Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-14

Robert Gamble Points Out It's Advant
ages over the Proposed waterway.

Robert Gamble Points Out Its Advant-
ages over the Proposed Waterway.
Editor Morafag NeecS: Believing that.
your city in common with all the cities of
the Southern Atlantic and the Northern
Gulf coast have a deep interest, and
should have a vital stake in this great
enterprise, / cannot doubt that you will
avail yourself of all matter bearing there
on calculated to draw public attention to
it, and thereby and it's friends in forming
those combinations which shall success
fully inaugurate and bring to consumma-
ton one of the grandest conceptions OF
modern engineering, which, IN proportion
to the capital invested. would yield divi-
dends unprecedented by any kindred work
of ancient or modern days.
The immense practical value OF this
great commercial avenue 10 the producers
of the great Mississippi valley can be best
eXemplifed by citing facts illustrative OF
the vastly greater economy OF water trans
pOrtation in the moving of great masses
of raw material, whether OF agricultural
products or Of the mine. or OF the forest,
over the transportation of these products
by land carriage. Thus, ION the 9th OF
MAY the towboat J. b. Williams started
for New Orleans from Louisville with
tow consisting of twenty-siX boats and
eight barges of coal and one barge OF hay
of 400 tons. the coal measuring 694, 200
bushels. which is equal TO %, S52 tons. To
conceive the magnitude of this cargo,
let it be supposed that 1t
is loaded in 2,566 cars, that would be re-
quired to transport it by rail, and with
the l02 locomotives and tenders that
would be necessary to haul them, the train
would cover tract nearly eighteen miles
long. The number of men employed on
the tow does not exceed -, while more
than 800 would be employed on the trains.
The Williams carried this tow the dis
lance of $50 miles, and delivered 1t at
New Orleans week after departure. 1t
would have been impossible for one OF the
railroads to have delivered the same
cargo within two weeks. The floating pro-
perry comprising the tow was worth at
Louisville 1925, 900. The value of rolling
stock alone which would be necessary to
carry the cargo by rail would be several
millions of dollars"
The coal run of the Ohio in 1882 was
4,1S5, 1S5 bushels, and that of 1888 will eX-
coed this. To transport this 1850 miles
by rail would require, it is calculated,
$4,000 cars and 600 engines, with a force
of $500 men, while to deliver the same by
the river would require tow boats, 156
boats, 4S barges and $50 men; the capital
invested in the rolling stock by rail alone
being $1,000, 600, while that by the river
would be $750,000, to say nothing of the
wear and tear Of 1850 miles of rail on the
one hand and the costless transit of the
river on the other.
The above statistics in substance are
taken from the Herald of May 16, and are
doubtless correct.
Now, though knowing not what the rel
alive cost of freight for like distances be-
tween these two modes of transportation
would be, yet, analysing the above statis-
tics, we have points as interesting as they
are suggestive.
Taking the above ''tow," j. b. Williams,
as our unit we find that, exclusive of OPP
Grating, il costs to move the Ohio coal in
one week 1850 miles by water, an expen-
diture in equipage representing $3.50, 900.
while to move the same by rail would in
volve, to say nothing of the wear and tear
on 1850 miles of rail and the relative in
terest on the capital represented by the
cost of the road, an outlay in motive power
alone of $4,000, 600 or more than ten times
the capital in equipage alone.
Now, by means of the canal the J. b.
Williams could bring her freight within
three days more to an Atlantic port, say
Fernandina, or in as many more DAYS
could reach as many more of the seapOrts
of the South Atlantic-Savannah, Charles
ton Wilmington-and with such an inland
navigation thus far completed it would
speedily be prolonged to the waters of the
Chesapeake. Intersecting this line of
navigation at right angles, rivers and
railroads debouching at Gulf and Atlantic
ports would empty these floating argosies
and carry their freights directly into an
interior capable of absorbing them, and
replacing them with freights for their
hOmeward voyage,
These points admitted, as to the single
item of the coal trade of the Ohio, it
follows that the same is true relative to
the total export of the Mississippi and
ITS tributaries, including coal, grain, iron,
etc. But when we come to calculate the
total cost of moving this vast tonnage we
shall be justified in debiting the land
transportation with at least the cost and
repair of half the line of road or roads
over which it is carried, and though this
would doubtless represent an interest of
say per cent. on more than $200, 600, 900,
it will be sufficient for the purpose of this
article to assume it to be the half
of the above, or $S,000,00 Thus
we have as the elements for calculation
of relative freIghts the cost of competing
equipage, the cost and repair of the artifi-
cial channel, the railroad and the free
river, or of about one, to twenty, in favor
of the river and canal, which means that
much more in the pockets of the producer
road, Nor is even this great difference in
his favor all that Is gained by the shipper.
The line of the proposed canal passes
directly through portions of four Gulf
States, intersected at intervals by rivers
and railroads coming down from interior
States, and when the Atlantic is reached
it will virtually be extended by inland
navigation along the Atlantic front of
Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Vir-
Uipia whose riVprS and roads also infor
secting at right angles, will, with those of
the Gulf, carry these Western products
through their commercial arteries direct
" to the consumer, thus reducing to a
minimum the expense of transfer from
producer to consumer,
Having thus touched upon some of the
advantages resulting to the citizens of the
great valley, derivable from so grand and
economical highway for their commerce,
and demonstrating to capitalists the value
of investment in such an enterprise, it
may be well to say something tor the con-
sideratiOn of the latter class relative to
the cost and character Of the proposed
canal,
Now, not pretending TO speak from data
absolutely accurate, such as could only
be furnished by actual survey, yet from
long personal acquaintance with the coun-
try, and some considerable experience in
excavation and embankment, / can speak
advisedly, and with approximate accu-
racy, of a considerable portion of the pro-
posed line Of canal lying within the State
of Florida.
BEGINNING at the eastern end of Choc-
tawhatchie Bay an excavation of about
fifteen miles would connect it with the
waters Of the st. Andrews Bay, and a cut
of eighteen miles would connect this bay
with Lake Wimico, deep bayou, making
into the Apalachicola. These two cuts
would be through a low, nat country, The
route thence passes through the mouth of
the ApalacbicQla and along st. Georges
sound 10 the mouth of Rio Carrabello.
Prom Carrabello to point on the Su-
wannee river, distance of about one hum
bred and twenty miles. the canal can be
constructed entirely upon the surface.
and this is made possible by the existence
of one of those remarkable rivers peculiar
to Florida. Nearly halfway between
Carrabello and the Suwannee, a river,
known as the Wacissa, bursts out of the
ground, supplied from unknown sources,
rising at the foot of the hills exact
" at the point through which this
line Of canal must pass; stream indie
pendent of all local supply, rising literal
" ON the top of hill, waters clear as
crystal, not affected by local drought or
rainfall, the quantity of its discharge
being inVaIiable from year to year. Its
flow is from 25,000,000 to 30,000, 900 cubic
feet per hour. This river would serve as
a feeder for a surface canal to Carabello
on the west and to the Suwannee on the
east.
Its waters, half a mile below its source,
are thirty feet, by actual survey, above
lido water in tho Saint MartfS rivor a