The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-04

eA..-.-.-.-.-.-.--eHE candid friend would tell the
story here of remarkable move
ment in Los Angeles that carries
its pregnant lesson for San Fran
CISCO They bore with big auger
in that town and they all take
hand Few people in this neigh
: borhood understand the magnitude
of the task which Los Angeles
I! has undertaken with light heart
in digging harbor, or a series of
harbors. out of the bowels OF certain muddy and
rebelHous sloughs and marshes You make
farbor anywhere on this coast if you have money
enough to dig the hole, and that is what they have
undertaken on the Los Angeles coast. The harbor
might Just as we'll have been located at any other
point on the Los Angeles county coast line as
at San Pedro and Wilmington. The late {. 2.
Huntington wanted it at Santa Monica because
the Southern Pacific owned the whole water front,
whereas at San Pedro and Wilmington the COM
pany owns only about three-fouTths OF the front
age Indeed there was at time some years
ago a strong movement to dig the harbor out
Of the Ballona slough, located a little farther
south, and a congressional party was invited to
visit the spot and inspect the site of the future
great mart OF commerce. Boats were provided
for the party, and if there was not much water
in the future harbor there was at least, plenty
OF champagne. but unhappily Walter Scott Brown
wrecked the illusion by falling overheard in the
middle of the slough and wading ashore. The
congressional party concluded that Uncle Sans
purse was not equal to the strain
Since that time the efforts OF the Los Angeles
boomers have been directed to making harbor
at San Pedro and Wilmington. At San Pedro
there is a narrow inlet protected by breakwater
and an island The harbor is so that
ship can not turn around and the present depth
IS not sufficient to float big steamship. This
inlet is connected by sort of canal with Will
mington slough, where they have excavated what
they call turning BASIN" that ship which
ventures into the harbor can get out without
fishing. 1t IS the program further to dig out of
the Wilmington slough competent harbor, with
basins and docks capable of accommodating the
largest ships It is tremendous task that might
appal less resolute people The character of the
obstacles encountered may be gathered from the
following quotation from the Los Angeles Times,
published in December of last year:
Word came from Wilmington last evening that
all day yesterday engineers and officers of the Los
Angeles harbor company busy inspecting
the work already accomplished by the dredger in
place there, which IS stated to have scooped out
total of $4,000 yards of mud-without making
hole worth speaking of
is this mud which is asserted to be
responsible for the stay in operation in the inner
harbor Experts hold that the mud is of such
consistency that runs like molasses, and that
fast the dredger digs the channel the banks
into it again almost fast the dredger
work
Officers Of the Los Angeles harbor company
work in their great concession in the west basin
stated yesterday that the real the dredger
* - Ts
account OF brand of quicksand which has
been encountered and of such queer consistency
that when the dredger digs hole bump up
and ovcrfows.
This has proved dscouraging to the dredger
man. well the company, both of which
lost considerable money without adequate return,
that entirely scheme is proposed But until
the basin is resurveyed TO the composition
of the called bottom ii not be known just
what the scheme viii be
Work is now in progress in the basin. and
will probably be followed in the cast channel to
the soil underlying the mud of the inner harbor.
While It may be clay in spots the dredger say
that quicksand seems TO have the bulge
Mud pockets OF this kind are common on this
coast The Santa Fe struck one of them in making
its docks at China basin in this city and it cost
the company some 100000 to overcome the
shifting foundation. The Southern Pacific. has
been fighting a similarly bottomless pocket in the
Suisun marshes, which has repeatedly threatened
to swallow the tracks. No doubt these difficulties
yield finally to engineering skill but it takes a
lot OF money Whcn-you undertake to excavate
a spacious harbor, under normal conditions
Il IS an expensive business but when YOU run the