The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-04-27
Importance of
Florida's Gulf Ports.


The notable speech which Repre-
sentative Sparkman of Florida's first
congressional district delivered in
congress last January while the rivers
and harbors bill was pending con-
tained~the following concerning Flor
ida's gulf ports:
The suggestion, Mr.. Chairman, OF
the probable trend of traffic from
north to south leads me to speak
more particularly of some of the pro-
jects in my own state and some OF
the habors there opening into the
Gulf. Along the 800 miles OF seacoast
from the mouth of the Perdido river
to Key West there are many fine har-
bors. Indeed there is no stretch OF
our seacoast, whether on the Atlantic
or the Pacific, that has so many. On
this 500 miles we have eight hne har-
bors, capable, all of them, with little
Improvement, of accommodating deep
draft ships. These are Pensacola, st.
Andrews Bay, St Joseph's Bay, Apa-
lachicola, Carrabelle, Tampa, Char
lotte Harbor and Key West. Several
of these are already reached by rail,
Tampa, for instance, having three,
while roads are projected or being
constructed to each of the remaining
harbors Among these last is Key
West to which place Mr.. H. Nj. Flag
Ter, who has done so much for Flor
ida, is, under plan presenting some
of the most wonderful engineering
features of the age, constructing a
railroad, to be completed perhaps
within the next two years, and when
thus completed Key West will be the
most southerly harbor IN the United
States reached by rail But all of
these harbors will be needed to do
the business which will be carried on
between this country and those which
lie 70 the south of us, to say nothing
of the commerce that will spring up
as a result of the completion of the
isthmian canal.
Work is now being done on several
of these harbors, while surveys are
provided in this bill for the others,
and it is safe to say that they can
and will all be completed to the
needed depth within the next four to
six years, for l have no doubt but
what the Improvement of these
harbors, with others throughout the
country, will, under the stimulus OF
an aroused public sentiment and the
great necessity for increased harbor
facilities now weighing upon congress
be carried forward to an early compile
ton; and when 1 say completion, l
mean, in the case of most of these
harbors, depth of so feet, for the
commerce of the gulf will require at
least this depth at no distant day.
Pensacola, New Orleans, and Calves
ton practically have this depth now,
and the other gulf ports, or most of
them. can, with small outlay of
money, relatively speaking, be placed
In the same condition.
The journal would be glad, if it
were possible, to reproduce all that
this able congressman said about the
importance of rivers and harbors i'm
provement, but the above indicates
the tenor of his remarks.
Her harbors constitute one of Flor
adais greatest sources of commercial
wealth. No state in the Union enjoys
so many or such good ones as Flor
.Ida's Gulf coast ports, and none are
e1here which can be improved so
rheaply or which will yield TO the
,commerce of the country a bigger re
turn for the money expended than the
harbors to which Representative
SparkInan refers.