Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-05-16
TEE ATLANTIC AND GREAT
WESTERN GANAE..

On Tuesday next, the 10th instant,
the Governors Of the Southern and
Western States have promised to meet
in Atlanta to consider the ways and
means for perfecting a project for con-
Meeting the Mississippi and the Atlantic
ocean by inland water communication.
The route which the Convention will
be called upon specially to consider,
is thirteen hundred and thirty three
miles in length, ten hundred and
thirty-thrce of which are by river and
the remaining three hundred by canal
and slack water navigation. This
route has already been surveyed by
distinguished officers of the Engineer
Corps of the United States Army, and
the project declared to be feasible.
1t begins at the mouth Of the Ohio
river, following the Ohio to the Ten
nessec; up the Tennessee, passing
Muscle Shoals, to the mouth OF Short
Creek, two miles and IL half below
Guntersville, Alabama; from the mouth
of Short Greek, by canal and slack
water navigation, across Sand Noun
tain and down the valley Of Wells
Creek to its junction with the COOsa,
two miles and half below Gadsden;
up the Coosa to Rome, Georgia: from
Rome, by canal and slackwater naviga-
ton, up the valley of the Etowah and
Little rivers, across the Chatahoochee
plateau: down the Yellow and Ocmulgee
rivers to Macon; thence, continuing
down the Ocmulgee to the Altamaha,
and down the Altamaha to the sea.
Nature has already, by magnificent
rivers, opened nearly twelve hundred
miles CT free and uninterrupted navi-
CATION between the city OF st. Louis
and the Atlantic ocean along this line,
and all that Is now necessary to com
| plete this entire line is to connect the
| Tennessee and Coosa, and the Coosa
and Ocmulgee rivers by canals. We
! are told in the report of the chief en-
| gineer that the former OF these con-
nectioIs involves the cutting of a canal
thirty miles i'll length. and the latter a
canal of one hundred and fifty-eight
miles. We thus find that the cutting
of one hundred and eighty eight miles
of canal will at once open 4 lie Of
navigation between the city Of st.
| Louis, one Of the great centers of the
| trade of the West, distance of fifteen
| hundred miles to the sea- The West
row possesses about tl,irty-five thou
sand miles of inland transportation :;
| more than half of this is water, and all
| will be brought into direct connection
with the Atlantic ocean by this great
| work. The area of country embracing
| this vast system of railways and of
navigation is nearly two millions square
| miles, and when the population of this
| extensive country reaches an average
| of fifty persons to the square mile, it
will contain one hundred million peo-
pie, whose leading industry will be
agriculture.
The immediate object of the Con-
| vention is to institute such measures
| as may be proper and necessary to
bring the matter to the attention
| of Congress. 1t Is, of course, out of
the question to build the road by pri-
vate enterprise alone It is not how
ever, We believe, proposed to ask for
any direct appropriation or donation
for this work from Congress. All that
it is intended to ask, is simply that the
Government shall guaranty the intsr-
est upon a limited amount of the bonds
of company to be formed for the
purpose of constructing the great
work. The company is first to con-
struct ten consecutive miles Of the
canal and then to give this to the
United States as security for any risk
the Government may take in indorsing
q guarantee for the payment of inter-
est upon q number Of bonds sufficient