The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-11-12
A GIGANTIC CANAL.
Professor Enke's Marvel
lous Scheme on Which
He Has Worked
Thirty Years.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT By WATER
Boards Of Trade and Labor Or
CARNATIONS Endorse the Plans
- Jersey Ship Canal
Urged.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT BY WATER

u %cPOaA4CAtS Vi liz lStWdIh
Evening News writes as follows: When
Prof. J. r. Enke's great scheme for build
ing a gigantic canal across this continent
by aid of the Government shall have been
adopted by Congress. to whom It will be
submitted in the near future, n the
canal shall have been completed, the
wonder they now call the Suez Canal will
be but a mere inland waterway of trifing
Importance.
After thirty years of ceaseless labor, the
professor now has his plans completed,
and they contemplate the most wonderful
inland ocean canal ever dreamt of. With
in the past few months the professor has
had the qualification of seeing. his plans
approved and adopted by the Board of
Trade of the city of Philadelphia, and also
by several State engineering associations
and the Machinists' Union as well. The
Central Labor Union of New York dis
cussed adopted the plans Sunday.
and they were submitted to the General
Assembly Of the Knights of Labor In con-
vention at Rochester. N. Y, today, and
will also be exhibited at the convention
of the American Federation Of Labor to
be In session In Cincinnati next month.
While the professors scheme contem-
plates a gigantic ship canal from ocean
to ocean, and his plans of construction
are upon this idea, his immediate fnten-
ton embraces only a ship canal across
New Jersey from Sandy Hook to Tren-
ton and thence down the Delaware River
to Delaware Bay and out into the ATTAIN
tic Ocean. The professors scheme in
cludes the making of the Delaware River
from Trenton down ~navigable for ships
of whatever tonnage and for the largest
man-o'-war afoat.
Tt is proposed to build the canal fifty
feet In depth, with a width of $50 at the
surface and 300 feet at the bottom. which
will give a slope of fifteen feet to either
WALL" said the professor to a reporter
when seen at his residence, No. 2aS Mer-
Ger street, Trenton, yesterday morning.
II propose a bottom of concrete of suffi-
cient thickness to Withstand any leakage
by reason of quicksands. of which there
is a great deal in New Jersey, and the
banks to be absolutely solid.
THE intention is that on one side of
the canal there should be ample room
for an eight-track railroad, and on the
other there should be sufficient ground
for hundreds of manufacturing concerns.
The coping of the top of the wall will
be ten feet in width the professor went
on. The route will be between ffty-fve
and sixty miles across the State. and my
projected canal, of course If adopted,
will take the place of that proposed by
the Board of Trade n that has been
discussed. This plan I proposed years
ago. at the time when Siidell and Mason
ran the blockade, during the late war.
There should be a means of in~ter-naviga-
ton to avoid both storms in peace and
blockades in war; The plan I propose
and its construction will be as good
10, 600 years from now as when first built.
I propose that the Government shall con-
struct the canal. My only interest in the
scheme would be as the designer, n
the credit its success would give me /
have already brought the project. to the
attention of the chairman of the Inter
state Canals of Congress, Thomas Nc
EVAN, and got the endorsement Of the
several Organizations interested, and in
tend, if possible, to get recognition from
Congress.
Under the present construction of can
&lS, llt OESk SPCCo ft41k k4k S&1~%- ~
made is five and a half or six miles an
hour. BY my plan vessels can safely
travel as fast as ocean steamers and es-
cape the dangers of the ocean. If Con-
gress allows rivers to be used to feed the
upper levels ii would be a curse and not a
blessing. Speed is everything in our age.
All navigable waterways should be under
should be double locks, impervious to
muskrats, of l,700. 600, 600 gallons capacity.
My proposition is to take a cana from
any point wheas we can get a reservoir
nave not figured on the cost-there is no
doubt 1t will be great-but the benefit to
commerce in peace and the country in
case of wal will more than pay It. The
object is to order on the Atlantic coast
and construct to and come with the
Great Lakes, and from New York to
Trenton and the Chesapeake; IN fact, to
improve our military defences. The same
plan is feasible in inland canals to cross
the continent, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. We require speed, and the con-
highest speed. The banks must be con-
structed to recosl the water. The Suez
Canal cost $50, coo. 600. and today they could
build a new canal cheaper than to repair
ii. The profit on the Suez Canal has
been already 5000, 900, 900. and 1t cost only
$50, 900, 900 to construct It."
DR.. Enke exhibited a large number of
drawings. He said they had been exam
ALAS ~ 49,
He had never submitted his plans to the
Government, and only made a mere refer
ence to 1t to a committee of Congress.
The work, of course, would be a most ex-
tensive one, and would require a large
amount of money and a strong force of
engineers, laborers and other auxiliaries
to complete 1t. The time that would be
required to complete the task. of course, |
would depend entirely upon the force that
would be employed. In his Judgment It
would take for the completion of the New
Jersey division of the work, perhaps from
three to five years.
In closing the doctor said:-.I have
studied the construction of several works, |
canals especially. the cost per mile for
both excavation and construction, build
ing of locks, concrete work, banks, etc.
For instance, the suez Canal cost, in diff
ferent sections of its route. from 5000 0
to $500, 900 per mile, and 1t averaged for
its whole length not less than $4,000 a
mile. In that country labor y very much
cheaper than In the United States, where
the w~orkingman gets better wages han
In almost any other country on the globe.
Labor is cheaper now than it has been
for years, and the laborer is seeking en-
ployment, and needs It. Work done now
will benefit both labor and capital