The contract for building the Aqueduct over Blue Creek and the Flat Rock was made on the 20th day of July, 1853. It was completed on the first of March 1854
The aqueduct at the Big Flat Rock, as well as the one at Blue Creek was let on the 20th July 1853, and was to have finished on the 20th March 1854. Col. Alex P. Miller, during this entire period, was the acting Commissioner of this division and had exclusive charge of the work. So cautious and prudent were Col. Miller and the Engineer in charge of the work, that the foundation or superstructure was laid under the eye of the Engineer, soon after the date of the contract some two feet below the old structure, which had stood since the first opening of the canal, in 1844, thus remained in that condition about one year in order that it might thoroughly settle.
When James Steedman took charge of the work on the 16th day of February,
he found these aqueduct nearly completed. The break by which the aqueduct at Flat Rock was destroyed occurred on the 11th day of May, 1852, by 1 o'clock in
the morning, Steedman was on the ground; and although at a period of the year when workers were difficult to obtain, yet before the night of that day, he had employed twenty-eight men, and several teams in addition to the state force. On the 16th, over two hundred men, and a large force of teams were engaged.
The work has since been prosecuted without any intermission,night and day, in fair weather and in foul, with a degree of energy and skill, as all who have witnessed the operation, that are without paralled. No private contract on the Public Works has ever been prosecuted with greater vigor or economy. Indeed, we have it as the opinion of disinterested and experienced men that had contractor of average energy untaken the work that it would not probably have been completed in season to have passed boats during the present year. But the probability is, as we are advised by persons who have recently on the ground, that Boats can be passed through the aqueduct as early as announced (the first of July) and this to withstanding the late extraordinary rains and floods. In order that the reader may form some idea of the magnitude of this work, we will state, that the wall upon which the aqueduct rest, are each 147 feet long at the base, 10 feet thick, 37 feet long at the top, and 35 feet high, and contain about 2,200 cubic yards of stone. The trunk of the aqueduct will be sixty-five feet long, fifty-five feet between the walls and resting five feet on each wall. There are at this time 300 men, 8 boats, and 40 teams at work. Eight large derricks are used on the walls of the quarry, and on the Canal, hauling and laying stone. We venture to say that the whole history of Canal construction in Ohio, there will not have been a work of this magnitude completed within a time which will bear any comparison to this. And shall partisan be permitted, without rebuke, to malign a man who is thus devoting his whole energies with scarcely any intermission day or night to the public service. This system of falsehood and slander has been organized early.
Ohio Stateman, 7 July 1855
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