The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-03-24
By the By the City
United Stutes Of Richmond
Earth, Earth,
&c. Rock &c. Rock
Entrance 10 ship

Totals ............. 81 1863 TIT I29,735 ! 253
Length Of wing dams
built linear feet. 3,lS2 $50
In addition to the above the city machine
| ry eXcavated for the two railroad companies
chesapeake and Ohio and Richmond and
Danville rallrcads) at their expense 1892
cubic yards OF earth and forty-eight cubic
yards OF rock.
The expenditures during the year werc.$l 7,639 So
The receipts from rents have been...... 2,OUS 80
The rents due by the DanvIle Railroad
Company were by agreement to be paid for
in repairs in part, and exceeded in cost the
rental agreed upon.
| The machinery is now In good working
order, and is, in the opinion OF the Engi-
neer, more efficient than 1t any previous
| date.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CHANNEL.
There is no greater available depth of
water than was reported last year, but the
channel has been widened and deepened in
many places. The least channel-depth
known to the Engineer is now at Goodies
Rock, where there are fourteen and half
feet at ordinary high-tide, and where new
channel of eighteen feet depth is now being
cut. The depth in the crest Of Richmond
bar and on Randolph's fats is very little
mo1e, but a mere trile in expense would
have given sixteen feet at either place had
it been cXpedient to spend any money in
that way. The main obstacles to carrying
to Richmond the extreme depth that can
1 now be carried over Warwick bar (about
sixteen ieet) are at Goodies Rock and Rock
cts reef. The remainder OF the channel, al
though in many places not over one hun
dred feet wide, could be deepened to corre-
| fN,. ohnlll n
| until these obstacles are removed it is un-
wise to eXpend money in work OF tenn
porlry character to get deeper channel
elsewhere. All the work of the past year,
with the exception of that at the entrance to
the ship-lock, has looked towards the per-
manent Improvement, and not for transient
effects.
The work of 1876 has been the exeava-
ton OF the channel through the Gillie's
Creek shoal to the half width for eighteen
feet Depth the channel between the Fire
brlck-yard wharf and the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad coal-wharf, now nearly COM
pleted to one hundred feet width and
eighteen feet depth the channel at Goodies
Rock, which is in progress with the hope
that it may be completed to one hundred
feet width and the proper depth before
the appropriation on the part of the United
States is exhausted; the contraction of the
river on Richmond bar and Randolph's flats,
still in progress; and the enlargement OF the
Dutch Gap canal. The effect of these works
has been favorable. Vessels drawing four
teen feet and over have gone to sea from
this port at ordinary high-tide-one Of them
| in the last month.
| DEEPLY-LADENED VESSELS.
The Old Dominion Steamship Company's
steamers have been able to load deeper than
before, larger vessels nave come here for
cargoes, and the shipments OF coal show q
handsome increase. The tonnage, foreign
and coastwise, has largely increased. The
trade in salt, plaster, anthracite, and other
heavy articles has returned to the city; the
-four and tobacco for foreign ports are again
sent direct from our Wharyes; and new ar
tlcles of export, such as cotton and petro-
leum, have made their appearance. A large
part of this business would have been i'm
possible in 1870, o" even in 1874. Those
who are directly interested in these matters
will say that the effect OF the improvement
has not been overstated.
Previous to 1875, while the permanent
| Improvement OF the river was never over
| looked, vet the demands Of commerce were
so urgent that large part OF the available
funds were expended in keeping open
| practicable channel, often by means known
| to be temporary in their effects, such as the
| dredging of channels through sand-bars
without a corresp onding contraction of the
width OF the river at such places-the
means not being at disposal to do all. Nor
must it be overlooked that the United States
had first to remove the very serious obstruc-
tons placed in the river during the civil
war.
The river had practicable depth in Oc-
tober, 1870, at high tide, for vessels drawing
less than eleven feet only; the large steam
ships had ceased to come to Richmond. BY
January, 1873, fourteen feet draft could
come above Rockets reef, and It was then
| thought proper, both by the committee and
by Colonel Craighill, to accept that depth
until that and greater could be secured;
| and this was the more advisable, because
the shoals at Goodies Rock and Rockets
reef, which limit the available depth to-day,
required time and considerable expense
for their renewal. Accordingly, no work
OF D temporary character has been done
during the year, such as the removal OF
sand deposited by freshets even. Not q
yard Of sand has been dredged except at
the outlet of the ship-lock, or where it
covers harder material in the line Of chan
nels in progress. The only exception was
the excavation of channels to Drewry's
Island dixie, for the purpose OF carrying
material to the dixie.
RICHMOND BAR.
By the work in progress the chan
mel over Richmond bar, which in former
years required more or less dredging after
freshets, has increased in width in the last
year from the action Of floods, and also in
depth wherever the contraction OF the
rlyer-width has been completed according
to the present plan. A greater depth OF
channel could have been maintained here at
q slipht outlay for DREDGING, but with the