The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1908-03-07
r ATHER OF WATERS
Difficulties in the Way Of a "a e.
Mississippi channe,

o'So'PPt NHdnne1.
Inc Journey of President Ro..,..
down the Mississippi River ana ~ a
dress before the Deep Watervav. s = =
venflon at Memphis have attr,..ss
the attention of the whole nat,oS s
the project for deep waterv,S !. "
tween the Great Lakes and tho 81.
Mr.. l.. E. Cooley, who has hee, nv
mong engineers the most promin...
advocates OF this waterway, diyid..
1t into three sections. as follows.
The 1llinois-Chicago tn 81 1o...
with a length of 367 miles and ! An
of 1876 feet. ="
The middle Mississippi-St 1nu,
to Cairo-1S5 miles long, with a AN
of los feet. 4'l
The lower Mississippi-Cairo IA
Red Rock-7C4 miles long, with fs]l
of 275 feet.
The first section, the improvement
of the Illinois River. offers no part,en
lar difficulties. 1t is merely a matt,
of creating slack-water navigation \,
a system OF locks and dams: and -
rock foundations are available ior
these, the work can be carried mt
without serious difficulty. We h.
lieve the preliminary estimates Of IL.
Government engineers indicate totu
cost of some $30,0OO,O0O for fam.
teon-foot waterway from the lower eM
Of the Chicago drainage canal, near
Joliet. to st. Louis.
But when the problem Of a deem n.
terway down the Mississippi is me
sented, no such easy solution is pos
sible. No engineer who looks on tn,
Father OF Waters" in its food stas&
could dream of combining that turbulaA
food by any dams ever erected n
man. The Mississippi below St. LoUl
is like a huge rainwater spout, card
ing vast Volumes of food water VII
the rainfall is heavy, but with a.
dwindling to very small properties
in the dry weather of summer and an
Any forces that man can set at wut
are puny compared with the size d
this great river; and to make matters.
still more difficult, the river dovg
through an alluvial plain, with no bot
tom anywhere to give foundation O.
which possible works for river Co
troll might be founded.
For ten years past the Mississip)l
River Commission has maintained .
minimum depth of IL feet in the Low.
water channel from St. Louis to the
Gulf by hydraulic dredging on the ban
between the pools. At its low.wat3
stage, of course, the river is succet
sion of pools of good depth, connecta1
by stretches of comparatively apN
and shallow water. By deepening thele
shallow rapids with hydraulic dredsa
during the low-water months, lasting
usually from September to JanuaIL
it is possible to afford about 5 IL
3 feet in depth. This work Is,
course. merely temporary. and has n
be done over and over again, eve!
season, and in fact has to be contnt
ed during the whole of the low.wata
period.
AS can be readily understood, ~
plan of river improvement is Of limites
scope Increasing the amount OF dredt
ing cannot greatly increase the depu
of water; for as the rapid connecuas
two pools is deepened, the waleF =
the upper pool is lowered.
1t has been suggested that the lot
water depth could be increased "
turning more water into the Misess
pi in Minnesota. The difficulty WI
this is the great size of the MISS
PTS channel and it's rapid fall.
ularly in the section from St ~
to Cairo. 1t takes an enormous y
unle of water to have much eae0
increasing the ravigable depth. lue
err, a heavy draft is ALREADY
made on Lake Michigan, throusH
Chicago drainage canal, and to =
siderable extent the lakes IN MI
sofa are actually in use for river -
ulation. How to get an additions NJ
feet of depht for low-water nas's.
below st. Louis is therefore an w.
ed problem.
Proposals have been MADE "
struct an artificial waterway az
side the Mississippi, following inc ~
ural bayous so far as possible. =
Y waterway, however, would na'e
feet of depth for low-water nav.e1
in the way of restricted speeo'
it is more than doubtful wnetnsl
would be feasible to construc.
maintain it, even with unhm'tee
lay, in 1le alluvial soil OF the
Valley.-From the 1
eering News.
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