The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-26
CHANGES IN THE RIVER.
The Trouble and Expense Caused for the City
by the Sewers.

One would hardly think that the changes made
By freshets and other agencies in the river would
cause serious expense and trouble for city with
no use for the stream but to empty its sewers
and offal n but they are going to make pretty
heavy outlay for US before long In no part OF
the course of the river inside tho county has it
changed so constantly and considerably as along
the city front, chiefly from Washington street to
the foot of West street In this space. within no
very long stretch of memory, Governors Island,
just west of the old Graveyard" has disap-
peAred and reappeared as bar on the other side,
The west bank has advanced eastward, while the
current has cut away the east bank into the
Cemetery among the graves, and broad stretch
OF sand and weeds, and willows five or six nun
dred feet IN width, lies where the successive
channels of the river did Farther down, the
changes have been even greater, and, SO Tar as
the city is concerned, very much more lmpor-
tant
The strong current Of floods has cut short
vay through the point of the elbow opposite the
High banks" below Kentucky avenue, and
made a long narrow, sandy island Of the point,
wkith is slowly extending south, and promising
to Gnite with the south bank below the end of
tho bluff, while the current has divided from the
OLD bed, along the lower mouth Of the old bayou,
and spread half way over the east bottom This
thfagh striking enough in a geographical aspect
TO AL old resident does not concern the city
government. But a change on the east and
nlsth bank does very seriously 1t is going to
take money from the treasury, and add to the
silent congregation of Crown Hill, and before
VERY long, too.
when the main sewer down Kentucky avenue
waS completed, at the Vlncennes railroad bridge,
tbs mouth discharged directly into the river with
at intervening space of but dozen feet through
which little bay was formed TO the sewer In
q year two the obstruction of the current by
the bridge piers formed bar along the bank
that left the sewer fifty feet or more inland
with the sewage to spread out in the SUI over the
whole bare surface. To remedy that difficulty,
Sne city changed the sewer to a line some four
hundred feet south Of the Old one and set the
month below the bar so that the discharge was
again made directly into the current where it
was so rapid that no one imagined there could
eEsR come an obstruction. But the wall of the
sewer was in way of freshets, for it was nearly
ali above ground across the bottom from Merrill
street, and that helped the furious current in
high water to cut channel through the elbow"
aiEnGed to above. 1t threw the force of the cur
rent westward. and at the same time made
ed6es on its own side where bars formed. There
is where the trouble comes in.
The bar that INSTRUCTED the original mouth of
the sewer has spread southwark below the Coffin
pork house and the bluff of the ''high banks"
and extended into the old river channel, throwing
il westward as il cut away the island between it
and the new channel, till now it is 400 or 500 feet
wide a wilderness of weeds, and willows, and
syampy spots foul with sewage. In this time the
north bank-a short bend makes it the east bank
q little lOwer-has advanced its bar into the river
SO far as to make the Vincennes railroad tear
Away it's north abutment and north span of the
bridge and substitute pile and trestle work,
and build new abutment and span on the south
EaiiB To day the advancing bar has nearly filed
the new north span, which at first the
middle span, and right in the deepest channel
OF the river. The edge of the water is now over
SOe feet from the old sewer mouth.
The same growth has extended the bar on each
Elde Of the present sewer mouth full three hun
ored feet, and left only little, shallow. drib-
bling, nasty gutter for the entire sewer flow to
escape by into the river. When the water rises
when it falls the sewage soaks and stinks in
that little gutter. and the spongy sands Oh either
SADIE. That sort of exposure neutralizes a good
part Of the service the sewer does. 1t makes an
open sewer for several hundred feet of the river
bad and bars before the current can be reached.
In no very long time the old east channel of the
river will be closed or so near it as to be useless
as a sewer discharge And then or before the
sewer will have to be extended some four or five
hundred feet to the new channel where there
must be current always and where more
~'shcrt cuts are likely to come or bars be formed
that will surround the sewer mouth. 1t will cost
less in taxes than the consequences of exposed
sewage will cost in doctors bills and funeral ex-
PesASes, looking at it in business aspect only.