We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet
deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly
navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.)
We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all
the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of
1860, and Addenda.)
We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the
world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500
miles.
Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have
no light-dues, as in England.
Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U.
S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other
country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and
Continental savans.
We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public
lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including
460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles
square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of
640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40
acres each.
TONNAGE.--The total tonnage of the United States was in--
1814, 1,368,127 tons.
June, 1851, 3,772,439 "
June, 1861, 5,539,812 "
At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be,
in
1871, 8,134,578 tons.
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