Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-09-23
From the New York Herald.
Proposed Canal from the Mississippi
to the EeabOard.


to the geab0ard.
New Mouth for the Mississippi River
Great National Work Proposed
Norfolk to be Made an Important
Port. a .7tur
Washington, Sept. 2O.-The natural
ly navigable waters of the Mississippi
valley aggregate nearly LOO miles
Water has its currents and so has trade
But those Of the latter do not run with
the former; for in the main the great
outlet of trade is northeast by the lakes,
Erie Canal and Hudson, instead Of
South, by the Gulf of Mexico. 1t is
now proposed to open way across the
Virginia mountains broad and deep
enough to drain the Mississippi valley
due eastward into the Chesapeake, not Of
water, of course, but of produce. The
old James river and Kanawha Canal
already finished half the distance-was
to connect the waters of the James with
those of the Kanawha, tributary of
the Ohio; but the proposed canal is to
be Of a capacity equal at least to the
great Erie Canal of New York. Such a
canal, by supplying 400 miles Of the
route, would open the way for transport
tation without transhipment between
the ocean and $1,000 miles of already
navigable inland waters. The project
is to be brought before Congress this
winter, and it is expected that it will be
petitioned for by citizens of every part
of the Union. Great considerations of
national defence are said by military
men to justify it, but the grand CONNER
cial hypothesis is the manner in which
it would effect the grain interest OF the
West and the bread interest of the East.
1t appears by official reports of Uni
ted States engineers charged with sur
veys, &C., of proposed national canals
in. the Northwest that the dangers of
axe navigation, the numerous tranship-
ments, the necessity of much railroad
carriage and the closing of navigation
five,twelfths of the year, besides the
heavy tolls on the Erie Canal, all make
the cost of carrying Western grain to
the Seaboard by existing routes enor-
nous. For example:-It is reported
that from Dubuque, Iowa, to New
York the freight and charges amount to
sixty-eight cents bushel. The effect
of this is that before the producer gets
to market he has spent tho bulk of his
grain in paying the way. On the other
hand, the Eastern purchaser, of New
England and New York, has to pay
whatever price the demand imposes
upon an article already enhanced by
such heavy way charges. Now, it is
claimed, upon very careful analogies
and all other data, that the sixty-eight
cents, might be reduced half, or even
three-quarters, if this great Atlantic ca
nal were opened, so that Western grain
could reach New York, Boston, &C.,
through the port of Norfolk. The far
West, indeed, must now pay as much
to get grain to Chicago as they would
then pay to get it to the seaboard.
The reduction of carrying cost would
naturally divide itself equally between
the consumer and producer, SO that
while the New Yorker would get his
bread cheaper the Buckeye would sell
his wheat higher. Indian corn, now
unknown as bread out of this country,
though freely eaten by our foreign pop
could then be sent abroad
cheaply esough to make it preferred
bread-stuff for the poor of Christendom,
with the effect of virtually bringing
into new existence an American export
that might rival cotton itself in time as
a source OIL national wealth. i,...
Another great work proposed is the
Coosa cotton route, from Mobile up the |
Alabama river, thence up the Coosa
river till within thirty miles of the soul
bend of the Tennessee river; across this
thirty miles ship canal; thence up the |
Tennessee and its longest branch, the
Holston, to the borders of Virginia,
near Saltville; from Saltville to Lynch |
burg ALREADY traversed by a railroad |
a double track road, fit for heavyl
and at Lynchburg striking the
Atlantic water route above mentioned
to New York. 10 E.. aaa... 10.
The railroad part is 176 miles long;
all the rest water. This route would
save yearly 1000 miles of the present
route which cotton takes from the COT
ton centres in New York and the other
cities North, also the dangers Of the
Florida Keys, for which insurance alone
is two and half per cent on ship and
cargo. sstl
The advocates of these works claim
that they are more truly national than
the Pacific railways, of which they are
the necessary complement. If, as half
the thoughtful commercial men of Eu-
rope fear, and the Herald has often
ably maintained, the trade of the world
is to abandon the routes of Vasco de
Cana and Magellan and cross the
bosom of the great republic, the pro-
posed water route from the genial
mouth of the Chesapeake to Omaha, at
least, or northwardly to the very base
of the Rocky Mountains, would give
the country an advantage in absorbing
the India trade of all nations immense
ly greater than railway transportation
the whole distance between the oceans
s o d A w A n E r
1t is conceded by all who have tasted
orr Soda Water that IT. is Sunarior IN nv