The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-07
You May Soon Be Able to
Make the Trip From

You must look to Mars to sec a great
er' waterway than that to be completed,
excepting three short links, when tho
100000 Just appropriated by Congress
for It's extension, is spent. Withlt
three wears. we arc assured, trip by
canoo or launch from Montreal to Mex
dco, with visits en- route to Chicago.
st. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and
Galveston, will be a comfortable, al
though commonplace possibility, Or,
to picture it in a more practical way.
freight will be loaded on barges and
unloaded from those same bargeS at
any gulf port from the Mississippi to
the Rio Grande. The completion oil
the comparatively small amount oil
work still TO be done in this conuec-
lion will give tho United States con
meeting system of inland waterways
more than $4,000 miles in length, and
this does not include the Great Lakes.
OF course, great part of this sys-
tenn has been in operation tor years,
vet the extension upon which WORK Is
soon to begin, is IN many WAYS the
most significant of all, especially as
In will give inland navigation north
and south from boundary to boundary
of the Union.
Intercostal Canal.
This extension is called the Inter
cosial cnnal and its territory is the
great Gulf coast country of Texas and
Louisiana With the possible excep-
tion Of the railroad extensions of the
Rock Island Frisco system through thls
remarkable territory, the canal is the
most important public work in the
whole Southwest. The route Of the ca
nal has been surveyed by United States
engineers 1t is about 500 miles long,
running from Donaldsonvllle on the
Mississippi river, few mile@ above
New Orleans, to Brownsville, Tex, on
the Bio Grande. at the most southerly
point Of the United States west of the
tip OF the Florida peninsula. OF this
500 miles there are but $50 miles to
be dug. the rest following the coast
line through the channels of bays and
rivers already navigable,
The appropriation just made by Con.
gress in the rivers and harbors bill
will not complete the canal, but will
open sections of considerable local I'M
portance, affording an effective test of
The feasibility and value of the scheme,
The remaining 150 miles, distributed IN
three principal sections and few MI
nor ones along the route, Will require
p considerably larger appropriation, for
which the Southwest is already pre-
pairing to make vigorous fight at the
next session of Congress.
The route of the Intercostal canal,
as will be seen by reference to the
accompanying map, crosses several
navigable rivers and bayous. so that
it will serve as approach or outlet to
more than thousand miles of tribu-
iary waterways. some of which are
being deepened for ocean going ship
ping.
From the Mississippi westward to
the Sabine river. which marks the
boundary between Louisiana and Tex
as. the canal will tap several water
ways that penetrate the great Louisi-
nna pine forests and large areas of SUI
gar, rice and cotton lands. The Sabine
itself is navigable for long distance
inland and taps large and exceeding
u valuable timber area on both the
Louisiana and Texas sides. Empty
ing near the mouth of the Sabine on