The record-union., 1896-04-02
DEEP SEA HARDOR.
Interesting Letter From Chief Engineer
Hood.
He Explains Fully About the Harbor
Sites of San Pedro and
Santa Monica.

From the San Francisco Bulletin)
Editor Bulletin: Some of the edi-
torials and dispatches concerning the
proposed harbors at Santa Monica and
San Pedro, which have recently been
printed in various newspapers. 1nclud-
ing some statements appearing to orig
inate with members of the Free Har-
Dor League" have indicated some con-
fusion of mind as to the facts involved.
that it has seemed to me best to outline
them correctly. Such information will
enable advocates of either the Santa
Monica or San Pedro projects to write
more intelligibly on the subject, and
will enable writer's of vigorous editorials
against the proposed deep-water harbor
in Santa Monica Bay to avoid the ap-
pearance of opposition thereto merely
on the ground that such harbor is de-
sired by the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company.
Possibly, also some Of the members
OF the Free Harbor League, who may
have been induced to join by solicita-
tion of representatives of purely local
interests, to Increase its numerical
strength, may be led to understand the
subject better than they appear to do at
present.
The present inner harbor at San Pc
Gro, which is known to the United States
Army Engineers as Wilmington Harbor,
is tidal estuary, originally quite shall
low, which has been heretofore i'm
proved from year to year. by dredging
and jetty construction until it has a
depth of water at the entrance of four
teen feet at mean low tide with width
of channel of about 300 feet.
1t has been recently proposed by the
United States Army Engineers (Ex. Doc.
No. 81, SD Congress, Sd SESSION., to
deepen the channel a. the entrance to
eighteen feet at mean low water, and
deepen the interior of the harbor, with a
view to obtain a width of entrance of
$50 feet and widths of interior harbor
OF from 500 to 1 800 feet.
This will very much improve the pres
ent harbor, but will in no sense make it
a deep-water harbor.
The cost of the proposed Improvement
is estimated at about 1898, ,000
So far as I know there has never been
any opposition to an appropriation for
this or former improvements for Will
mington Harbor on the part of the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company or
anyone else.
The railroad situation at Wilmington
Harbor is that all railroad tracks on the
west, or San Pedro side, and all access
by rail on the west side of the harbor
belong to the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, and the railroad tracks, etc,
On the east, or Rattlesnake Island side
of the harbor, belong to the Los Angeles
Terminal Railway Company.
Owing to certain lumber yards and
mills having long been established on
the westerly side of this Wilmington
Harbor, it is likely to continue to be
used as a port for lumber delivery to
a considerable extent, and can be used
for. unloading general cargoes from
ships of appropriate draft, to the ex-
tent that owners of and consignors by
such vessels may be induced to be con-
tent with such facilities for delivery of
cargoes as may exist from time to time.
The deep-water harbor, as proposed
to be formed at some point on the coast
in the region of Los Angeles, is a sep
arate and distinct proposition. There
r have never been seriously discussed but
two general sites for this proposed deep
water harbor, namely, San Pedro Bay
and in Santa Monica Bay.
The report by the United States Army
Engineers favoring a deep-water harbor
in San Pedro Bay eek. Doc. 80, Fifty
second Congress, first SESSION. proposed
as the site of such harbor a locality
about one-half a mile to the eastward
of Point Firmin lighthouse, or about
two miles from the business center OF
San Pedro, which locality can be better
described as under the southeasterly
side of promontory projecting into the
ocean than as being in bay, as the site
selected is scarcely within San Pedro
Bay. The same report considered a site
for a deep-water harbor in Santa Mon
lea Bay, but evidently with little study
of the matter, as the site considered is
easily shown not to be the best pro-
tected and not the site to be most cheap
ly constructed that was available in
Santa Monica Bay.
For these reasons, as we'll as an ap-