Wilmington journal., 1874-01-09
VOL. 80.
RIVER iSo zssREsaa. i1EpIsGy
ssE$'1'S

to us by direct communication witt
! Columbia is being made available, W,
i begin to realize more than ev.r The
! Importance Of the works at The mont!
! OF the river. Our railroad c0nncc
! tions with the interior OF orr owl
! State ana! with the fertile yaIlies oi
! the Missi sippi and Ohio can be rcn,
dered only partially advantageou tc
us unless vessels OF larger tonnage
than now enter the port can safely and
expeditiously load and unload at on
wharyes. Wilmington viii remain, in
q great measure, mere coastwise
point until foreign vessels of larger
size can take in their cargoes of cotton
and naval stores at our docks, and
without lighterage land them on the
wharves Of Liverpool and Hayre.
10 restore, in some measure, the
depth Of water which formerly existed
on the bar, and to clean out the OBJ
structions in the river, placed there
during the Revolutionary War, to pre-
vent English vessels from bomburding
our town, the Federal Government,
under appropriations made by Con
gress, have been for several years en-
gagged in the closing Of New Inlet ana
strengthening the banks along the
beach on Smiths Island. Much work
has been accomplished. When we
consider that only three hundred and
sevc:ty-fve thousand dollars have
been appropriated, Of which at least
fifty thousand dollars have not yet
been expended, the amount Of work
accomplished is indeed wonderful.
The entir4 distance between Iekc's
Island and Smiths Island, distance
of forty-five hundred feet, has been
securely closed by heavy work from
ten to twenty feet wide. A few wears
ago, with every ebb and flow of the
tide, a volume of water, from ten to
fifty feet deep and nearly mile in
width, rushed through this space with
seemingly irresistible force. Now it
is entirely closed, and along much the
larger pant of tie work the sands have
accumulated, making an embankment
as solid as that which nature originally
placed there.
Besides this, beginning at Federal
Point, q work already five hundred
feet long, has been built ont into the
main channel, stretching out towards
Ieke's Island from the North, AID
which confines the water to very
narrow space.
In order to secure the full benefits OF
the work already done, we learn .hat
the Engineers il charge Of the worl,
have purchased 4 dredging Loaf to be
used at the mouth Of the river, and
have hired snaGboat to be used in
the river near Big Island. These cxter-
prises will he pushed forward without
delay. AMI We are prepared to believe
that Immediate benefits Will he derived
thcrcfrom.
1t will TINS be seen that very great
progress has been and is being
made in the work OF improving our
harbor and river. 1t requires only
time and necessary means to complete
it. And when it is done Wilmington
Will immediately reap advantages
which even now cannot be fully aprrr-
ciatcd.
The progress and present condition
of his great work being SO satisfac-
tory, andits compietions SO vital touSthat
We were 1nnch surprised to find IN
Southern exchange the following item,
cut tnoughlcasly Goubtless from some
Northern paper, which it has calelcsely
endorsed editorialiy
LAS there il 10 absolute necessity
for heavy appropriations for the in
pTOvemant Of iIarbOrs and rivers and
Notifications Undrr the Engineers
Bureau Of the War Department, the
estimates for such improvements,
amounting to $40, ,0o0, 900. will proha-
bly, be reduced to 50, coo, 900"
The paper is published i'll an inte-
harbors CT rivers, but Nhich is very
largely interested IL one of President
Grants great inland navigation
schemes, and which, We trust, will be
carried out. We ecare not how much it
Will cost. The Government will ex-
pend its money and it had better be
spent in building Pacific Railroads, in
digging canals from the Lakes to the
Gulf Of Mexico, and improving Rivers
and Uarbors than in establishing lille
gal Governments in Louisiana and Ala
bama, and in supporting large armies
to make war upon our own people.
We ask our immediate Representa-
tive, Colonel WADDELL, at the proper
time, as he no doubt will, to press
our claims for an appropriation com
mensuratc with the importance and
extent OF the work undertaken. No
appropriation, or an inadequate one,
will rcnder valueless what has already
been done. Before tie war, after ex-
pending double what has now been
spent, the appropriations were stop
ped, the work abandoned, and in q few
years hardly remnant OF what had
been done was visible, and it was all
lost except the use made of the Old
work in places as foundation for the
present. Wehopeno such expensive and
foolish policy will now prevail, but
that advantage will be taken of the
present advanced condition Of the
work to push it forward as rapidly as
possible. This, of course, Will lie at
tended to by those whose duty it IS, as
| it Will be their I leasure also.
ANOTHER NEW YEARS PRES
ENT.