The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-09
MAI. SIMMONS, BARGE BUILDER
NO EXPERT ENGINEERS Gould
WEAN HIM FROM HIS HOBBY.

NO EXPERT ENGINEERS COULD
WEAN HIM FROM HIS HOBBY.
Constructed the .OOO-Ton Barge on Paper,
and Now, when He Comma nds the Cup
ana Saucer Corps OF the white House,
They Say 1t won't Garry 1000 Tons.
Major Thomas W. Symons who escorted
the German Ambassador to Oyster Bay on
Friday. is now officially in charge of the
cups and saucers Of the White House, to
which place he was assigned after serving
few years al the Government engineer
at Buffalo. Major Symons was associated
with Gen. Francis vinton Greene on the
Roosevelt Canal Committee Of 1890 and he
is credited with building the first i,OOO.ton
canal barge-on paper. 1t now turns out
that State Engineer Bond figures that the
craft which Major Symons' pencil brought
into being on pad Of the States linen paper
will have O. displacement Of but loss tons,
and cargo capacity of between 800 and 800
tons II the State Engineer is correct in his
1900 page book Of the barge canal survey.
Major Symons's figures were accepted.
however, by the other members Of the COM
mttee. Gen. Greene WIS busy just at that
time In figuring how many shares of Barber
Asphalt stock the good ship Asphalt Com
pany Of America could carry at $500 share;
and there. too 1t has been said the capacity
figures went awry.
Major Symons had been calculating on
canal barges before he was appointed by
Gov. Roosevelt as a member of the com
mittee which was to help him to solve the
problem of the States waterway. While
the United States Waterway Commission
appointed by President Cleveland was at
work resolution was put through Congress
appropriatng 5000 for a survey Of ship
canal wholly within the United States.
With this 5000 Ma or Symons disposed
Of the question Of a ship canal by ST. Law
renoe-Lake Champlain and by the Oswego
Mohawk around Niagara Falls. and then
planned l,5Oo-ton barge canal through
the State which was to include a viaduot
two miles long and forty feet high to carry
the waterway over the Montezlma marshes.
This was to cost &5OOOO,OO0. Former State
Engineer Elnathan Sweet had suggested
to Ma jor Symons the possible feasibility
of such q waterway. but he afterward
wrote disclaiming any further share in ii.
and Is on record az saying:
NO waterway built to connect these
waters (the Great Lakes and the ocean,
can hope to secure n great commercial
Importance unless it can accommodate the
largest vessels navig ating the Great lakes.
The expenditure of great sums of money
for so-called Improvements of the present
canal is to be discouraged IA wastefrl.
Lyman E. Cooley, the brilliant projecting
engineer of the Chicago Canal, was one Of
the commission appointed by President
Cleveland, and he had expressed himself on
the barge@ay, thus:
Considering traffic conditions as they
arc developing on through business doubt
If any project involving transshipment can
be relied on fol the future
While these opinions were formulating
in the minds OF such engineers, Major
Symons, looking out from his windows
on Buffalo harbor. could sec the twenty
three giant elevators standing there to
collect tribute from every bushel Of wheat
that came down the Lakes to be reshipped
from Buffalo by rail or by canal. The cost
per ton Of vessel apparently was in his
Judgment the factor in transportation cost.
and a l000-ton barge Therefore must be
better than n ship that could clear from the
upper Lakes to the seaboard. Thus one
that a wheelbarrow was the greatest of
vehicles.
When President Cleveland's commission
had made its report President Mckinley
appointed Board of Survey consisting Of
Col. Charles ". Raymond, George Y. Wsner
Of Detroit and Alfred Noble, now the chief
engineer OF the Pennsylvania Railroads.
Manhattan tunnels This board spent
Sass 900 on it's survey, which is the basis of
the barge canal survey, but the members
did not acquire the same views that Major
Symons was able later to extract from their
report. Mr.. Wisner wrote:
The decline OF traffic in the Erie Canal
since 1880 and the failure OF the l4-foot Ca
madam canals to divert commerce from the
Lake lines indicates that a waterway OF less
depth than is required for the passage Of the
best typo Of lake frcightars cannot materially
INK routes.
He told Canada that A-foot canal
wouldn't do there. Can i2-foot canal
across New York do it?
The report brought in by Gov. Roosevelts
Canal Committee, of which Major Symora
cost of a 1,0OO-ton bargeway at S10,00O,00
more than Major Symons had put as the
cost of his greater i,500-ton bargeway.
The Major had impressed his barge
theories on the committee and they recon-
mended to the Governor that the plan be
alOhcd, FROM YOS,NNV,UUV, iNt'
of cost went up until influential persons
who live in New York and have interests
up Champl,in way got the bill changed so
al to provide for al2-foot channel for the
Cbamplain canal and the Governor then
estimated in a message TO the Legislature
thar the total cost would exceed $255 900 900.
Onthis pro ect, fathered by Major Symons
and brought up by the elevator interests
Of Buffalo and the terminal pool at New
York. the people will vote next November.
The sum OF SOL 900, 600 at least, will be
spent II the referendum passes. 1t will
provide ditch only three feet deeper than
The no 600 900 voted in 1895 was supposed to
make the canal, and in this costly waterway
the ,0OO-ton barge (real capacity Is per
cent. less) will travel as ALI experiment;
for no barge Of this type has been built
except on paper and in the mind OF the
gallant commander Of the White House
guards
way that if IL attoins the expectations OF its
promoters it will make rate on grain
from Buffalo to the Atlantic seaboard one
cent a bushel less than at present, cent
saved either to the Western grower or the
foreign consumer.
Ii II worth the price?
--------.------