The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-20
PROPOSED DAM ACROSS
THAMES AT GRAVESEND
Stupendous Work in Contempla-
ton to Improve Navigation and
City's Sanitary Condition.
COST RELATIVELY SMALL

LONDON, March 19.-The condition of
London as a port has for many years past
been engaging the serious attention of all
those who are interested in the commerce
of the metropolis.
A royal commission was appointed some
time ago to consider what could be done
to bring the port of London UP to date
and to stop it's falling behind other great
ports in the volume of business it does.
The port of London bill proposed among
other things to deepen channel by dredg-
ing in the river from the pool below Lon
don bridge seward, so as to afford
depth of water at low tide sufficient for the
largest ocean vessels. and to buy out all
the dock companies and place their UNI
dertakings under public control.
The alternative scheme is, instead of
cutting away the bottom of the river TO
add water 10 the top; in other words, to
raise the water level of the river to a per-
manent and invariable height. the same as
would be obtained by cutting a channel;
and the means proposed to effect this con-
sist of a great barrage or dam of solid
masonry across the river ar Gravesend.
This dam would be provided with sluice-
gates and giant locks capable of passing
the largest merchantmen. The level of the
water would be raised and maintained by
means of the Sluice-gateS at a permanent
depth, equal to that known as the Trinity
high water level, and in future the river
would be tidal only below the barrage,
where there is always an ample depth of
water for easy navigation at every state
of the tide. There would thus be produced
above the barrage a great deep water lake
with a slow, regular, downward current,
and the advantages of the scheme are, first
that the cost OF the barrage complete would
be only 93.65S.000. including compensation
and other contingencies and the cost of up
keep would be slight compared with that of
any other scheme.
There is. however. still further point
in favor of the barrage scheme, and that
point Is no less a one than the health of
the metropolis. 1t has been proved that
owing to the daily wash backwards and
forwards OF the tide, ii takes no less than
forty-fiVe days for matter suspended in
the Thames at London to reach the sea.
This means that all the sewage and pollu-
ton which gets into the river is continually
washed up and down along the London
river front, and that the river where it
passes through the metropolis must con-
tain the soiling of forty-five days past
Such a state of affairs must have very
serious effect upon the health of the capital
especially as all solid matter in the water
is being continually deposited in the form
of mud the banks the water recedeS
with the ebbing tide, and so left exposed
to putrefy until the water returns again
to stir up the putrescent mass.
With a dam at GraVeSend on the lines
proposed, the river between this point and
Teddington would in no ways differ from
the upper river. There would be steady
downward current at a rate varying be-
tween a mile and a half and four miles an
hour along the whole length of the Thames
The daily refuse would be carried away at
this rate, the mud of the banks would have
no tide to keep it in constant agitation,
and we might confidently look forward to
seeing the river at Blackfriars limpid and
as clear a stream as 1t is at Sonning Bridge
or Henley.