Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-01-24
For the Standard.
TUT IIlt
DEEP RIVER IMPROVEMENT.

Nessrs E;litors.: | wish to suggest of the
mutual benefits and collateral effects which might
be made to grow out of the completion of the Cape
Fear and Deep River Improvement SO far as relates
to the North Carolina and the Raleigh and Castor
Railroads.
From the former Road to Haywood, on the line of
the other Improvement, Railroad could be
structeG ofabout 20 miles in length and beau
fnl route That is in the direct line to the coal
fields and the of Deep River is continuation
of the same line. From Haywood to tho nearest de-
veloped portion of the coal fields is only ten miles by
land and some - or Is by water deep Rivera and
Guilty to foundations for locks and dams, &C.
to abutments the river bed being hard rock, and
the backs being rock bluffs where the dams To-
Gated On this portion of the river a canal OF
mile long and 8 dams with locks will effect the
navigation, and more than halfthe work is done.
And now let me ask why may not simple cheap
and efficient communication be made between the
North Carolina Railroad and the coal fields by
structing RAILROAD 20 miles long and then using
the river? The freight boats used by the river
pany are III feet wide, los feet long, and of 1870
tons burden 1t is easily perceived therefore, that
two railroad tracks could be made on such boats,
that at least ordinary freight cars might run on
each boat. 4 freight car is about a feet long, s
feet wide, and can bear from eight to fifteen tons,
and simple calculation, therefore, will verify NV
statements This would obviate the loss Incl.
dent to tran$hipping COAL and the cost of
building 10 or 30 miles of railr Dad Other plans to
avoid transhipping and perhaps better ones, might
be devised, and merely suggest this one to show
its feasibility and how tightly it would tax engin-
eering skill to accomplish it. can'see but diff
Guilty in this plan, which is that of bringing the
track on land and those the boats to level,
ing to the rise and fall of the water in the river
This, however, is easily overcome, as it is mere
matter of mechanism. Were it insurmountable,
however, it could be avoided by extending the road
two miles up Deep River to the cana, where the
water will always be uniform. To show further the
advantages of this plan, will state that Deep River
is very crooked through the coal formation, and
cuts through it every mile or two that the mines
arc nearly equally divided on the opposite sides of
the river. To reach them all by railroad would,
therefore, require several bridges the river at
these crooks; Whereas the river navigation would
be accessible to them all. And the advantages of
this plan would not be confined to Deep River and
the coal fields, but would apply equally we'll to the
Cape Fear River, and to all other articles of COM
mcrce; and in that view it would open fine com
munication between the North Carolina Railroad
and Fayetteville, and between the latter place and
Raleigh. A plank road, too, is now being built (and
several miles done) from PittSboro' to HAYWOOD :;
and that too, would become a feeder to both the
railroad and the river. In fact the three improve
ments would cooperate each to the benefit of the
other, and all to the advantage of the North Carroll
ma, and Raleigh & CASTOR Railroads. and the coal
fields, and thus indirectly to the whole State. AS
to the want of water in Deep River to perform the
service thus suggested, the question is longer an
open one with those who informed the sub
ject. venture the assertion, that with good tight
dams, (Which can be easily made,) the supply of
water in Deep River would be sufficient to pass
boat evey five minutes through the year.
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