and after a few months wright who consider randel a line nincompoop, in a private letter, gets randel fired from the chesapeake and delaware canal. randel says, the case eventually goes to the u.s. supreme court. randel wins a quarter of a million dollars, which is an extraordinary amount of money, about a 10th of the value of the sea and the canal, and build a mansion overlooking the canal which is eventually built exactly on the lines that he had suggested and that wright claimed was wrong. and goes down every morning to collect tolls. [laughter] >> which is how he collected his quarter million dollars because the canal company didn't willingly pay off the judgment against them. in any case, there are other aspects of the book that i think -- new material which i don't think we have time to go into here. you have a very long competition between new york and virginia about which state will get west first. and it's been talked about in other dairy books, but i think i stress it in this one that for decades washington, george washington and thomas jefferson who owned land in the ohio r

so john randel. here is the background. the path of the canal in the mohawk valley was supposed to be entirely along the southern bank of the river. using eaters from the mohawk to water the canal, to get water into the canal. between schenectady and albany, the mohawk makes a very big northwood park your bets and the most uterine section of the mohawk river. with coho falls finally spelling the mohawk into the hudson. doctrine by involving himself in the process. he had been invited, he had been asked to become an engineer on the erie canal. he had said no, probably because he was still continuing his work in manhattan and yet other projects that he was doing. but in any case at a certain point he inserts himself into this issue of the eastern end of the canal. and he thinks, and he publicizes his thoughts that the canal ought to leave the mohawk valley at schenectady and take

so randel starts making some noise about. he publishes some anonymous newspaper articles and an anonymous path of, and wright, chief engineer wright probably decides just for the section of the canal is to be dealt, wright decide to go right in the opposite direction. that is, not take randel direct route from schenectady to albany or even continue along the southern side of the mohawk as it arcs north and eventually down toward albany. . . >> the waste that we see in public works projects today has a long legacy. became bitter enemies. a couple of years later they wind up together on that chesapeake and delaware canal. a very short, but very important canal connecting chesapeake bay and delaware bay. the chief engineer. the chief contractor. and after a few months he gets rendell fired from the canal. the case eventually goes to the u.s. supreme court. he wins a quarter of a million dollars which is an extraordinary amount of money. the tenth of the value. it builds a mansion overlooking the canal which is eventually built e