New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-01-27
ale,r 0reatas gepablital'.
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS
OBSTRUCTION OF THE OHIO RIVER.
Effect on the Coal Interests.

OBSTRUCTION OF THE OHIO RIVER.
Effect on the Coal Interests.
We copy the following testimony before
a committee of Congress on the obstruction
of the Ohio river by bridges, from The
Paper. published at Pittsburg:
Mr.. Brown testified that he resided in
Pittsburg. and had been in the coal business
about thirty years; that he began business
very small. hut did about the heaviest how.
lie shipped coal as far as New Orleans, and
thence to Mobile for the steamship com
yanias and the gas works. lie thought the
Monongahela bridge at Pittsbure All injury
to the coal trade, rs the spans We're very
narrow, and they were compelled to bring
.heir barges down below it one or two ut i,
time to make up their fleets. The bridge
Il. Stcubcnvile was a great injury to the
business, and caused many losses to coal
men. He never had any losses at thai
point till the bridge was built. He cXcr-
ciscd great care and caution i'll making the
run past this bridge. lie would never
allow his pilots to attempt the run i'll the
night, unless it was bri ght moonlight, and
the water at good stage. Still. he had
sost in one year over $4,000 from delays and
damages caused by this bridge.
q. What is your practice III relation to
the size OF barges which you make up
below the bridges at Pittsbnrg a:
We have them from one hundred and
thirties and twenty-tour feet wide to one
hundred and eighties and thirtytwo feet
wide.
@. What is the average width of your
fleets! A. The average would be about five or
six barges in width, each barge being TWEEN
~ four feet wide. which would make the
feet from one hundred and twenty to one
hundred and forty-tour feet in width
q. What are the greatest widths that You
use A. Two hundred and fifty feet.
q. Can you run feet with Il width of
two hundred and fifty feet with safety down
to that bridge! A. No, sir; the large fleets are
made up below the Steubenville bridge We
make them up still larger when we get be-
low the falls at Louisville.
O. You are the gentleman who had the
Steubenville bridge measured! A. Yes.
=. State what you found its width be-
tween the piers to be! A. think about two
feet short Of three hundred feet in the
clear, at three-foOt stage ofwater.
q. How much would the ripraps take
from that! A. They would take about seven
feet on each side ut a coalboat stage OF
water
@. So that in the clear you would only
have about two hundred and eighty feet!
A. Yes; something about that.
Z. What is the shape of the river at the
Steubenvillc bridge! A. The description
given OF it yesterday by Mr.. Roberts. is
correct in every respect. l never charge
my pilots for hitting the Ohio pier or that
shore. for the current always runs on the
other side. In one fresh, in six or eight
SOurs. there were eleven boats sunk there.
q. How many boats did you run down the
Siver in 1868! A. | can not estimate il. l
averaged about five million bushels OF coal
- year.
q. How many bushels are ordinarily con
Gained in d boat. A. The average amount
would be. / suppose. about fifteen thousand
bushels.
q. That would make about three hundred
and thirty-threc boats year. a. les sir,
about that.
G. What would you say as 70 the sutti-
Cheney Of this Steubenville bridge Tor the
safe passage of commerce on thay river. if
the span was clear three hundred feet AZ the
surface of the water, and if the river both
above and below the bridge, had straight
stretch in which there were no couIteI-cur-
tents and no bars to interfere with com
merce! A. In these cross-currents is our
danger altogether, and ia the shape o. the
river and the bends there is great risk. A
three hundred foot span would be better for
us in some places than four hundred loot
span at this place.
James X. Moorhead sworn and examined.
j have been quite conversaut with the
COalbOat business for twenty years. | am
President OF the Monongalela Navigation
Company, and it is out Of that river that
shis coal is run. After passing through orr
pools and locks they make up their lows at
Pittsburg. But you have the testimony of
men who have more practical knowledge OF |
the subject; and do not know that need |
Say much on the subject. From my own |
and knowledge Of the business. |
and from its great increase within the last |
ten years, l am very well satisfied that the !
safety and prosperity Of the coal business
requires spans OF bridges to be five hundred
feet wide, and do not think they should be |
permitted to be less. do not think the
railroad business should be destroyed or !
greatly injured to protect the rivers but
think that each needs to yield 10 the other.
They are both great interests, and as it has
been well established that bridges can be
built safely and cheaSly of five hundred
feet span, think it better that they should
have that width span.
BY Mr.. Cake: Qucstion-You spoke of
one interest yielding to the other. DO YOU
think that the river interest Yields when
they agree to a five thunderstorm span!
Answer-Certainly they do, because they
know that any pier put i'll the river any
where IS, to a certain extent, an obstruction.
" course, when they are agreeing that that
great highway shall be INSTRUCTED Il, al by
= bridge, they yield that much