Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-30
SOUND HORSE SENSE.
~ Engineer Wisner of the BrazoS
Furnishes Some Valuable In
formation.
Facts That VIII Make an Army Engineers
Hair Stand on End and Make the Sand
Grabs Hunt Their Holes.
Rrazoria INDEPENDENT. May ..

river udl6 dCI6u SO rs u suIp pass va .
Wisner's expectations. Instead Of
twenty feet of water there is from twen-
ty-seven to thirty-two as shown by our
correspondent this week. This is indie
pendent of high water and the depth is
daily increasing, both between the lefty
walls and on the bar, and as we go to
press we are informed by reliable GENTLE
men just arrived on the steamer Christie
that there is fifteen and one-half feet on
the bar. The river is now at its usual
stage and this fifteen and one-half feet is
an increase of nearly one cot since 1t be-
gan falling.
VELAsCo, May ITO the end that the
readers of the Independent may have the
benefit of the latest and most authentic
information regarding the prospects of
getting deep water on the Texas coast
the following extracts from late Official
article prepared by Resident Engineer
Geo. Y. Wisner are submitted without
comment. In some communities it will
prove very interesting reading "before
breakfast. - ''The question of estab-
fishing deep water harbor on the coast
of Texas, - says MIR. Wisner, "has
been subject to such varied discussions in
congress and the press Of the
country during the past year
that comparison of re-
suits obtained at the different harboTs
seems about the only means of forming.
correct idea of the chances of success OF
Ethe plans now adopted for the improve
ment of these ports. Arkansas Pass and
Galveston depend entirely upon tidal ac-
ton for the force necessary to make and
maintain a deep water channel. Sabine
Pass on tidal currents and river currents
combined, and BraZos river on
river currents alone. Arkansas Pass,
Galveston and Sabine Pass are in
charge of the United States engl-
neering corps, and are being improved
under the plans adopted by board of
these engineers, and consequently so
long as these harbors remain under their
present control it does not matter whether
other plans could be adopted that would
be more successful or not, but whether
the present plans will succeed or fail. AT
Arkansas Pass S5Sl ,250 have been ex-
pended; at Sabine Pass, 81 118 $50. and
Galveston 81 1873 900. Amounts sufh-
GENTLY large TO base predictions as to
what probably will be accomplished by
the appropriation now asked for If ex-
pended in similar manner.
At Arkansas Pass there is practically
only the revetment of the end of Mus
tang Island to show the half million ex-
pended. This, however, is not the worst
feature of the case, as the peculiar plans
adopted there have had the effect of mar
rowing the pass over 80 per cent. during
the past eleven years without materially
deepening the channel. In 1878 the
pass was 3O4O and in 1884 only
1904 feet as shown by re-
ports of chief engineers for 1887
and 1889. This change is entirely due to
the fact that there is heavy movement
of sand along the shore from east to
west and that the jetty work done
was at the west side of the entrance and
of such a character as to catch and retain
the sand drift and to allow the wave and
eaEEsnt action to pile it up in the pass.
lleis very evident that the continuance
of the plan for few years longer will
reduce the dimensions of the pass to such
an extent that its future improvement
will be very questionable under this plan.
The physical features of the gulf bottom
outside of these harbors have no SINH
larity except at BraZos and Aran-
sas Pass-wheTe the slope OF
the gulf bottom is approximate
" the same At Sabine the ten fathom
curve is forty miles from shore, at Gal
weston twenty-nine miles, and at Brazos
and Arkansas six miles. Sixteen miles
from the shore at Sabine the water is
only sixteen feet deep, with only thirty
nine feet between the shoal and the
mouth of the pass. This shoal water
outside of these harbors has great ef-
feet on the force of the literal currents
that traverse the shore from east
to west as shown by the ad-
vance of the bar seward at GAL
weston and Sabine. Since 1851 the annual
advance of the Galveston bar has been
l75 feet per year, whereas at Brazos with
a discharge of 200 900 cubic yards of
sediment annually the bar is nearer
the shore than it was in 1858.
The matter of being able to maintain a
deep water channel at any of these ports
depends entirely on this principle, for
unless the eroding effect of these cur
rents is In excess of the forces tending to
form the bars there is not the slightest
question but that these bars will reform
in front of the works as fast as
built seward. This fact has been
fully demonstrated by the failures
at the mouth OF the hnOue duu OLueI
familiar works in Europe. Although the
annual advance IN the bar Sat Calves
TONI since 1851 had been only Us feet
per- year the advance during 1881 to 1884
when the south jetty had been carried
ofto the crest of the bar was $50 feet
year. This result is just what could
reasonably expected from the move
snent of sand along the shore from east
to west and the building of jetty on the
south side of the entrance to the harbor
in such manner as to form catch
basin to retain the sand in entrance to
the pass. The effect has been
the same as at Arkansas Pass
except that the jetty being faced more
to the eastward at Galveston the bar has
been forced out instead of narrowing up
the pass. When both jetties are COM
pleted the effect of this sand movement
will probably be more disastrous, from
the fact that the entrance of the jetties
will be directly toward the prevailing
storms. The engineering board of 1880
in formulating the plan under which the
present Improvement is being carried on
distinctly state that the slope of the water
surface through the pass during food tide
exceeds that during ebb tide by 60 per
cent If this is true there can be but
one result when the jetties are COM
pleted. The movement of sand towards
the entrance of the jetties and the excess