The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-05-15
The Raging Canals.

ne Nnlp dUal men anla1onlNe TIE
Barge Canal scheme of inland navigation
from the Mississippi river To the Atlantic,
and have obtained some kind of endorse
ment in New Orleans, and some kind of
condemnation of the Barge Canal This
was to be expected, br the Ship Canal
men told the Oreaniafs that the Barge
Canal would leave their city as only a
passing station Of the barges that con-
veyed the ireights of the Mississippi to
the Atlantic coast, while the Ship Canal
would bring the ocsaT shipping quicker
than ever to their levee This endorse
ment IN the great Southern emporium
was thus easily had, and was good to
have. 1t would help to float stock"
and much of it might be tioatcd in that
rich city itself
1t was also urged that the Barge Canal
enterprise was quite impractcablr- and
if impracticable, why should it have such
intense opposition from the Ship Canal
men and that there would be two hun
lred miles of solid canal cutting, that the
lock difficulties We're insuparablr, &c
The difficulties did not seem insuperabIe
nearly sixty years ago, when the outside
estimate of the work as contemplated by
the /. :. Government was three millions.
and was pronounced too much by the eco
nomical Legislators d those days. OF
this expense the chief item would he get
ting from the Gulf to the Atlantic, which
seemed easily feasible however to the en-
gncering skill of the time as the figures
indicate, but We will refer merely to the
route from the Mississippi To the waters
of Middle Florida-for distance approx
mating four hundred miles-and cite the
record as to the ease with which this Gin
land navigation NAV be opened up.
In the Congress of the United States,
January 10, ls2G, senator Hendricks,
from the Committee on Roads and Ca
nails, to whom was referred " a bill for the
survey of route for canal between the
Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico" re-
ported that to "etfect an inland nayiga-
ton of unbroken continuity" from the
Mississippi river to Apalachicola bay only
hrei,f miles of cutting would he required
OH the whole route, which would be
through the bays Of st. Andrews, Choc-
tawhatchie, St Rosa Sound, Pensacola
Bay, Grand Lagoon, Perdido Bay, Bon
Secour> Bay, Mobile Bay, Mississippi
Sound, Lakes Ponchartrain and Borgne
The cutting would be Through a level
sand, furnishing every prospect OF easy
excavation"
The spaces of low, sandy land between
! these links of waterway amount in the
aggregate to-day to something more than
! "twelvc miles," but their whole extent is
a rifle that a small appropriation of in
tcrnal Improvement funds and a tirst-class
/ steam excavator or two would sweep out
of the way in a few months, and give I'M
obstructed barge navigation {" from the
Mississippi to the Apalachicola," and to
arrabelle, Tor the inland water extends
east to Dog Island harbor from the Apa-
lachicoIa Now if the Barge Canal com
pany do not open the route which will in
effect turn some of the stream of the Mis-
sssippi to a port Of Middle Florida, we
suggest that it is clearly within the PROV
ince of Congress to make "river and
harb"r " appropriation for the work. 1t
is for the benefit OF navigation in sew eral
States The coast country of West and
Middle Florida would be greatly benefit
ted and Tallahassee is to reach down
with railroad to meet the barges and
relieve them of their cheap Western pro
dure. by all means let us have so much
OF the barge canal, if no more, az can be-
opened thus far and at snrh small cost.