St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-11-11
ST. PAUL NEWS.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
The Board Of DirectO rs Meet and
Discuss the New Rail-
road Bridge.
They Decide that the Location is the
Very Best Which Can
be Secured.
And Adjourn without Taking ANY Action
Toward Building the Robert
Street Bridge.


At the meeting of the board Of directors Of
the chamber of commerce yesterday morn
ing the first business considered was that oil
the
NEW RAILROAD BRIDGE.
At the meeting of the board last week the
matter was referred to the committee on the
Mississippi river, of which Capt Blakeley is
chairman He reported from that committee
the following resolution:
Resolved That it is the sense Of the com
mttee on the Mississippi river to the cham
Der of commerce that the location OF the
bridge of the Minnesota IL Northwestern
railroad company across the MISSISSIPPI
river and the approaches thereto IN ibis CITY,
as indicated in their indication to the com
mon council for application to locate the
same, meets with our approval as the most
ju3icious for the interest Of the city.
On making this report Capt Blakely de-
sired to have it understood
that while It was Of the opinion \
of the committee it was not
his. He dissented from 1t entirely. He was
OF the opinion that more time should have
been taken to consider matter Of such great
importance; that careful and accurate sur
views should have been made, and means
should have been taken to ascertain what
effect such a structure with its abutments
and piers would have on the channel Of the
river. If the bridge is to be built it ought to
be located as high up as Dakota avenue.
Mr.. Stickney, who represents the road, and
who was present in the chamber, desired 70
say in reply to Capt. Blakeley's remarks, that
he felt confident the Captain would hold diff
ferent opinions from those he had just ex-
pressed if he had given the subject careful
and thorough investigation. The grade,
Mr.. Stickney said, at Dakota avenue
was wholly impracticable for the
construction of the bridge as the surface was
but two feet above high water mark; and if
the bridge such as is proposed was started
there it would necessitate the crossing Of
Dakota avenue and Ohio streets, which would
seriously interfere with public travel over
those two thoroughfares.
COMMODORE DAvIDsoN's OPINION.
The following communication from Com
modore Davidson was presented by Mr..
Stickney, and read by the secretary:
ST. PAUL, Nov, 9TH.
a. Is. Suckney, Esq, fresluenL MlnnesoJa
IL Northern Il r. Co.:
Dear Sir: / have examined the map Of the
location of your proposed bridge across the
Mississippi river at st. Paul. and l believe
the location and the plans will be satisfac-
tory to the interests of navigation, and that
the location there is much better than ii
would be at any point below jackson street.
Yours truly,
VIM F. DAVIDSON.
1T CARRIES.
On the yeas and nays being called the re-
port of the committee was adopted by a vote
of 35 to 1 as follows:
Yeas-Averill, Barney, Berkey, Bishop,
Castle, Day, Delano, Drake, Driscoll, Fair
child, Fogg, Gilman, Gotzian, Gribben, Hall,
Harbaugh, Ingersoll Kelly, Lindeke, Lud-
den, McClung, Merrill, Murray, Morton,
Nichols, Noyes, Oppenheim, Quinby, Rice,
Rundlett, seabury, Somers, Stone, Strong.
Mr.. President.-35.
Nays-Blakeley.-1.
Mr.. hurry said that the ordinance had been
published and all have probably seen it, If
any member had any suggestions to make he
would be glad to have such suggestions made
public so that if deemed good and suitable
they could be addel.
Mr.. Delano said that the Mississippi river
at this point was very important. Great i'm
provements are to be made on this river so
that ultimately the largest boats
viii come here at all times
Of the navigable season. We have
now within few miles of here large num-
Der of bridges across the river. We will
soon have seven bridges here at ST. Paul
Now what effect are these bridges, piers and
fra-v foll aAa 49,,
channel of the rivera That was a matter
for very serious consideration. He favored
having map of the river prepared showing
the improvement by way of bridges that
have been made in this vicinity and the
river front.
DIR. Day said that we viii have to rely
upon the United States engineer principally
and all bridges must be constructed under
the government supervision.
Mr.. Stickney stated that ne had plans and
maps that had been taken from the govern
ment maps and they were perfectly accurate;
that all the bridges that are TO be built here
have to be submitted to Maj. Mckenzie and
to the Mississippi river commission and are
supervised by the government of the United
States. He could not see what more was
needed.
Capt Blakeley said there was little to be
done, and nothing that he knew of could be
added that would change anything. Every
thing had been given away and that was all
that could be done.
Mr.. Drake said that we should guard
against shutting out other roads. Provision
should be made in the ordinance to allow
other roads to cross this bridge.
Mr.. Oppenheim said that was provided for
already in the ordinance
Mr.. Strong said that at the last meeting of
the chamber Mr.. Stickney had declared TO
the chamber that all railroads that wanted to
cross over this bridge would have the priyi-
lege.
Mr.. Delano said that it would not be long
before an application would be made to cross
the river about opposite the ST. Paul 81 On
luth road. He did not value the
importance Of the Mississippi line as highly
as some other gentlemen did. His GREAT
idea was that some one, either the chamber
or the city council, or some other body.
ought to see to it that map of the harbor of
st. Paul should be made, so that we can SEQ
just what we have, and then when the roil
roads make an application for bridge we
can call upon them to show us lust whore
they propose to put their piers and turn
tables, so that we can determine whether or
not these Improvements will be injurious or
not
The chair finally announced that there
was nothing before the board which STONED
the discussion. The next thing taken up
was
THE ROBERT STREET BRIDGE.
Dr. Day called up his resolution in onnosi-
lion to building wagon bridge at the foot
Of Robert street. His resolution was TO the
effect that IL was not dosiro1n 4.