The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-10
MARKING THE LINES.
Surveying Harbors at Olympia
and Bellingham Bay.
GOVERNMENT AID TO BE ASKED.
Colonel Prosser on the Commissions
work-SeattIe Needs a SeawalI-
Chicago Faction Quarrels.


Yakima, chairman of the state harbor
line commission, is at the Rainier hotel.
On Monday he will go to Olympia to at
tend meeting Of the commission. In
speaking of the work yet to be done, he
said last night: ..The field work at Blaine
is done today, and the maps win be pre-
pared as rapidly as possible. The work on
the location of the lines at Beilingham
Bay, Olympia and Tacoma will be pushed
with all due speed. We expect to have
matters settled at Bellingham Bay and
Olympia very soon. When located we
shall prepare a plan of Improvements for
those two harbors, TO be approved by the
secretary of war. We shall ask the ma
tional government to cooperate with the
state government, with the munlcipail-
ties and the corporations in carrying out
the plans. Through our representatives
IN congress We shall apply for 100000 for
each of those harbors. We ask for these
harbors first because there have been no
suits to delay our work, and we can get
the lines located and the plans ready
soonest.
at was our intention to have led with
Seattle harbor, because that Is the most
conspicuous on the Sound, and because
we wished to show plainly to the people
of the state what we could do for the
harbors, but the suits against the commits
sian have stopped our work here.
Olympia has good claim for an appro-
priation in that she is the capital of the
state and lies practically at the head of
navigation on the Sound. This gives her
good deal of Importance. We have
found that BelIingham bay is shoaling
steadily from the deposit of matter carried
down by the Nooksack river. This stream
used to flow into the Gulf of Georgia, but
some thirty years ago log jam damned
it and turned the course into Bellingham
bay. Some steps should be taken at once
to preserve and protect this bay.
"While the general government has
spent millions upon millions for river
and harbor improvement, Puget sound
has hitherto received comparatively little
attention. One reason has been that our
harbors are naturally unusually good, and
without any great Improvement they have
been able TO accommodate the commerce
of the Sound.
"But the time has come when our COM
merce is growing rapidly and is assuming
great importance, not only for the state
and the nation, but for the world. Each
year will see the Puget sound shipping in
crease, and it is time that we set about
making our harbors as good as possible
Our commission will present as completely
as possible to congress and the federal
authorities the figures bearing on this
phase of the matter, and as fast as the lines
are located in any harbor we shall urge an
appropriation for its improvement.
Not hat faKr M
provements can be undertaken by the
state or the individual until the harbor
lines are determined So delay in the
work is distinct loss to any city. Your
shipping suffers while the present rather
crude facilities for it are offered.
''Since three-quarters of the money
from the sale of tide lands in any harbor
goes toward the improvement of that har-
Dor, there will probably be upwards of
100000 from that source to spend on
Seattle. But that is just a beginning.
dare say the improvements will not be
done for forty years, and until at least
$25O00,0O0 have been expended Why.
during the last century the sum of Sl4o,
100000 has been put into the Liverpool
harbor. Just consider what we need here
"a stone seawall six miles long.
That wall should average at least forty
feet in height; when you reckon the cost
of the dredging and then filling in behind
you will see that 100000 will not go
very far.
with stone seawall and stone piers,
with stone walls along the sides of the
waterways of the Duwamish, Smiths
cove and Salmon bay, and with broad
street running along the whole water
front, you would have one of the great
harbors of the world All this will come
in time, but it will take years. Then you
will have no more destruction by teredoes,
no more falling wharves, no more excess
sive freight charges.
1--WE shall not live to see all these things
come to pass, but we wish to make start,
to begin the work so well that it will never
have to be undone, that it will answer the
needs of commerce for all time.
"When field work will be resumed on
Seattle harbor | do not know. Ex-Gover-
nor Semple is urging US to start at once.
But our appropriation is limited; there is
no telling exactly when the courts will let
Us go on here, and since the time when the
field work might be used We deem it more
economic to devote present attention to
harbors where no legal obstacles are raised.
But this thing Is sure-as soon as the suits
are decided the work will be pushed in
Seattle.
Probably our attention will next be
turned to Anacortes or Port Townsend or
both -