The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-13
Official Inspection of Work Was Made Last Week WATER WAY ID GULF IN SIGHT Average Cost of Locks Is $275,ooo Each-About $2,5oo,ooo Has AL
 ready Been Spent on
 the Work.
BY cAssIus M. STANLEY.

BY CASSIUS M. STANLEY.
 The official inspection of the Warrior river locks and dams made last week by Congressman J. H. Bankhead, member of the rivers and harbors committee; Capt. w E. Craighi1l, government engineer in charge of the river and harbor improve ments in the Mobile district, and R. c. Mecalla, assistant engineer in charge of the Warrior river improvements, has re- newed the interest in the work in pro- gress on this river and the effect such improvements are destined to have on the Birmingham district and the whole of Alabama.
 The ultimate opening of the Warrior river to navigation will be a red letter event in the history of the state.. h. deed, the advantages that will accrue from it are so numerous and the bene- fits to be derived from it are so great that the opening is certain to be the marking of an epoch in the history of the commerce of the whole south.
 Shortest Route.
 In the first place, 1t will be the shortest water route in either hemisphere from coal fields to the sea. This, of coursei will make Mobile one of the most im- portant coaling stations in the world. When the present plans are completed, there will be at least six feet of slack water navigation from these coal fields to the gulf every day in the year.
 The Ohio river above Cincinnati is navigable for never more than six months during the year. In that section they have not only low waters to contend with in the summer, but in the winter the ice makes the river impossible for several months. Even the Erie canal, which has done so much for the state of New York is impossible at certain periods of the year on account of the ice.
 The locks and dams on the Warrior are being built in such manner as to allow the passage of four barges each having a capacity of five hundred tons. As the average capacity of coal cars is about thirty tons, these barges will carry an amount of coal equal to about seventy five car loads on each trip. And a good thing about it lies in the fact that the opening of the Warrior coal fields to wa- ter navigation will soon be realized.
 How Committee Regards 1t.
 The rivers and harbors committee of congress has come to look on the work in progress on the Warrior as the most important river improvement under way in the United States. It's members feel that the amount of traffic that will be developed by cheap freight rates will be so large as to assume national aspect and that for this reason the national gov ernment should do all in it's power to further the work.
 It was estimated that the opening of the river up to the junction of the Locust and Mulberry forks of the Warrior would cost $6,000,000 About $250O,00O of this amount has already been expended. When the task is completed there will 1 be twenty locks and dams between Mo bile and the forks of the Mulberry and | Locust. Four of these are now entirely | completed and in operation. Work Is in | progress on six more of them, one of l which will be finished this fall Another | is two-thirds completed. but is not being | worked on at present and four others have | been surveyed. With the passage of the last rivers and | harbors bill by congress the numbering ] of this system of locks was changed so 1 that the numbers now begin at McGrews | Shoals in the Tombgbee which is called | Lock l, and run consecutively up to that | at the junction of the Mulberry and Lo- cust, which is called Lock 20. Formerly | the river was divided in the Black War rior above Tuscaloosa, the Warrior above Demopois and the Tombigbee above Mobile, and the numbering began with Lock 1 above each of these three | places. What was formerly Lock 1 at Tuscaloosa is now Lock 10 under the | new arrangement, and what was Lock | at Demopois Is now Lock 4.
 Magnitude of the Task.
 Few nersons realize the maenitude of | Three years of constant work is required | for the completion of one, although any | number of them can be In progress at | the same time if the money, and labor are available. Thousands of barrels of | cement are used in each of them. The | foundations for both the locks and dams | rest on immense piles driven down many | feet into the bed of the river. Thousands | of tons of rock go to each lock and dam | to assist in making them strong enough | to stand all the high waters that come | and the great pressure of the water in | the pool which is backed up in some cases | for more than forty miles. All the rock | that is being used on Lock was shipped | by rail from Birmingham to the Ala | bama Great Southern crossing near Flu | taw and hoated down the river seven | miles in barges. Lock ' is fifty-two miles | above Demopolis.
 The average cost of lock and dam in | the Warrior river Is $275, 000 Three cables have just been stretched across the river at the three locks in progress immedi- ately above Demopohs. and these alone ] ~ ~ ( ( 1A A4 4> (