Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-16
Our River improvements.


We again desire to refer to that i'm
portant subject, the permanent improve
ment Of our river and harbor, because
Savannah's prosperity and Savannsh's
commerce are synonymous terms, and
without sufficient depth of water at all
times from the bar at Tybee to our
wharves the very existence of the city is
endangered.
Since the war, the chief efforts Of the
government have been directed to dredg-
ing our channel. This has been prOduc-
tive of some good, but it has
amounted to nothing compared with
what should have been accom-
plished when the amount of money
which has been expended is considered.
This sum amounts to thousands and
thousands of dollars, and it has been
mainly spent simply in digging the mud
from one part of the channel and dump
ing it into another few hundred yards
distant, only eventually to find its way
back to the identical point from which it
was dredged IN the first place, since with
a river of the strong currents of the Sa-
vannah, it will be impossible to dump
the dredged material anywhere in
the stream without its disintegrating,
and finally being again deposited in deep
water, to the injury of the channel. This
should be examined into and stopped.
1t is a matter of the first consequence
that when the channel is dredged the
dredged material should be deposited
where it will not again prove an obstruc-
ton. Otherwise the money spent on the
work is simply money thrown away, for
it is work which has to be continually
repeated, without accomplishing any
permanent good.
Another reason why we have expe-
rienced so little benefit with so large an
expenditure is that contracts for the build
ing of dams and other works of like char
acter have frequently been awarded to
incompetent parties, whose failure to
carry out their contracts have caused
years of delay in the execution of the
plans of the engineers having the work
IN charge. This also should be stopped.
In order that effective improvement may
be obtained. and a permanent and salts
factory channel secured, the jetties pro
jected should be constructed without de-
lay, and the government should push
the work as it is now pro
posed to be done, and, in order that
it may be done properly, and at as
small cost as possible, the engineer in
charge should make this city his head
quarters-as Col. Craighill made Balti
more his headquarters while constructing
the ''Craighill channel to that city. Pay
ments for the work should also be made
in Savannah. Bills should not have to
be transmitted to New York, thereby
necessitating delay. which adds mate
rally and unnecessarily to the cost of
the work.
This whole matter of our river and
harbor improvement needs radical re-
form, and it behooves our people to in
terest themselves earnestly therein. With
twenty-seven feet of water over the Sa-
vannah bar at high tide, and with good
roadstead in which vessels may safely
ride at anchor, our harbor is said to be
the most available on the Atlantic coast.
All that is needed to give the depth
required in the river is to direct its flow
in a proper channel, and then we could
easily have as much water in the channel
as can be carried over the b "a depth
sufficient to float the larges merchant
and naval vessels in the world. This is
the great object to be attained, and
to secure its accomplishment we must
not only have appropriations, but also an
engineer with full authority to direct the
work, who will give the matter his I'M
divided attention. Then we will doubt
less speedily be in the enjoyment of such
commercial facilities as are demanded
by our importance as the first cotton
port of the South Atlantic, and there
will be no further complaints of the ex-
penditure of vast sums of money with
out compensating benefit.