The National tribune., 1910-12-15
ST. ANDREWS BAY-BEGINNING
OF A GREAT NATIONAL WORK.

OF A GREAT NATIONAL WORK
| The Chief of the Bureau of United
States Engineers at Washington, in
charge of harbor improvements. has
been advised by Capt. Ferguson, of the
Fifth District, which includes western
Florida, that work has started at st.
Andrews Bay, Fla. in compliance with
an act of the last session of Congress.
wherein an appropriation of nearly
quarter of million of dollars had been
allowed for beginning of a great Ma
tional improvement
AS many of our readers will know,
St Andrews Bay Is the site Of The Ma
tional Tribune's second great colony in
Florida, this new location having been
found necessary owing to the fact that
all the farm lands at ST. Cloud had been
disposed of and additional acreage
could not be had there at reasonable
cost to meet the demands of comrades
and their friends in the North anxious
to make homes in a warmer climate
st. Cloud is now well established,
and nothing can halt it from growing
| into the most important inland town
of the central peninsular region Of
Florida.
St Andrews Bay is on the Gulf Coast
of western Florida, distant 400 miles
by available routes of travel from st.
Cloud. The two colonies in no wise
conflict There are still hundreds OF
thousands of veterans and their imme-
date families who would be benefited
physically and financially by leaving
their present homes in the North,
where the Winter Ievies heavy tolls
upon purse and person, and make
homes in Florida. where the climate
imposes no severe tests upon waning
vitality in any season.
There is very little if any difference
in the agricultural opportunities of the
two sections. Both produce crops in
every month of the year, both are
equally healthful one can live in a
tent in either region all the year around
without discomfort, and both have rail-
way shipping facilities
st. Andrews Bay, however, has the
one advantage of having water trans
portation. 1t is to improve the ship
ping facilities of this great Bay that the
United States Government has institut-
ed the work noted above. The Federal
authorities. knowing full we'll that the
opening of the Panama Canal a couple
of years from now would call for har-
bor facilities not possessed elsewhere
on the Gulf of Mexico. are now gather
ing workmen and concentrating dredges
and material at st. Andrews to meet
this coming need. This means that for
a long time to come there will be largs
sums of money regularly disbursed for
labor and supplies, enough in itself to
build up d prosperous community.
The improvements in hand not only
include a deep channel from the capa-
cious harbor to the waters of the Gulf.
but the digging of the canal to connect
with the Apalachicola River system OF
several hundred miles, along which
there already exists a traffic represent
ing a business of many millions of dol
lars. This, too, means commerce sutfi-
cient to build up a flourishing COM
munity, and each year there will be
large growth to the Bay region as an
incident of the development of the em-
pire lying to the north, with its diversi-
fled products of field, grove and garden,
certain to seek an outlet thru the Bay
by cheap water transportation.
The Gulf entrance to st. Andrews
and sandbars, and with the necessary
dredging to admit large vessels the ap-
proach can be made and an entrance
effected to safe anchorage by ships in
the toughest weather without danger.
These are considerations in connection
with the ample dimensions of the Bay
that induced the Government to select
st. Andrews to provide a safe gulf port
to meet the coming trade demands GER
tain to develop with the opening of the
wonderful canal to connect the Atlantic
and Pacific
Details concerning the work valuable
to the whole Nation now successfully
inaugurated, and which must increase
in Importance as the season progresses
will appear from time to time in Tia
National Tribune.