The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-02
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1859.


the motion by suggesting Commission to be COM
posed of our very best men-not in the Councils
who would be willing to serve gratutously. with
power to employ competent professional skl-to
investigate the condition of our whole harbor and
report the best means of improving it, both in
commercial and sanitary point of view. Any
thing less than comprehensive plan, would be
equally unworthy of the subject and of the
people of Baltimore. We have already
indicated our dissent from the proposition to fill
Up the Basin, outright to the mouth of the Falls.
We have pointed out that it is a. mere assump-
tion to suppose that the general health suffers in
any marked degree from the influences of the Basin
There is less maarious disease among us now than
formerly-nor is it perceived how the proposed
filling up, with the clear understanding that no
part of the filth now falling into the harbor would
thereby be diverted from it, would offer any addi-
tional security against disease. We rather think
that the substitution of made ground, for the
open water, would, for a considerable period
at least have more injurious tendency than can
be pretended to exist at present. Nor are
We sure, unless the space so reclaimed is
to be kept open, and not crowded with houses
and people, that the mortality resulting from the
ordinary diseases of dense population on low
ground, would not greatly exceed any that can
be attributed to the exhalations of the Basin
A very effectual, and, all things considered,
probably wholesome ventilation is afforded by the
large open space now occupied by the water; for
if as cannot be denied, the currents passing over
it, become at times laden with very offensive odors,
it by no means foows-until effluvium and MAS
ma can be proved to be dentical-that the public
health is as much affected as the organs of SMELL
We do not assert that q lake of pure spring or
sea water, in our midst, would not be far more
agreeable, and even healthfu than the very filthy
and offensive pool on which commerce de-
pends But until the advantages of the proposed
change are more clearly defined, we suggest the
wisdom of bearing the ills we have, rather than
flying to others unknown.
Waving the question of health, which we have
no competency to decide, and looking at the pro-
position in its commercial aspect, we see but little
in It's favor and much to condemn it. Our har-
Dor is of the mill-pond order-almost without
tide or current,-and so situated that it must re-
ceive the deposits of the surrounding hills, on
which the city is built. For the preservation, or
increase of its DEPTH and the purity of its water,
1t must depend wholly on artificial resources
The steam dredge is an ample guaranty that we
may, when we choose, bring men-of-war to our
wharves; and the other desideratum will, proba-
bly,, be discovered whenever imperatively required.
But these disadvantages, which cannot be over
looked, have compensations elsewhere unknown
Our harbor, formed by long reach of navgable
understanding into the very heart of the city
without tide, and completely land-ocked-pre-
sents ample water fronts for all the uses of COM
merce, on both its sides, and affords, not only
entire security to all the vessels riding within
it but the greatest possible facilities for the hand
ling of freights Having here fair presentation
of the good and the evil the true point to be set
tied, is how to enhance the one while we diminish
the other. Why we should voluntarily abandon the
two or three most useful and we'll improved miles
of water front which we possess, we cannot con-
eeive. We should look with much more favor on
a proposition to extend--if that could be done
our navigable water to the Camden station than
to curtail it to the mouth of the Falls. By far
the most active and profitable part of our shipping
business Is done around that part of our harbor
While, therefore, it seems like madness to talk
OF throwing away all that has been accomplished
about the Basin, and sacrificing the valuable in
terests now connected with tive feel that there
is pressing necessity for many improvements in
our harbor; in fact for entire remodelling of it.
If the dredge is indispensable to preserve its DEPTH
its limits should be reduced to the narrowest COM
pass consistent with the amplest facilities for pre-
ent and future navigation. If exhalations be
dreaded the smaller the surface presented to the
suns rays the better; and if the public health is
to be protected, we should abandon, for ever, all
those half rotten wooden wharves, which, more
than the water itself, the cause of disease As
it now exists, our harbor shows the effects of
chance medley, quite as much as the location of
some of our principal thoroughfares. Without any
consistent plan in its formation, it is shape
less in outline and often absurd in detail presenting
straight curved lines of wood or stone, extend
ing out or reaching in apparently ad hbitum. We
are convinced that accommodations vastly more
extensive and convenient than those we now pos
sess could be had in one-fourth of the room at
present devoted TO them. There can be no use in
maintaining that large open space at the head of
the basin to enable PUNCHES to beat up to Light
street in West wind-nor is there any reason why
the two sides of our harbor should remain nacces-
siole to each other, save through ferry boats or
tedious circum-locomotion. Every one who has
visited the great lake ports of Buffalo, Cleveland,
Chicago or Milwaukee, must have been struck with
the immense tonnage reposing in the narrow
streams on which each Of these places is built
Reaching far inland-available on both sides, and
lntersected wherever they crossed by streets by
pivot bridges, these comparatively narrow slips
are made the, scene of commerce uncomfortable
In It's extent and activity. We see no reason why
many of our principal streets should not be carried
across the harbor-in north and south direction;
and why broad MOLE extending from the foot of
Conway or Barre street. with railway tracks
direct from Camden station, should not be run out
10 lntersect these. Pivot bridges at proper inter-
walls would afford all the needed facilities of
TOR vessels and steam tugs would bring them to
their berhs. The filling in of these moles or cause
ways-and possibly of much space which close
and Intelligent examination would decide-mighi
be prohtably spared from the present water
bed, would dispose of a portion of Federal
Hill at least sufficient to present no
formidable grades on this side, while the ground
thus rescued would probably be valuable enough
to defray large part of the expense.
1t strikes US that the sort of improvement here
suggested has the great advantage of not destroy
ing existing interests and facilities, nor even ser-
ously interfering with them, but on the contrary
If carried out by competent engineering skill must
add largely to their value, while increasing ten
fold the general convenience, and bringing into
full play greatly extended area for commercial
purposes. That the necessity for making some
great change in the arrangement of our harbor has
taken deep hold on the public mind cannot be
doubted, and we trust that the Councils will take
up the subject, not in the spirit or under the in
fuence of men devising large jobs for private
benefit, in the way of profitable contracts, or add
ing value to unavailable lots at the expense O
existing investments-but with a view solely tt
further the advance of our city towards that posi-
ton of pre-eminence which all her true sons s,
ardently desire for her.
1t is 80 seldom that our elderly neighbor-Th
Amerjc0n-oiyes us n chance 10 saw any thin