The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-02
THE LARGEST BOAT
IS A FERRY OWNED BY THE SOUTH
 ERIN PACIFIC.
Colossal Craft Takes Place of s3,000, 900 Briuge, h 43O Feet Long, and Car- xies @ Freight Cars at .
 n Time.

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 What is beyond doubt the largest ferryboat in the world is owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and is used in transferring trains aross Carquinez Straits. in Centra Costa County. Cal, between Benica and Port Costa. says a Contra Costa. Cal. telegram to the New York Journal.
 This clossal craft ia christened the Soiano. The boat is not only large In dimensions, but also in power. The So- lano has a net tonnage of s,057 tons: is 430 feet long. 11s feet wide. and has a mean draught of fifteen feet. Her two engines have a combined strength of 1000 l. H. P. This ferryboat is long CT than most of the great battleships of the United States or other na- wes.
 The Solano transfers, on an average, 10000 trains a year-that is, all sorts of trains. Often the boat carries forty large. heavily-loaded freight cars at one trip. Not less than fourteen trains are handled each day. The boat has made as high as forty-two trips dur ing the twenty-four hours. Owing to the great length of this boat 1t Is un- necessary to ever cut a train, as she frequently carries a full train of cars, including two tracks extending the en- tire length, so that four trains may be accommodated at one time
 The Solano has four smokestacks and steel boilers. The two engines work en- tirely independent-one to each paddle wheel. This monster craft Is con- stantly on duty-day and night. At the crossing point Carquinog Strait is about a mile wide. and 1t requires from eleven to thirteen minutes to make g. trip each way-from slip to slip. On an average about thirty trips per day are made. So systematically and swift ly are the trips scheduled that there is very little, if any, delay to the many trains. Thousands of passengers trav- cling each way are transferred every day.
 The maintenance of this transfer boat involves a very heavy expense to the railroad company. A bridge is the only solution of the problem. A suspen- sion bridge a mile in length would be too costly to be feasible for a pri- vate corporation, and a drawbridge would prove a serious obstacle to navi- gation. However, number of sur veys have recently been made across the strait to ascertain the nature of the bottom. Bridge plans have just
 
 ment for examination. According to the plans submitted the bridge will be $500 feet long. There wil be a draw POO feet wide in the clear on each side of the pilot pier The average depth of water along the lines of the bridge Is about twenty-seven feet above low tide. It is estimated that such a structure will cost not less than $3.00o.o00. It would be the most expensive bridge west of the Missouri river
 It Is generally conceded that, as the very heavy traffic is constantly increas- ing. in a few years at furthest a costly bridge will span Carquinog Strait
 Probably the next largest railroad ferryboat in the world is the giant steel transfer North Pacific The boat Is employed in transferring the North srn Pacific Railroad Company's trains across the great Columbia river on their trans-continental line to Port land, Ore, between Kalama and Goble Point,