The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-10-29
OUR SEACOAS1' Defence
Annual Report of Brigadier GEN
eral Wilson.
The Great Change Which Has Taken
Place Since 1SsS-Act3ve Measures
for the Protection of Porto Rico
and the Hawaiian IsIands-HoVy
the City Of Washington Is Guarded.

The report of Brig. Gen. John N. Will
son, Chief eff Engineers. u s. A. for the
fiscal year ended June 80, was made~puh-
lie by the War Department today The re-
port is the most voluminous yet turned
out and covers 723 pages Of important
statements. 1t is shown in the preface
that there are now 126 officers holding
commissions in the Engineer Corps. Since
the last report four officers have been
lost. One of these died, one resigned, one
was retired and the fourth, Capt. Oberlin
NJ. Carter, was dismissed. The corps now
consists OF battalion of five companies
of lao enlisted men each.
1t is stated that when the Board Of For
tifications was enabled to report in 1888,
the coasts of the United States were I'M
defended except for obsolete ordnance
mounted on oId-style masonry forts. Since
then thirty localities have been fitted up
for permanent seacoast defences. The re-
port strongly urges that active measures
for the sea coast defences of Porto Rico
and the Hawaiian Islands be carried out
at once as delays are dangerous. 1t Is
estimated that the cost of defending San
Juan, Porto Rico, properly viii amount
to 81, SEQ, eco 1t is stated that the sea-
coast defences Of the United States are
now about 80 per cent completed and that
twenty-five of the principal harboTs have
a sufficient defence against naval attack.
The need of an increase in the artillery
arm of the service is set forth as fol-
lows:
Attention is again invited to the ur-
gent necessity for an increase OF the ar
tiiIery arm of the service.Th number of
a. ha+fariaS fpFred the
troops for use and care under the pro-
visions of Army Regulations 1856 was
largely increased during the past fiscal
year, and this number will be still fur
| Their increased by the number of batteries
| in progress CT construction and soon to be
| completed. The ordnance and the ne
| chanical and electrical appliance of the
| new batteries require for their proper
| maintenance a degree of care and atten-
| ton unknown in the ease OF the Old-tyIe
works, and which it is almost impossible
! to realize from the small available force
| of artillery scattered in small detach-
ments over our extensive seaboard.
The following report is made on the
| defences of this city:
| AT the close of the fiscal year there
were completed emplacements for six 10
/ inch guns. three S-inch guns, and two 4
/ inch rapi3-ire guns. In addition there
were under construction emplacements for
! eight 12-inch mortars, for two 6-inch guns
! on disappearing carriages, for two 5-inch
/ rapid-fire guns on balanced-pillar mounts.
( and fer five 15-pounder rapla-fre guns on
/ baianced-pillaT mounts. 4 IS expected
that all Of these will be connected during
the next fiscal year, provided the neces-
sary armament is rece we'd
-Four battery con mandy-s' stations,
pertaining to the approved svstem CT fire
control. are under constr"c. IN: also an
electric light and power pant for the
. battery of S-inch guns.
/ "A number of necessary repairs was
made to the batteries, buildings, aud
wharf.
The torpedo material @as regularly in
spected and kept in repair
The expenditures for river and harbor
improvements during TIE :car amounted
to SIS 4S5. 1854. The esti-aate for the
coming. year is SIC, 000, 900 for general river
and harbor work
Potomac River improvements.
The following report is made on the i'm
provement of the Potomac River a Wash
ington:
The present. which is the original.
project fer Improvement. was adopted by
the act Of Congress of august 2. 1882 1t
has for its object the improvement of the
navigation of the river by widening and
. deepening it's channels, reclamation ofthe
I flats by depositing on them the material
dredged from the channels. the freeing CT
the Washington Channel. so far as it can
/ be done, of sewage. and the establish
ment of harbor lines beyond which no
. wharves shall be built. To effect these
the project provided for twenty feet depth
in the channels at low water for filling
in the flats to height of three feet above
the food plane of 1877 and for tidal res
! Ia g n hove ,nOpy RriHcp n ha
| provided with inlet and outlet gates Of
ample dimensions, to work automatically.
! and so arranged as to admit of the 1asIn
| being filled from the Virginia Channel on
the flood tide and discharged into the
! Washington Channel on the ebb. An am
| pie system of drainage for the reclaimed
area was also contemplated.
"A training dixie "a the Virginia shore,
extending downstream from the foot of
Analostan Island, was added to the pro-
! ject in 1890.
! The project also provides for the re-
| building of Long Bridge at an early period
during the progress of the improvement
with wide spans upon piers offering the
least possible obstruction to the flow Of
the water, and the interrogation Of all sew
age now discharged into the Washington
Channel and its conveyance to the James
Creek sewer canal but neither of these
works was included in the estimated cost
Ol the AiiDTONSIAeALr WHICH WAS 81, no.
3s5. The estimate, as revised in 1897, Is
50, $50. O20.
The total of appropriations for this
work, from August 2, 1882, to March 8,
1899, is 50, 359 O00.
THE amount expended to the close of
the fiscal year ended June 80, 1899, was
| s., zee 1922.
The expenditure resulted in the dredg-
/ ing of a channel 20 feet deep and $50, feet
wide through the bar above Long Bridge
| and in restoring the standard 20-foot nav
| igation by redredging shoals due to fresh
| cts; in increasing the width of the natural
| channel Just below Long Bridge by so to
| 500 feet and IN deepening it to 20 feet; in
dredging a channel $50 feet wide and 90
| feet deep through the bar in the Virginia
| Channel near Giesboro Point; in dredg-
/ ing the Washington ChduDeI to a width of
400 feet and a depth of &c feet for a navi-
CATION channel, and in dredging between
| this navigation channel and the wall Of
the adjacent reclaimed area to a depth of
IL feet; in dredging at the junction of the
Washington and Virginia channels; in
dredging at the junction of the Washington
and Virginia channels; in dredging
| the tidal reservoir to a depth Of
about 8 feet; in the construction of the
reservoir outlet and in the construction
of 35 2S9 linear feet of sea wall, of which
1910 linear feet have been taken down and
relaid and 1866 linear feet Of training
dixie.
1.-The total number of cubic yards of ma
teriaI dredged from the channels, from the
commencement of the improvement 1Ss2)
l