The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-27
CHANNEL TOO MARROW.
Mayor Bergundth thai Says River
Should Be Widened.

Mayor Bergundtha1's Investigations of
the Kansas river situation during the
past week have led him to the convic-
ton that all the bridges across that
stream, both here and elsewhere, are
improperly constructed. He believes the
bridges are too low. and too short, and
wonts congress or the state legislature,
to passra law requiring that the river
be allowed to maintain its natural
width.
With Mayor Bergundtha1 and other
interested parties .on the recent investi-
cation were three government engineers.
The engineers denounced with great en-
phasis the neutrality-suspicious. into the
river by people who make land and
build bridges.
Had it not been for the low bridges
and the choking Of the channel" said
Mayor Bergundthal this morning, the
flood last Iune would not have been
nearly as destructive as it proved to be-
The normal width of the river channel
here is about 900 feet. I am Informed
| by the city engineer that the actual
width of the waterway given under the
Melan bridge, as. it stood before the
flood, was only $40 feet. The Rock Is
land used to have six spans in its bridge
but when the Melan bridge was built.
it took out one span, and choked up
the channel with a big embankment-
Now people are hard at work filling in
the river banks between the Rock Is
land and Santa ENe bridges, and re-
stricting the river to still narrower con-
fines. If this keeps up, the river VIII
eventually be only 500 feet wide. in
stead of nearly 1000 feet wide, as ma
ture intended it should be.
Z believe that congress should have
the river surveyed and accurately dehne
the boundaries, beyond which it shall
be illegal to fill in the banks. The con-
st1z1ction of short bridges should be pro-
hibdted 1t is a serious question and
demands radical action.
''One point upon which the govern
nenG engineers laid especial emphasis
is the. fact that the existing bridges are
not high enough to be safe. This was
clearly demonstrated at the time OF the
flood, when great jams OF drlftwood
caught on the Rock Island and Santa
Fe bridges, still further blocking the
channeY, and causing the overflow to
extend still further back into North
Topel<a.%
tiles have been the most serious offend
ers of all in blocking the river channel.
It was the city and county that set the
style for short bridges by constructing
the Melan bridge much shorter than
any bridge previously constructed.
Since the e-nbankment Of the Melan
bridge extend ed out into the river. the
city has f1lleSl vast quantities of dirt
into the city park and into the city
material yards across Kansas avenue
from the park. A long row of piles
was driven in the river to aid in the
construction of This fill.
The Charles W Off Packing company
followed the cityis lead, and has built
enough land on TIL river side of their
plant to give room for railroad tracks
and wagon roads. On the north side
of the river, near the bridge, the prop
erty owners have been building out
and making real estate for themselves
at a great rate until the flood came
and washed away thoua'ands of dollars
worth of the made land.
Mayor EergundthaI says that he
thinks the city has no control over the
filing in of the river banks. He be-.
lieves that the action limiting the en-
croachments plust come first from con-
gress, as the Kansas river is classed:
as a navigable stream