Ferry

a boat used to carry passengers and vehicles across a stream or other narrow body of water. The keeper of a public ferry is required to hold himself in readiness at all hours and, within reason, in all sorts of weather. If he have acquired the privilege of landing on each shore he is protected in his rights by common law. A rival may not establish a ferry in his immediate neighborhood without being subject to suit for damages resulting from loss of custom. Charges differ greatly in different parts of the world. In the western part of the United States ferries are maintained very generally at public expense, and are free. Ferry charges in Europe are very low indeed. A loaded team is taken across a considerable river for three or four cents. A tourist with a wheel pays the ferryman perhaps a cent and a quarter for being rowed across a small stream.

Ferry boats differ greatly. Common rowboats may be used for foot passengers. Broad flat-bottomed scows, with end aprons that may be lowered at the landing places, are employed usually to convey teams and vehicles. A ferry boat of this sort may be fastened by ropes and pulleys to a cable running from shore to shore. By lengthening the trolley rope at the near end of the ferry, and allowing that end to drift down stream a few feet, the current of the river serves to drive the boat across to the farther shore. Progress may be hastened by laying hold of the cable and pulling. On the Rhine and elsewhere flying ferries are maintained. The ferry boat is held in position by a cable anchored in midstream far up the river. The ferryman controls his boat by means of a large rudder, thus utilizing the current to send it from this shore to that, or back again.

The largest ferry in the world is said to be a steam ferry plying on Lake Baikal in the route of the Russian Trans-Siberian railway. It weighs 21,000 tons. It has four lines of railway track. It can carry forty-eight railway coaches. The trains occupy the main floor. Accommodations are provided for the passengers on an upper deck, where there are two large public saloons, two large drawing rooms, and twelve private staterooms. Meals are served in transit.

Large steam ferry boats ply between the city of New York and adjacent shores of Long Island and New Jersey. Passengers approaching San Francisco over the Southern Pacific leave the train and are ferried across the bay by means of large boats. The oldest ferry in the United States is said to be that plying between Chelsea and Boston. It was established in 1631.

A peculiar ferry has been set up across the Seine at Rouen, France. A tower of well braced iron work rises on either shore. Over these towers heavy cables pass after the manner of a suspension bridge. A level trolley track supported by the cables reaches from tower to tower. This track is 140 feet above the surface of the Seine. The ferry, or carrier, is suspended underneath by cables from pulleys that run on the track overhead. This carrier is large enough to take on street cars and vehicles of all descriptions. It makes regular trips from shore to shore.

A similar ferry has been established at Duluth, Minnesota, where the ship canal crosses Minnesota Point. Street cars, drays, vehicles of all sorts, and foot passengers are carried to and fro across the canal in a swinging basket. The basket is suspended by cables reaching to a trolley-way in midair, so high above the canal that ships are able to pass under it without obstruction. The principle is not altogether different from that of a hanging cash basket in a large department store, except that the carriage is large enough to carry a street car and its passengers. Guys are employed to make certain that the flying platform makes proper connections with the track on either shore.

A new type of ferry is reported at Glasgow. Owing to the rise and fall of the tide it is necessary to drive down the dock of the ordinary ferry at some hours and to drive up at other hours. A powerful steam ferry costing $125,000 has been built to meet this difficulty. The deck of the new ferry may be raised and lowered by steam power, so that it is possible to keep it on a level with the wharf landings. The floor is large enough to carry twenty loaded drays.

See Liverpool; New York; Detroit