to a point at sea off the capes of the Delaware.
But it is not with the commercial relations of any route that our
interest lies; but rather that by the construction of a ship-canal by one or the other, one link will be securely forged in that chain of waterways by which so much is to be gained in ways of defense of our Atlantic seaboard. Perhaps these defensive advantages could not be better set forth than by quoting in full the 'expert' opinion of General William P. Craighill former chief of engineers, U. S. A.
Notes upon the Military Considerations concerning a Proposed Ship-Canal from the Delaware to the Chesapeake.
