The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-04-14
SENTIMENT FAV0RS BUILDING
THE INLAND WATERWAY
eadinc Commercial Cities From Baltimore to Char.
lestan Deeply Interested in its
Construction.
BY RON. JOHN H.. SMALL.

rho importance Of an inland waterway
.lrrartine Chesapeake Bay with Beau
s.rr inlet in the development of our
.,strise commerce between the North
., and Southern ports is almost univer-
.,uv. admitted. No one to whom the sub
t.rt has been presented has doubted its
I.nafcial results. The proposed depth
~ sixteen feet Will be sufficient to ac-
.orrmodate ocean going steamers and
ba.gcs.
The chief argument in it's favor from
. commercial standpoint may be briefly
unmarried. Tho cheapest known form
or transportation is that by barges towcd
Iv u tug. The capacity of the tug to
take a tow Of from three to six barges,
each barge having a dead weight capacity
of from fifteen hundred to twenty-five
hundred tons, makes possible a move
mcnt particularly Of bulky products at a
minimum of cost. Major Thomas w.
Svmons, of the Corps of Engineers, L.
: A, who has made a study of inland
waterways and their relation to traffic,
estimates on such a waterway having a
sufficient depth to accommodate barges
with a draft of ten feet and a capacity
Of fifteen hundred tons, that bulky pre-
ducts might be transported at an average
cost of .52 hundredths of a mill per ton
per mile. Every person at all familiar
with transportation will appreciate the
force of this statement and the resultant
Importance of barge transportation.
transportation by barges since it's in
PRODUCTION upon the Great Lakes has
worked a revolution in transportation
upon these inland seas and made possible
the marvellous growth of m upon
them.
The wisdom of the men interested in the
commerce of new York State and it's
great metropolis in securing the construc-
tion many years ago of the Erie Canal
which connected the Great Lakes with
Hudson River and thence by that river
to the seabOard, has been demonstrated
by the marvellous growth of the COM
merce of that great seaport and has main
tanned for that city the cheapest tariff
both by canal and by rail between the
Great Lakes and the seaboard. The
State of New York has given the most
emphatic approval of its past experience
in this respect by the action of it's legis-
lature in recently passing an act author
iZing the issuing of bonds to the amount
of $l0l 600, 600 for the purpose of enlarg-
ing this same Erie Canal to a depth Of
twelve feet so as to accommodate sea-
going barges having a maximum draft
of ten feet.
Beginning about 1880 barge traffic was
introduced between the northern ports,
being first utilized in the movement of
coal from the terminals of the coal roads
to the various ports of New England and
the Middle States. Later barges came
into use to and from the Chesapeake ports
and still later in the movement of heavy
products and principally lumber from the
North Carolina ports. The result has
been a decrease of freight rates over the
former rates by sail vessel of from 33 Is
to so per cent. and in the movement of
coal a much greater reduction was eff
fected.
The ports South of North Carolina
have heretofore been denied the advant-
age Of this cheap form of water-borne
transportation in their trade with the
Northern ports. This is due to the dan
gerous navigation around Cape Hatteras
and Diamond Shoals, where the risk is 50
great as to prohibit navigation by barges.
Several times has the attempt been made
but in each instance abandoned. TIE
main purpose Of this waterway is to make
possible the establishment of barge
transportation etWce the Northern and
Southern ports so that each may obtain
the benefit of reduced cost of traffic
movement.
OF cOurs it is not necessary to advert
to the immense benefits which will ac-
crue to North Carolina. 1t will place the
Eastern section of our State along a great
highway of and travel and