The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-07-21
FACTORIES To RISE
ON SITE OF DOCK
Within Last Thirty-eight Years
IA Lives Have Been Lost in
This Body of Water-Once
One of Richmond Main
Arteries of Trade.


cent years more widely known as a
death trap for unwary mortals is soon
TO be thing of the past.
If present plans are perfected-and
they seem in fair way towards sue
ceSStul conSummat ton-this great
basin will be filled in, and on the land
thus reclaimed will arise manufac-
turing plants that may mean millions
to Richmond.
Business men were naturally inter
eSted when Speaker 4. +. Byrd, coun-
sci for the bondholders' committee
of the William r. Trigg Shipbuilding
Company, yesterday filed with the
Corporation Commission petition
asking that the dock be relieved of the
easement which the city now has in
this property.
This easement. it may be explained.
was acquired by the municipality
when the company was chartered in
February, 1916, and is, therefore, a
time-honored privilege.
Section 2S of the act Incorporating
the concern reads as follows: And the
said canals, basins and works, to be
erected by virtue Of this act, when
completed, shall forever thereafter. be
esteemed and taken as public high
ways, free for the transportation of
goods, wares, comm ODDITIES or produce
imposed by this act.
That the Corporation Commission
VIII grant the prayer embodied in the
petition Of the bondholders seems al
together probable. as a statute passed
by the last General Assembly au-
thorizes il TO act in such cases.
Should the company be relieved of
the easement described the creditors
OF the Trigg ship yards will have an
asset OF substantial value-one that
Will help them materially in recoup-
ing the tremendous losses they suf-
fafl Of
Says the petition in this connec-
ton:
our petitioners property lies in
the heart of the business and manu-
featuring portion OF Richmond city.
Its railroad facilities are of the best
II this property is by order of YOUR
honorable commission Invested of a
public use which is no longer of any
appreciate advantage to the public
the canal will be filed in. A large
amount of useful and valuable prop
erty therein will then be omen for the
purposes Of manufacturers and bust
| ness.
The value of this property for such
purposes win not be less than half
million dollars, and the edifices
erected upon the land thus made
! available will be great
1he revenues Of the city and State
Viii thus be Increased very largely
with the great additional advantage
oenehcent uses, which is now prac-
tically useless
Petitioners. therefore, pray that
your honorable body give the notice
required by the statute and fix some
day for the hearing and determination
Of this petition. and that an order be
entered closing and discontinuing the
said dock or wharf
Passed Through Many Hands.
The dock was first the property of
kn lob
act OF Legislature passed March 90
1871, the James River and Kanawha
company was authorized to purchase
IT, II was operated by this concern as
part of its canal system until about
1857 when the canal was sold to the
Richmond and Allegheny Railroad
Company, and navigation on the canal
was discontinued.
The dock, however. has been op-
Grated continuously by the successors
of the Richmond and Allegheny Rail-
road Company, namely. the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Railroad Company
until 1901, the William r. Trigg Com
pany until 1905, and II. G. I.loyd
chairman of the bondholders commit
tee of the defunct corporation.
The property commences at Vir-
ginia Street and extends eastwardly
along Dock Street TO Twenty-eighth
street, distance of fifteen CITY
blocks. or 1850 feet GA miIe); the
width varies from so to 200 feet; the
average width is $50 feet. That part
OF the property lying between Virginia
ana Fourteenth Streets, a distance of
500 feet. is covered by the freight
yards OF the Southern Railway, and
cannot be made available. for any pur-
pose That part lying between Four
teenth and Seventeenth Streets. "A dis
lance of $50 feet, is not naViga BILE. but
only used as waterway or conduit to
supply the dock with water; this can
be made available for building pur-
poses without affecting dts present
uullty. That part lying between Sew
enteenth and Twenty eighth Streets
distance of $500 feet, is the dock
proper; the depth of the water is from
. to 20 feet and is adapted its entire
length as berths for ships.
Its Awful Toll of Death.
Speaker Byrd, in the petition, does
not tail 10 cali attention TO the dan
ger arising from the dock. He saws
in this connection:
open waterways in thickly popu-
lated cities are always DANGEROUS to
Ire. and yet the necessities of trade
ma commerce require that they
ShouId he so kept open that business
can be conducted.
The action of the city in recurring
the whole dock frontage to be fenced
IN places means burden upon VOur
petitioners property, which lessons its
aiue Tor docking purposes, and. in
deed, makes it difficult to use it at
all for such purpose"
me speaker might have added that
according to Coroner TayIor's records
LA lives have been lost in the dock
within the last thirty-eight years.
Income Past and Present.
Attention is also called to the start
mig decrease in the revenues derived
from this property. On this point tn
bill says:
records are not available to trace
the income from this property back
and beyond the year 1885 Ii is reIia-
Dly stated, however, by the old dock
master. Mr.. BalIou. that the income
when the canal was i'm operation has
amounted to as much as S35. 900 ner
annum. The discontinuance of the
canal for navigation purposes and
other changed conditions, has dinin-
lshed the income to such proportions
that its maintenance as a utility for
navigation is past; il is not serving
the public, and its uses outside of Sly
private interests, located adjacent
cannot be reckoned.
The number of craft OF all descrin-
tons entering the dock In the last If
teen wears WAS