Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-27
Washington BIZ WATER.

7 oCK and dam No. 9 on the Monongahela,
lately completed. together with series of
others, afford Continuous water communication
to Morgantown, between which point and
Pittsburg line of sidewheel boats ply daily.
The completion of this short waterway project
would reunite our Western Pennsylvania
waterways with the Eastern Pennsylvania
canal system, and the same class of boats which
now transport coal from Mauch Chunk and
other points in the heart of the anthracite coal
region to New York and Philadelphia could
then come to PIttsburg. In fact, boats could
come from almost any county in the State east
Of the mountains. Think of the fact that our
great Mississippi system, comprising 10000
miles Of navigable rivers, is separated from the
chief Atlantic sea ports by missing link only
90 miles in length. This is the miniature OBJ
stacle which prevents Washington and Balti-
more from possessing a waterway entirely
across the Appalachian Highland and hinders
them from sharing an equal position with New
York City as a natural gateway to the Great
West, granted 1t by Hudson river ana Erie
Canal to the great lakes Also, it retards 1t
from securing an inland water route to New
Orleans and obstructs intercourse with the
great trunk waterways-the Ohio, Mississippi
and Missouri, and all their tributaries, and
after the completion of the proposed Ohio river
and Lake Erie Canal the city will fail to enjoy
the benefits of bee line waterway to the great
lakes and consequent water connection with
Buffalo. Cleveland, Chicago, Duluth and all
other lake ports.
How II Would Benefit Commerce.
p EMovE this impedfment and then the great
bulk of the river traffic Of the Mississippi
system will be focal at Washington and Balti-
more, as will also the great bulk of foreign i'm
ports and the coast trade. The huge piles of
granite blocks contained in our new postofice,
county Court House, Carnegie Library and
other buildings afford an example of the inn
mense feeder to the proposed waterway the
latter trade would be, as a great portion of
these granite blocks were carried by schooner
from the quarries in Maine to Baltimore. The
last named port would immensely improve its
position. and would probably rise to the lead
in foreign commerce. The Potomac Valley,
adjoining the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal,
would become as available for manufacturing
purposes as the Monongahela Valley, and prop
erty values would enhance along its entire
length. We would then witness large fleets Of
huge barges similar to those of Gray's Iron
Line, and the Mississippi Valley TranspOrta-
tion Company laden with grain, flour. cotton,
sugar, molasses and many other products of
the West Northwest and Southwest. includ-
ing also cattle and other live stock, comforta-
bly, stabbed and cared for on model barges in
tow of powerful steamers up the broad bosom
of the Ohio, up the Monongahela in. tow OF
smaller boats and by screw propeller tugs
through the tunnel, down the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal latter enlargement) to Washington
and Baltimore where the cargoes could be
transferred directly to the steamships for trans
port to foreign ports.