Hennepin Canal, Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting Report form the Chief of Engineers of additional surveys, by Maj. Thomas H. Handbury, of routs for Hennepin Canal

Washington, DC: United States Congress, House of Representatives, 1886. Presumed first edition/first printing. Wraps. Fair. No dust jacket. Removed from a bound volume. Spine area rough, with some thread remnants.. 48 p. Includes maps. With large folding map. Tables. This document was transmitted with the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1883. From Wikipedia: "The Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park, also just called the Hennepin Canal, is an abandoned waterway in northwest Illinois, between the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the Illinois River near Hennepin. The entire canal is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Opened in 1907, the canal was soon abandoned because of railroad competition. It was resurrected in the late 20th century as a recreational waterway. Its former name was the Illinois and Mississippi Canal. The main canal length is 75.2 miles (121.0 km), and its feeder canal is 29.3 miles (47.2 km) long. The state park spans five counties (Rock Island, Bureau, Henry, Lee and Whiteside) and is 104.5 miles (168.2 km) long. The Hennepin canal was first conceived in 1834 as a connection between the Illinois and Mississippi River, but financial problems in the state delayed many public works projects. Pressure for transportation that was cheaper than rail convinced Congress to authorize preliminary surveys on the project in 1871. Construction began in 1892 and the first boat went through in 1907, reducing the distance from Chicago to Rock Island by 419 miles (674 km). While the canal was under construction, however, the Corps of Engineers undertook a widening of the locks on both the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The new locks on those rivers were twenty and forty feet wider than the canal locks, making them obsolete before their initial use."