The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-11-21
Friday, November 81, 1890.
Suggestions to- Capitalists.

! The Louisville 4 Nashville railroad COM
i pany and to capitalists in general which
}. we hope they will not deem unworthy of
their attention.
d.. Capital, like fortune, has singular freaks.
New, York has become an enormous city;
Philadelphia is the third city in the Union;
Baltimore is slow moving, hut steadily
growing. commercial emporium; Norfolk
is startling its old inhabitants by the new
life it is showing, and even Newport News
' is rising like magic city on the hanks OF
the James. Yet there is one spot on York
river that has natural advantages over
them all, and whose population has not
.- ascd 300 in two hundred years.
20 From glance at the map it will be seen
that all that vast productive belt of coun-
try living between latitude 81 degrees and
~ degrees north has two natural outlets
upon the ocean coasts, San Francisco on
the west and Yorktown on the east. Both
points lie nearly on the same line of lati-
tudc, and the harbor of each affords
the same depth of water, viz: 33 feet
at the channel entrance. This is s feet
more than the New York harhor affords,
Is more than Baltimore and 10 more than
States Coast Surveys of 1851 and 1872,
and the report Of Lieutenant Commanding
Almv, before us, it is easy to show the
advantages which Yorktown has over any
other port on our coast for the shipment OF
that vast produce which is annually poured
out from the richest belt Of country Oh
the continent In his report Lieutenant
Commanding Amy says:
"No one can look at the chart of the
lower part of York river, from its entrance
to Yorktown, without pronouncinS it a
harbor OF the iirst-cass. There is no bar
at the mouth of this river, and the least
water to he passed over in entering II Is
:i3 feet at low tide, near the tail of the
Spit. in Chesapeake bay. After passing
this the water deepcns to six, seven anu
eight fathoms, increasing up the channel
to eleven and twelve fathoms abreast OF
Yorktown, where the shore is very bold.
and wharves carried out 80 feet would
strike four and Il half and five fathoms Of
water The channel of the river is more
than Il mile in width, and with Il few buoys
and bcacons judiciOusly placed the hcavl-
est line of battle ships could beat up or
down the river without the least difficulty.
Yorktown is situated about thirty nautI-
cal miles from the entrance of the river
into Chesapeake bay. The location is clc-
waited, and it could he easily fortified at
moderate expense against attack, either
by land or water 1t affords harbOr suf-
iicient for the largest navy and CONNER
cial marine, and next to Newport, r. L., it
is, in nv Judgment, the safest and most
commodous harbrr in the United States.
This is the language of the very capable
officer appointed to survey the Chesapeake
bay and its tributaries; but he might have
said more A glance ut the chart of the
bay will prove more clearly than any argu-
mcnt how admirably Nature protects this
harbor from wind or wave. No sea roll
ing from the ocean can reach the shipping
anchored in it without being broken by
the shoals of Too's Point, Poquosin and
Drum Island on the south, where the
water varies in depth from one to five feet,
while the seas rolling from the north,
down the Chesapeake, waste their fury on
York Spit, which stretches out its solid
arm to beat them back.
The channel is one mile wide at the tail
OF the Spit, but the harbor is thoroughly
protected whatever may he the rage OF the
sea in the bay or in the ocean. 1t will
also he seen that the heaviest ships need
only the pilots of chart and compass to
enter with safety, and any wind that
brings them into the capes will bring them
to Yorktown with but slight variation Of
sails. No tugs will be required either for
inward or outward bound ships, for the
same reason; and when Yorktown is
reached they may ride safely at anchor
through any storm in water that varies
from six to eight futhoms and where the
river channel extends from shore 10 shore.
The lighthouses at the tail of the Spit and
at Too's Point arc within sight of the
capes, and the inbound ship may steadily
hold her course during the darkest and
stormcst night from the ocean to the har
Dor. The river above Yorktown affords
ample depth of water for a distance of
fifteen miles, and though none but the
smaller ships, drawing less than thirteen
feet, can safely move above that spot where
the chaunel is broken and intricate, this
space will afford ample room for the ship
ping that may have occasion to occupy it.
Yorktown is situated upon the southern
bank of the river, on an elevation of 50
feet, which gradually slopes as YOU so in
land-a fact that favors the construction
of elevators on the bank, and greatly
facilitates the loading and unloading of
cargoes. There are several bold creeks,
aisording an ample supply of fresh water
for ships going to sea, and for resident
population of 100, 600 inhaitants. But Ma
ture, leaving nothing undone that could
solicit the enterprise of commerce, has
brought the fresh water of James river as
fur down as point nearly opposite on the
other side of the peninsula, and at dis
lance of only five or eight miles from
Yorktown. The river, which is too muddy
and turbid for healthy use for some dis
lance below Richmond, deposits its freight