The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1908-12-28
WATERvILLE COMMITTEE HAS
MADE A VERY FAVORABLE RE.
PORT ON THE PURCHASING OF
THE COLUMBIA RIVER BRIDGE
Civ ES HISTORY OF LOCAL
ENTERPRISE
Continued from First Page.)

Sett:ng MIS- ditch enterprise nrmIy Oh
it's feet again, and he began to look
Mound for a new world to conquer.
lie cast his eye across the Columbia
liver and beheld on the Douglas coun-
ty side seven to eight thousand acres
of land just as good for fruit purpos-
cs as the Wenatchee lands, provided
wafer could be place1 upon them. He
at once conceived the idea of CON-
b ming a pipe line bridge to cary
water to the Douglas county side wiCn
wagon bridge for public travel, be-
ilcving that in uniting these two util-
iti.s there would be sufficient induce
ment to warrant the construction of
the bridge. With Clark to conceive
an ide a was to carry it out. He or
ganized a bridge company, raised the
money, and built the bridge at cost
,of $165,000 Today it is open for
travel, and is carrying water from the
Wenatchee river to the Douglas
county side for about 1000 acres of
as fine fruit land as can be found in
the Columbia valley. 1t will take
time to bring these lands into profit
able bearing, but already many tracts
have been set out to trees, and hous-
es are springing up in all directions
The taxable property of Douglas coun-
ty has been and for years to come,
will be very materially increased by
reason of this enterprise. Above
the ditch on the Douglas county side
there lies about 5000 acres more OF
land which is even better than thu
which lies below the ditch. 1t is an
err onto these lands, and already
Clark and his associates are busy
with plants to develop an electric
power plant on the Wenatchee rive-
to operate a pumping plant on tie
Douglas county side to water these
higher lands.
while these events were transpi'
ing at Wenatchee, the State Highway
Board at Olympia, was busy with
PLANS of its own. In years gone 81
the legislature has made appropr'a
lions to aid in the construction OF
roads here, there and elsewhere; but
there was no system or order in Til,
expenditure Of these appropriations
end the money was largely wasted
To remedy this hap hazard way of
building roads the board has planned
a cOmr:ehe nssve system of Sue
roads les : iej to ultimately exte'.d
into and eo,:pect every portion Of
the common alth. It is not expect
ed that the sta te will undertake the
building of ~ these roads, or even
consi ler;.h;e portion thereof, a. as
time; hut the 'iea is to have ;.m-
prehensive mo systematic plan tc
work, SO that when a section Of ,.a -
road is const ucted, be 1t a mil: .'r
(i:ty miles, it Y i'll fit into ge' ,ral
plan, and thus. step by step, ultimate.
ly give lis act work Of state r, .d>
o:Gparahle with the roads of New
York state CT New Jersey. 1t ~.
take years to carry this out, but Inc
wisdom of working to a definite plan
from the start must be apparent tC
all. Among the state highways tc
be built as circumstances will permit
is one connecting eastern and west
en- Washington, or, running from
Puget Sound to the Idaho line. Much
pressure is being brought to bear t.
swing another road southwark from
Seattle through the Yakima valley
and thence to Spokane. But the
Good Roads association favors the
construction of this road as near as
practicable along the line of the sixth
parallel upon which both the cities o.
Seattle and Spokane are situated
State road No. Z, otherwise known a:
the Snoqualimie Pass road, alread!
extends easterly to the town of East
on. To carry it from there on to Gle
Elum, Wenatchee, Waterville, Coulet
City, Davenport and Spokane would
give us a road as nearly straigh
across the state as practicable tt
build, and it would be very neal
the center line of the state.
IF this road is to be built as the
years roll by, we feel that it ougn
to be pulled this way instead of per
uniting it to be diverted elsewhere
less convenient This is one reasOr
why we favor the purchase of thu
Wenatchee bridge. The state will bt
extending its highways from year &
year, and with the bridge in hand 4
viii be an easy matter to draw ths