The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-19
AN IMPORTANT NORTH CARO-.
LIMA IMPROVEMENT.

LIMA IMPROVEMENT.
The Messenger called attention some
months ago to the project On hand to
make the Dismal Swamp canal a new
traffic route between the north and
the south. Capitalists have taken it
in hand, and it. will be made in all par
ticulars a modern canal, up-to-date.
The width and depth will be much in
creased. The old tow-path method will
be displaced. A syndicate was formed
in Baltimore in 1895, and &1.200,0 900
bonds have been issued. They were
takef in tina city, Philadelphia and
Baltimore. We learn that by the
terms of the corporation charter the
company is empowered not only to
construct and maintain a ship canal,
but to use or sell the water Of Lake
Drummond and the tributary creeks
for any purpose. SO that its legal status
as a purveyor OF water or water power
is firmly secured.
In March, 1896, the work Of cOn-
suction was placed in the hands Of
d lIIIU Ol COutTdClOIS III L HIiduClpLio.
The canal begins six miles from
Norfolk, Va, at Deep creek. 1t runs
to Elizabeth City, N. c., a distance Of
forty miles. The old canal was thirty
two feet wide, with four feet depth of
water. The proposed improvements will
make it practically a new canal. The
old had five locks, and barges 100 feet
long and sixteen feet wide, drawing
three feet of water could pass. An ac-
count before us, in the Tradesman,
says:
The prism is being enlarged to
a width Of forty feet in the bottom
and sixty feet at the surface, with a
minimum water depth of ten feet. Two
enlarged and improved locks-One at
either end of the canal-will take the
place of the five locks Of the old water
way. Each of the new locks is to be
250 feet long, forty feet wide, with ten
feet of water above the inter sill.
There will be three sets of steel gates
worked by powerful machinery and so
arranged as to pass boats quickly
through. Ten turnouts also are to be
constructed, each twenty feet at the
bottom and 200 feet in length, and for
a distance of 1000 feet before reach
ing the locks the canal is to have a
Width of eighty feet in the bottom of
the prism.
By this means provision is being
made not only for a speed of ten miles
an hour, but for the accommodation or
many boats at once. q 1t is esti-
mated that bargeS tOWed by steam
tugs can make the passage from Eliz-
abcth City to Norfolk in six hours, and
that fast river steamers can go over
the distance in about four hours. And
.c al -,,o rnn1 - ~ hn do
velOped the new Dismal Swamp canal
will not only destroy the competition of
it's rival, the Albemarle and CheSa-
peake canal, but it will invite to the
shorter inland route much of the coast
trade from Savannah, Charleston and
Jacksonville. which no. k the out
side passage arOun Cape Hatteras."
The Dismal Swamp has been celebra-
ted in verse as all know who have read
Tom Moore. The Swamp is really a
beautiful sheet of water. h canal
originated with George Washington
and was chartered 10 years go. 1t
was not completed until long after,
about 1924, when it was opened for
traffic. It paid good dividends, and in
1856, as much as s per cent. ON $4S4, 600.
The Trades1nan says that latter the
capture of Roanoke island in 1862 Gen.
eral Henry A. Wise made his escape
through. the Dismal Swamp canal,
blowing up and demolishing three Of
it's lock- to hea off pursuit. It was
seized by the government, partially re-
paired and used for transport purposes.
In 1865 the property was returned to
it's owners in a dilapidated condition,
and has been practically moribund
ever since"
The new company will have perform
ed important service for the country
when their wide plans are consum-
mated. 1t will open up a direct route
with all the numerous inland waters
of North Carolina, giving too a quick
passage between them and Hampton
Roads, Va. 1t is enterprise of real in
terest and promises much benefit to
this state in the not remote future.
1t will cause the large coastWise trade
that goes by dangerous Hatteras to
take the safe inland route. Many
southern coast cities-Wilmington, New
Bern, Brunswick, Savannah, Charles
ton-are expected to contribute to the
swelling of the business of the new
canal. The old canal cost in all 81, 352,-
900 up to now. The new will cost ST.
700, 900.