The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-03-29
SOUTHWEST PASS.


X.
As matter of public interest, we present
the following plan of Mr.. G. NJ. Bowditch for
deepening the water on the bar at South
west Pass:
NEW ORLEANS, March %, 1874.
To tae Editor of the Bulletin:
Having seen many plans relative to the
passes at mouth of Mississippi River, re-
spectfnlly submit the following: it will
prove successful if adopted, and save mil
lions of dollars to the United States Govern
ment.
In the first place, have large pile
driving machine built and placed on the
guards of steamboat capable of driving
logs seventy or eighty feet long-but sound
cypr IS trees-from the swamps on the
river coast: square the butts, trim and
sharpen the small ends, then drive
a row on each side of the intended channel,
from deep water outside bar to deep water
inside bar fifty feet apart, leaving them six
or eight feet above the water slanting them
up stream when driven, to prevent the action
of the river current; these piles will stay
there, if properly driven twenty or thirty
feet into the bottom, according to the depth
Of water and cost nothing in comparison to
iron bnovs with chains and stone slnkers
(now in use), which are continually getting
out Of place and going adrift. The bar has
never been properly buoy.d ont, as every
ship master can testify. The channel
between the rows of piles to be five
or six hundred feet wide. Now you
have the bar as plain as the door INTO yonr
house. Now have two large, strong and
powerful dredge boats, built expressly for
the purpose with the latest Improvements,
capable of working i'll twenty-six feet OF
water, with flats or barges to carry into
deep water the bottom. A portion of which
is blue clay, and similar to the mud Jumps
which rise mp outside of the bar. These
boats, if built right and properly worked,
would remove an enormous amount OF the
bottom in ten days time; and should they
encounter any old wreck, have it blown to
pieces with sunpowder 1t is very simple
thing to clear out the bar, providing yOu
have the money to build the right kind of
boats and faithful men to work them. The
bar can be kept open at a very trifiing ex-
pense, as propeller steamships are increasing
fast, and will stir up the mud that comes
down the river, and aid in keeping the
bar clear. The head man of this work
should have the exclusive control OF the
bar, and not be dictated to by any one.
going out or coming in, during the
time he is working there; this is very
ried out, there would be plenty of water,
and masters of vessels would know whether
they were in the channel or not
Let any person Of good sense look at the
marsh and the flats extending from them,
miles from the river below fort St. Philip,
where. tits said the canal is to be dug; then
at the channels at Southwest Pass, or Pass-a-
TOutre, and say which is the cheapest, the
easiest, and best in every respect to open
the natural channel or the canal.
The present channel is the natural outlet
for the water, and you have nature to assist
in working there, and only require six or
seven feet of mud taken off the bottom
about half mile IN length there is now
abont eighteen ieet of water OH the bar aud
seven feet added would make water
enough. Now the canal has to be dug
at least twenty-seven feet deep, with enor-
nous locks and outside breakwater extend
ing for miles to deep water, with men con-
stantly employed there in getting vessels
through and making repairs to decayed and
worm eaten wood work. as stone cannot be
used on that foundation. A large Atlantic
steamship would come in at either pass, if
cleaned ont, and beat another steamer OF the
same size coming through the canal long
distance to the city. Those two boats, the
Essayons and McAlister, now employed at
the passes, are not proper. dredges (althOugh
so called, y as they have no engine OF machine
to raise mud from the bottom to the surface
of the water, and have made no permanent
improvement to the passes they are a fail
ure, and money spent on them is thrown
away.
Mason, the genial and popular chief clerk