The Indianapolis journal., 1903-10-05

Wonderful Development Of This
Waterway.

William G. Irwin in the Scientific American.
One of the most interesting phases of the
marvellous development OF our internal
commerce during the past ten or twenty
the Ohio and its tributaries, the Ohio and
Mississippi to-day forming the greatest in
ternal waterway system in the world, with
the possible exception of that formed by
the great lakes. This rapid development of
the Ohio a carrier of commerce has been
largely due 10 the great industrial develop
going during the past ten or twenty years.
Just as the upper Ohio valley Is to-day the
center of the iron and steel trade of the
world. and at the same time the greatest
producer of coal and coke so, too, does the
vast amount of traffic which the Pittsburg
district together with southern Ohio and
the northern part OF West Virginia, con-
tributing the major portion of those varied
commercial products which give the Ohio a
vast annual traffic. The Pittsburg district
to-day possesses more industrial superla-
similar area on earth. This district has the
greatest iron and steel works, the greatest
electrical plants, the largest glass houses,
firebrick yards, potteries, etc, and at the
same time Is the center of the worlds great
est coal and coking fields.
Save for the shipping facilities afforded
by the Ohio, all the vast traffic radiating
out from this district is marketed by way
of the railroads. Consequently Pittsburg
has become the greatest center Of railway
traffic on the globe, the various roads en-
with the great volume Of traffic They
are the best paying ones in operation. There
was time when the railway interests were
opposed to the Improvement OF the Ohio
with a view to making it a commercial
stream. but long ago such opposition has
disappeared and 1t is now fully realized
that the vast traffic of this district neces-
states other than railway facilities for it's
handling.
While the Ohio has been utilized for
transportation purposes to some extent
tt,.< ri 1ox-
atively recent period, and even at the
present day, this commercial highway has
not been improved to that state which
those interested in this form of traffic have
desired. But what has already been ac-
complished has been responsible for making
Pittsburg. although wholly an inland city,
in point of tonnage, its annual river traffic
being exceeded only by New York. Balti-
more, Chicago and Buffalo. With Pitts
burg the fifth commercial port of this
when the Ohio and its tributary streams
are open to navigation only about eight
months in the year, some conception can
be formed of what benefits will be con-
ferred on this city when an all-year-round
shipping stage Is established on the Ohio,
and when the government dams and locks
freight steamers which are now being con-
structed for this traffic.
The navigable course of the Ohio ex-
tends from Pittsburg to the Mississippi a
gahela. is navigable a distance of about l50
miles above Pittsburg, and the Allegheny,
which. with the Monongahela, forms the
Ohio, is at present navigable about thirty
miles above Pttsburg, while improvements
under way and contemplated will give that
stream, more than 100 miles of navigable
waters. The Muskingum in Ohio contrib
utes seventy-fve miles of navigable waters
to the Ohio river system. In West Vir-
ginia the Kanawha is navigable for 150
miles the Little Kanawha for lO2 miles and
SQndV ha inv,
OF government dams and locks will add
more than a hundred miles of navigable
waters to these streams. The White river
in Indiana is navigable for fifty miles, and
in Kentucky the Ohio has In the Green.
Kentucky, Tennessee and Cumberland nav.
igable tributaries with an aggregate length
sissippi system from Pittsburg to New Or
leans has a length Of about 400 miles, and
the navigable tributaries of the Ohio have
ana an aggregate Length ia OF more than ls0o
of more than $500 miles, while improve
mentS now under way or provided for by
the government will add probably 800 miles
of navtgable waters, and within a few
years this work will have established an
all-year navigation stage on the Ohio
throughout its entire course.
The principal item in the commerce of
the Ohio is coal, which is now shipped by
water in large quantities from West Vir-
ginia, as well as from the Pittsburg dis
trict. AS early as 1902 a vessel laden with
coal at Pittsburg was sent by way of the
Ohio, Mississippi. gulf and Atlantic TO
Havre. and ever since that time coal carry
ing OH the Ohio has been an important
commerce Before the opening of the last
century Pittsburg coal was sent down the
Ohio on keelboats; later the product was
marketed by fiatbOats and since the intro
duction Of steamboating on these waters
the coal traffic has assumed marvellous pro-
portions. BY way or the MonongaheIa
which has been improved by the construc-
ton of nine locks and dams with five
others now building, something like 10
900 tons of coal are taken down to Pitts
burg. Part of this is for local consume
tion. but the bulk is there made UP in fleets
for shipment TO New Orleans and gulf ports.
The improvements now under way and
those proposed and provided for, by govern
ment appropriation, will extend the nayiga-
bic course of that stream into the Fairrnont
coal field and West Virginia and a vast tom
mage will be thus added to the Mononga-
hela and Ohio rivers. Last year there were
more than $1,000 locka ges a the nine locks
on the MoDongahela.