New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-01-31
THE JETTY TRIUMPH.
Report of the Board of Enaineers

Report of the Board of Engineers,
The following is the full text of the r.
port Of the engineer board in favor of NJ
Eads' plan Of jettying the mouth of tn
river, which was submitted to Congress O
the nineteenth Instant
! New YORK, January l3, 1875.
| SIR-The board of engineers constitute,
under section three of an act of Congress
| approved June 90, 1874. having complete,
its labOrs, has the honor to submit the fol
| lowing report:
The act of Congress referred to reauiref
| that the board should make plans and est
mates for the cost of obtaining and main
tanning depth of water sufficient for pur
poses OF commerce at the mouth of thu
Mississippi river, either by canal from
said river to the waters Of the gulf, or by
deepening one or more of the natural out
lets of said river, and to report the same.
together with their opinion thereon. show
ing which OF all said plans they deem pref
erablea
The board was ordered by the Secretary
OF War to meet on July 20, 1874, at New
York city. 1t met on that day and com.
menced its duties.
As there has been no example in this
country OF the improvement Of large river
~ eso w SASO dh OuLlcu W THO sea
with much deeper water than naturally
exists on the bar, the board, in it's consid-
GRAFTON OF what experience has elsewhere
shown to be practicable in snch a case. has
found its only examples in the mouths of
European rivers.
There has been great difference of opinion
among engineers, not only in this country.
but in Europe, as to whether the best
method OF securing a deeper water outlet
hoo
empties, like the Mississippi, the Vistula.
the Danube and the RhOne, into a nearly
tldeless sea, is by jetties or by lateral
canal.
At the Vistula, after vain attempts for
many years to improve the natural mouth.
the liver formed new outlet, and the old
one, turned into a lateral canal, has long
gwen the needed water way to the impor-
tant port of Dantzic.
At the month Of the Danube, after the
canal system and the jetty system had each
been proposed by eminent authorities, and
neither adopted, as a final plan in was de-
clded, IN order to do something, to try
feeble jetties as provisional scheme The
results were far better than the engineer
expected, and the .jetties, made permanent,
ave an admirable outlet to the Danube to- |
lay.
AT the month of the Rhone the engineers.
A1t ~ hAAAy SC0lS ~ ECCuEc q gOOu
'utlet by dykes, which, however, never |
cached the bar, abandoned that plan and |
'uilt lateral canal, which is more than
adequate to the wants of commerce.
While the results were SO contradictory
ne information at the command OF the
,oard about the above mentioned foreign
lvers was, except for the Danube, not re.
ent and very meagre.
The interests involved in the proper i'm
rovement OF the mouth of the Mississipni
re so great, and the work SO costly, that
Is imperative to obtain the best possible
nowledge and judgment as to the method
be adopted Accordingly, in order that
le opinion Of the board should be based on
full knowledge Of what has been done,
nd OF the latest results obtained else |
here, in this NEST difficult branch of engi.
eering, it was decided to visit the mouths |
the rivers mentioned, and as bearing on |
canal and barber, also the North sea and
lez canal. (
The result OF these examinations abroad [
'nlie additional Information has been I
'ined on almost every point relating to
problem before them) has been to I
rgeiy strengthen their estimate of the | &
llue !or Jetties, at the mouth OF the Missis- G
ppi river, OF the fascinediyes used in Hol. a
nd by Caland in the Improvement of the | f
aas mouth of the Rhine. i
After returning from Europe. the board |
't IN New Orleans, spending about three | a