The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-15
GRAVEL FOR STREETS
sELMA's THRoUaHFAREs TO BE
 IMPROVED.
An Electric Hoist is Being Used to Raise the Material from the River Bed to the
 Bluff.
Advertiser Bureau.

Selma, NOV. IA, lSVl
 The machinery for hoisting gravel from the sand bar to the top of the blum was completed yesterday and today the ma terial for making first-class streets was being elevated to the top of the em- bankment at a rapid rate. It is hoisted or an incline tramway, the motive power being electricity. There are six cars. While one Is going up another is going down and while these two cass are speed ing up and down the bluff the other four are being loaded by the men on the gravel bank. This is necessary in order not to waste any time in filling the empty cars. It takes about thirty seconds to get a car from the waters edge to the top of the blum. The cars are run up on a high trestle when they reach the top and one man can empty them.
 Each car holds ton of gravel and 1t Is thought that at least 100 tons per day will be hoisted to where it can be con- veyed in carts to any part Of the city. to be used on the streets. It Is now nearly time for the rainy season to set in and the Street Committee of the City Council is very anxious to get great quantity of this gravel to the top before the gravel bar is submurged, so that the city teams can be kept busy alt the winter. putting the gravel on the streets. There are several acres of gravel on the bar, enough to make first-class streets of all thoroughfares in Selma.
 Selma is a deep sandbed. Geologists say that 1t was once the bottom of lake. The sand is from ten to fifteen feet deep in places, and the only trouble about the gravel Is, that it may have to have a foundation to keep 1t from sink ing in the sand and disappearing altogether. Many contend. however, that the constant use of the streets for such long time has so thoroughly packed the sand and dirt a few inches beneath the surface that the crust thus formed will furnish a substructure that will prevent the gravel from being sunk into the sand by the hoofs of horses and the wheels of vehicles. The writer of this once saw Greensboro street in Tusca- loosa graveled foot deep, $S,ooo being spent on 1t, and yet today. that gravel has entirely disappeared and the sand is as deep as ever.
 law enacted by the legislature. by which a per capita tax of s is to be collected for street purposes will bring in the sum of 5000. This should be sufficient to gravel one and perhaps two miles of streets each year. But the City Council will make a great mistake if it tries to gravel the very broad streets from curb to curb. Take Dallas Street. for in- stance. It Is about one hundred feet from curb to curb. Forty feet in the center would be ample for a driveway, and many contend that thirty or even twenty-five feet Is sufficient. If the Council would build a good, hard, sub stantial roadbed for a width of thirty feet instead of sorry road bed the en- tire hundred, feet. it would give a great deal more satisfaction and be of more lasting benefit to the city. The thirty feet between the graveled street and the present sidwalks on each side could be turned into little parks by the property holders.