Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-04
ST. JOHNS RIVER, FLORIDA.
4 Committee on the Jetty Improvement
and Their Visit to Baltimore.

and Their Visit to Baltimore.
EX-GOv. George f. Drew, of Florida,
Major j. II. Durkee, and Mr.. Charles II.
Jones, comprising a committee to urge on
Congress and the public officers the ne
cessity of doing something for the i'm
provement of the st. Johns bar, says the
Baltimore Sun of the ID inst, have been
in Washington several days on their mis-
sion, and yesterday Messrs. Durkee and
Jones were in Baltimore in the same con-
nectiOn. The committee say that, ''In re-
spOnse to the demand of the House of
Representatives for report from the Sec
retary Of War on those public works that
need immediate appropriations, the st.
Johns bar is to be included in that report.
Gen. Wright, chief of engineers, stated to
the committee that there was no one of
the river and harbOr improvements that
needs more immediate attention than st.
Johns bar, and that he would recommend
$4,000 for the prosecution of the work -
In response to inquiries by the Sun repre-
sentative as to the State of the bar. the
members of the committee said:
"After examination by Gen. Gilmore
and other officers of the engineer corps. a
plan for improving the mouth of st. Johns
river was recommended, based on the
lefty system. which was then proving sue
river. The idea on which the jetties was
based is to contract the current of the
river. and by thus concentrating its eff
feet, compel 1t to cut out its own channel
across the bar of light shifting sands,
which move hither and thither with
the tides. The work on the jetties
up to two years ago had pro-
gressed sufficiently to show that the
theory of the engineers was sound: that
qIfhnHUh nj no
rent was detected from its original course
and washed out the bar, so as to show a
gain of from three to four feet. If the
work had been vigorously prosecuted with
adequate appropriations, there is every
reason to believe there would have been
sixteen to eighteen feet depth on the bar.
During the past two years Congress has
been so very niggardly in its apprOpria-
tiOns that very little progress has been
made in extending the work."
QuestiOn-'Has work been suspended
during these two years?''
Answer.-"NO. Under small apprO-
priatiOns the work has been going for
ward slowly, but too slow to preserve the
depth that had been gained. Last year
Congress allowed $150,000, but before the
appropriation was available work had
been suspended for so long that the un-
completed jetties had been ravaged by
the tides and river current and damaged
the work to such an extent that about
twO-thiTds of the total appropriation
was absorbed in repairing those
damages and buttressing the works.
This left only $4,000 to be used in
extending the jetties, and of course the
effect could be only trifling. This appro-
priatlOn IS now exhausted. Every days
delay is causing damage, and our com
mittee is now here urging on the govern
ment the necessity of making an appro-
priatiOn Immediately available in order to
save what has been already done. The
committee has had a consultation with
the River and HarbOr Committee of Con-
gress, and find they are well disposed to
all really important and deserving works
of public improvement"
Q.-"W hat is the extent of the COM
merce that Will be affected by this i'm
prOvement?'
A.-"Substantially the whole commerce
of Florida with the Northern markets.
Twenty feet of water on the bar would
make Jacksonville the distributing point
for all of Florida. Southern Georgia and
even Southern Alabama as far west as
Mobile. The commerce Of the port Of
Baltimore is largely interested in this, be-
cause a large trade is growing up with
Baltimore as the nearest Atlantic port,
and great distributing centre for Florida.
-Four or i've SchOOners are engaged in this
trade, which is constantly growing. The
committee confidently believe that with
20 or - feet on st. Johns bar, a fleet of
not less than 80 large vessels would be
needed for the traffic between Baltimore
and Florida"
The committee presented a memorial on
behalf of the people of Florida, setting
forth that the value of cargOes from the
port of jacksonville in 1882 aggregated
over SIS. .000, coo, and that the risk of cross
ing the bar was Fl per cent, and that the
increased freight charges averaged 80
cents a ton, to say nothing of the cost on
account of delays at the bar. These sta
tistics show that the tax on the commerce
of Jacksonville alone, by reason of the
present condition of St. Johns bar,
amounts 10 rot less than 100000 year,
which is the precise sum Gen. Gilmore
estimates will be necessary to complete
the jetties.