The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-08-17
Improving the Mississippi.

Captain Eads has matured a plan for
the further improvement of the entrance
to the South Pass of the Mississippi
River, and surveys have been made to
perfect it. BY this plan the current is
TO be confined TO a narrower space than
it now occupies, by means of wing
dams ana dykes, which viii greatly in
crease. its velocity as it enters the jet-
ties, securing away the bar which ex-
tends from 1000 feet above to 600 feet
within the Pass, and on which at
present there is variable depth OF be-
tween 1TanG 90 feet,- - - -.
Captain Eads feels confident that a
pertinent channel can besecured and
maintained through this bar, if its en-
tire removal can mot be accomplished,
.plaeing these wing-dams, two on
each side of the river, and jutting from
lis banks, above the jetties. The up
per pair of these, dams. viii be 5000
feet above the upper end of the city
work, the one from the right
bank iutting 200 feet into the
river, and the one from theleft 1,400
feet, leaving an open way for the pas
sage of the water of 5000 feet. The
lever pass will be only 600 feet above
the jetties.. The right dam Will be 600
feet long, but does. not rest upon, any
base in the way of bank or dyke; while
the left one will extend at an angle. of
ninety degrees from a dyke already
built and known as East Dyke. The
latter extends from a point 800 feet be-
low the head of South Pass to ], 400feet
above it. The passage between the last
pair of dams will be 500 feet, which Is
the average width of South Pass, and
thus the body of water which naturally
seeks the latter is narrowed and forced
with greater force between the jetty
walls. The construction of these dams
will be begun as soon as the surveys
necessary to the work. are completed.
81 The latest news from the jetties shows
a degree of progress which, it is
thought, proves, from the constant
deepening of the water in the South
Pass, that they will eventually be per-
fectly successful. Grand Bayou has
been closed, and since that was done
the speed of the current has increased
to such degree that it has removed by
its force vast body of earth. Captain
Eads's principle-that of making the
river do its own dredging-is thus fully
carried out, and will in time become, 1t
is said by the prominent engineers, a
new feature in the science of improving
navigation. Constant soundings, taken
from day to day by those on the work,
prove that the channel is becoming q
straighter, wider, and deeper one,
having an average depth of % feet
almost through its entire length. The
only places where this depth is not
found are at the other end of the pass
within 500 feet of its upper end, and
within 1000 feet of the sea terminus of
the ietties; and the least depth discov-
cred at these points has been 10 feet,
and that only for distance of rs feet
up and down the stream One of the
arguments put forward by the oppo-
nents of this work has been that a new
bar would form at the mouth Of the jet
ties, the latter wculd have to be pro-
longed, another bar would form, and
so on Indefinitely, On the contrary, it
has been proved, it is asserted, that a
sand or mud "lump,' which formerly
existed at themouth of the pass, has been
cut in two by the current, and is gradu-
ally washing away into the deep waters
of the Gulf, a channel now passing
directly through it, which is more than
100 feet wide and 2O1 feet deep, daily
widening and deepening. Philadelphia
yoJeor0qb ... ....-