The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-22
A FUTURE OSrIA.

the many hopes that the jetties, at the moutl
of the Mississippi, may some day become tn
foundation walls of new seaport city, wher
liver craft will exchange cargoes with sea
going vessels, where the navies OF the he
public will find anchorage and rendezvous
and where the weightier part Of the CONNER
cial business of the Mississippi Valley will b.
transacted. We have subjected our editorial
imagination to much severe straining in or
der to picture to our "minds eye" this future
Venice or Ostia of the West.
Ostia, at the mouth Of the Tber, was es
tablished as the port of Rome, first to accom-.
modate her commerce and afterwards hel
ships of war. The troubled Tiber even
when "chafng with his Shores" was not
capable Of accommodating the larger class OF
such vessels as carried the Roman legions to
all the shores of the Euxine, Egian and
Mediterranean Seas or brought thence grain,
merchandise and the spoils of war. In the
| days of Scipio Nascia, the best citizen of
| Rome" Ostia was a necessity to the com
merce demanded by the wants Of an immens e
constantly guarded by naval feet to protect
it from enemies who often threatened it, and
from the pirates who once captured and
plundered it.
1t was in Ostia that the lovers of aquatic
sports and excursions from Rome found their
starting place. 1t was there that venturous
fishermen found ready market for their
sppetizing captures /; it was there that thou
sands of shiploads Of Egyptian grain were
put in warehouses to be distributed to the
plebeian hordes of Rome. In the reign OF
Claudius it was large and beautiful city, with
the best artificial harbor west of Athens.
This once magnificent seaport has long
since fallen to ruins. After describing his
dismal trip from Rome to Ostia (13 miles)
modern traveller says:
sat length we entered its gate guarded by no
sentinel; on its bastions appeared no soldier;
no children ran from its houses to gaze at the
rare spleAdor Of carriage; no passenger was
seen in the grass-grown street. It presented
the strange spectacle of town without in
habtants. After some beating and halIowing
on the part of the coachman and Iackey, at
the shut up door of one of the houses, wo-
man, Enclosing the shutter of an upper win
dow, presented her CHASTITY face, and first
having carefully reconnoitred US, slowly and
reluctantly admitted us into her wretched
howell. Where are all the people of
the town. We inquired. Dead was
the brief reply. The fever of the mala-
ria annually carries off almost all whom ne
cessity confines to this pestilential region.
But this was the month of April, the season of
health, and we learned, on more
strict inquiry, that the population of Ostia at
present nominally consisted of twelve men,
four women, no children and two priests"
The sea is now more than two miles from
the ancient port the sedimentary deposit of
the muddy Tiber having carried the marsh |
outward to that extent in the course of six.
teen centuries, by process much like that
which projects the passes further into the
Cult from age to age.
1t is at the mouth of a river mightier than
a hundred Tibsrs that it is thought by some
hat there must some day be built city
greater than Ostia, in the days of her magnifi-
han that of all the seas, rivers and oceans of
he ancient world. But we are of the opinion
hat cities grow up about where they are want
d, and can not, by artificial means, be plant
d at will. We fancy that great city on the
Iower Mississippi arose right here, simply
ecause this is the best place for it. Had
ity been commenced at the Balize two hun j
red years ago, another commenced here I
'ould have supplanted it very soon. q
To obtain safe and dry land at Port Eads r
ould require the deposit Of about twenty a
ms of rock and earth for each square yard. t
he site Of q warehouse three hundred feet in n
myth and one hundred feet in depth would n
'st about $3.50 Arrangements that a
ould make transhipments of cargoes possible t.
that now exposed point would cost as much b
the Moro or San Juan d'Ulloa or Fortress
onroe. The expenditure of hundred mil O.
ms would scarcely suffice to erect the neces-
ry sea wall defenses there against the storms il
the Gulf. The bold and enlightened en- d
neer who has undertaken to give the inhab- Of
Ints of nineteen States the benefits of deep OF
annel to the sea will doubtless experience p,
ormous difficulties in making his works per- til
anent. He must contend very long against al
yantic forces, but his task is small in COM as
rison with that of creating safe and ample kr
rbor at the same place. w
But with harbor and all the defenses and ex
,ommodations of seaport, we see no rea- pa
a why sea-going vessels should stop there ex
change cargoes instead Of coming to New
leans. Incoming freight can be brought ell
the river to this port at less expense in hi
ps than in steamboats,, and the carriage of aft
lin and cotton over the same distance must pc
like manner be less expensive.in large car ly
IS than in the smaller ones of steam boats no
] barges. an
The supposed new city would in no sensi- an
degree affect the trade and welfare of New va
leans TT II uop1d obaopan Tho oo,,,r,a~ | N.